By I & I Editorial Board, Issues & Insights | October 08, 2024
Of all the results from the latest I&I/TIPP poll, the most unsettling has to be that voters think Kamala Harris is at least as much of a fiscal and economic conservative as Donald Trump.
Our latest poll, taken of 997 likely voters, finds that more voters say they trust Harris (who’s already announced $4 trillion in tax hikes) than Trump to cut taxes by a 48%-45% margin. Among the crucial independent voters, the margin is even greater – 49% to 36%.
That’s not all.
More trust Harris to bring about energy independence, 48%-47%.
Trump is essentially tied with Harris on growing the economy (49%-48%), but he’s far behind with independents on this critical issue, with half saying they trust Harris to grow the economy and just 42% trusting Trump.
Harris is tied with Trump on cutting spending and fixing inflation. But among independents, she leads on the former, 44%-33%, and the latter by a 47%-39% margin.
Two other areas where Trump leads – lowering the national debt (46%-44%) and reducing crime (48%-46%) – are well within the poll’s margin of error.
The only two issues on which Trump holds a clear advantage over Harris are national security (50%-45%) and securing the border (54%-41%).
Anyone who has paid the least bit of attention over the past eight years should be dumfounded by these results. While Harris has been purposefully elusive about her positions, she has a record and had said enough for voters to know better. Let’s review:
Taxes: According to the Tax Foundation, Harris has proposed more than $4 trillion in tax hikes, which would be partially offset by various tax credits to politically favored groups.
Trump proposes to cut taxes by $6 trillion, which would be partially offset by getting rid of “green energy” tax subsidies and increased tariffs.
Energy: When she was first running for president in 2020, Harris proposed a $10 trillion plan to make the country “carbon neutral” by 2045. She cast the tie-breaking voted on the criminally misnamed “Inflation Reduction Act,” which pumped hundreds of billions into green energy boondoggles. On her campaign website she promises to “tackle the climate crisis as she builds on this historic work, advances environmental justice, protects public lands and public health.” All of it will lead to higher energy prices, and make us more dependent on the Middle East for oil and Communist China for “clean” energy.
When Trump was president, the U.S. became a net oil exporter for the first time in decades. That didn’t last long once the Biden-Harris regime started attacking the oil and gas industry, denying permits and imposing onerous regulations.
Spending and inflation: Harris was instrumental in getting Biden’s massive spending bills over the finish line, which sparked the 20% increase in prices since she cast those votes. The few policies she’s admitted to supporting would cost more than $1.4 trillion. She’s now guilty of adding another $20 billion to Medicare’s costs.
Harris’ solution to inflation is to fuel it with still more deficit spending while slapping on price controls complaining about corporate greed.
Trump was not an exemplar of fiscal restraint when he was president, but at least he’s talking about it by, among other things, promising Elon Musk a role in rooting out waste.
Economy and debt: As vice president, Harris oversaw a nearly $9 trillion increase in the federal debt. The Biden-Harris budget promises deficits topping $1 trillion for as far as the eye can see. And why would any voter trust Harris to grow the economy when she’s been co-pilot to the worst economic performance of any president since Jimmy Carter? Just 39% approve of the job Biden-Harris have been doing. Before COVID hit, 63% approved of Trump’s handling the economy. Even during the COVID panic-demic, he had a 48% approval rating.
By all rights, Trump should hold a commanding lead in all these areas.
So, what explains these results? You can blame media bias all you want. That certainly has had an impact. The Trump-hating corrupt corporate media has let Harris run a campaign devoid of specifics, full of flip-flops, and nothing but carefully scripted moments. It’s also true that, as we pointed out in this space last week (see “Silent Majority: Poll Finds Independents Are Far More Conservataive Than They Are Willing to Admit“), independents tend to lie to pollsters about their true beliefs whenever they conflict with the reigning leftist dogma.
But blame also rests with Trump.
His notorious lack of message discipline has made it easy for the press to hyperfocus on trivialities and ignore his actual proposals. He’s failed to come up with a clear and concise way to define Harris. His tariff proposals have undercut his tax cutting message. In his two debates, Trump failed to articulate his bold vision and how it contrasts with the grim future Biden or Harris will bring about. Then there are the foolish Republicans have been running around saying they are going to vote for Harris.
In contrast, Democrats – Biden and Harris, lawmakers, advocacy groups, and the media – have spent the past year focused on one goal: scaring voters about Trump and using “Project 2025” as a proxy. So, they lied about its content and claimed Trump was secretly behind it.
It’s a misinformation campaign unequaled in American history. Project 2025 is a conservative policy guidebook for whoever the incoming president is, assembled by the Heritage Foundation. The venerable think tank has done this every four years since 1980. It’s full of the meat conservatives have recommended for 44 years.
But thanks to the Democrats’ relentless messaging campaign, more than half of the country has a negative view of “Project 2025.” Just 4% have a positive view.
Even with a hostile press, if Trump and the GOP had this level of message discipline, he’d be miles ahead of Harris right now.
Issues & Insights was founded by seasoned journalists of the IBD Editorials page. Our mission is to provide timely, fact-based reporting and deeply informed analysis on the news of the day – without fear or favor.
Original article link
