So far, speakers at the Democratic National Convention have focused on touting presidential nominee Joe Biden’s character, compassion, and experience. Policy details have been sparsely featured in the event’s first three nights. Instead, we’ve seen countless, vague promises that Biden and his running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, will “build America back better” after the COVID-19 crisis and our current recession.
“I am asking you to believe in Joe and Kamala’s ability to lead this country out of dark times and build it back better,” former President Barack Obama said in his impassioned prime-time plea.
“I love a good plan, and Joe Biden has some really good plans,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren said during her remarks. “We can build a thriving economy by investing in families and fixing what’s broken. Joe’s plan to ‘build back better’ includes making the wealthy pay their fair share, holding corporations accountable, repairing racial inequities, and fighting corruption in Washington.”
But as nice as these vague promises of economic restoration might sound, voters can’t trust that a Biden-Harris administration would successfully “build back” the economy. Much of their agenda would actually wreak economic destruction, not foster recovery.
On the “Build Back Better” page of Biden’s campaign website, the presidential candidate makes clear how he would supposedly reinvigorate the economy. Bizarrely, at the top of the list is a bailout for state and local governments. That’s right: Biden thinks forcing taxpayers to bail out mismanaged blue-state budgets is how we “build back better.”
Next, Biden says that he would restore the economy by fighting to extend the super-charged unemployment benefits under Congress’s COVID-19 relief bill, which expired July 31. In reality, this would have the opposite effect.
These augmented benefits offered most unemployed workers the chance to earn more by staying home than by returning to work. This created a clear disincentive to work that would have hampered recovery if left in place.
The Congressional Budget Office found that this expansion would briefly boost economic output in the short term from increased consumer spending. But the CBO concluded that it would cause higher unemployment in 2020 and 2021 and then hinder economic growth in 2021.
That’s not building the economy back — it’s putting it into a welfare-state coma.
? NEW @USCBO Report
⚠️ Under Dems’ proposal, 4/5 would earn more staying on benefits than they would working
⚠️ Tens of millions would face every financial incentive NOT to work
⚠️ Economy will suffer — slip into a welfare state coma. #ampFW @feeonline https://t.co/kfMlS2E3ir
— FreedomWorks (@FreedomWorks) June 9, 2020
Oh, and don’t forget that Biden’s plan to restore the economy includes massive tax hikes. He wants to raise corporate taxes and undo the GOP tax-reform law that finally made the United States competitive internationally on corporate taxation. Don’t think that this only affects big business: It would hurt economic growth and kill jobs.
Beyond that, corporate tax hikes are largely passed on to workers and consumers. According to the Tax Foundation, “Labor bears between 50% and 100% of the burden of the corporate income tax, with 70% or higher the most likely outcome.” This means that corporate tax hikes are just “passed on” to workers through lower wages and reduced hiring.
How are lower wages and reduced hiring “building back better?”
Additionally, Biden’s regulatory agenda would destroy entire industries and put millions of people out of work.
For example, Joe Biden supports AB5, the California regulation that all but outlaws independent contracting and is set to push Uber and Lyft to shut down in California. Just in the Golden State, this will leave at least 220,000 drivers unemployed in the middle of a pandemic and disadvantage millions more who rely on ride-sharing services.
I support #AB5 in California, which will give workers the dignity they deserve in the workplace. I agree with @transportworker that we can’t let corporations undermine basic rights by adding these exemptions to ground-breaking legislation. https://t.co/bouzgRLBU7
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) March 7, 2020
The job-killing regulation has also made having a full-time career in industries such as freelance journalism impossible. But a Biden-Harris administration would impose similarly crushing regulations on the entire country and put millions of people out of work.
Biden’s promise to “build back better” may be rhetorically appealing to worn-down voters in the middle of a crisis. But the destructive policy agenda behind Biden’s candidacy puts the lie to his positive sloganeering.
Brad Polumbo (@Brad_Polumbo) is a freelance journalist and a Washington Examiner contributor.
