Kamala Harris sponsored bill that would increase government spending by $21 trillion in less than four years, bankrupting the U.S.

Kamala Harris sponsored bill that would increase government spending by $21 trillion in less than four years, bankrupting the U.S.
Kamala Harris (Image: YouTube screen grab)

A single bill sponsored by Kamala Harris would have cost $21 trillion if it had been enacted. It would have created massive disincentives for people to work, shrinking the economy. It also would likely have bankrupted the U.S. Treasury, by increasing the national debt to an astronomical sum. As the American Enterprise Institute explains:

During the pandemic, Harris proposed the 2020 “Monthly Economic Crisis Support Act,” which may have been the most expensive legislation ever introduced. Conservatively estimated to cost $21 trillion…[Qualifying] Households could collect up to $10,000 per month or an astonishing $120,000 per year — nearly double the U.S. median household income of $67,521 in 2020. Across a span of 42 months, a typical family of four could have received $336,000 in federal benefit checks without anyone working a minute. That stunning payday would have been in addition to tens of thousands of dollars in existing pandemic benefits, like $600-per-week unemployment bonuses, expanded food stamps, and far more.

[The bill’s] $21 trillion cost would have been seven times the $3 trillion cost of the 2020 CARES Act — the most expensive bill ever signed into law. While in effect, Harris’ legislation would have doubled the federal budget, sending the current $35-trillion national debt soaring to well over $55 trillion, without even considering its grim inflation and interest rate implications.

The entire U.S. economy amounted to only $21 trillion back in 2020. By increasing the national debt so rapidly, Harris’s bill would likely bankrupt the country: Interest rates would skyrocket in response to the staggering increase in the national debt, forcing the government to pay trillions of dollars more annually in interest payments on the debt. Rising debt service costs would crowd out private investment, reducing the size of the economy.

This isn’t the only expensive legislation Harris has proposed. For example, another bill Harris sponsored, the LIFT Act, “would have added nearly $3 trillion to deficits in the first decade alone.”

The national debt of more than $55 trillion resulting from just these two Harris bills would give America a national debt bigger than every other country on Earth — a national debt that is more than all those countries’ debts, combined. It would give America a national debt that is bigger as a percentage of its economy than countries that went through a devastating economic crisis as a result of excessive borrowing.

And that’s just taking into account those two Harris-backed bills. Harris also has supported other, even more expensive legislation, such as the Green New Deal (which would cost at least $50 trillion and perhaps up to $90 trillion).

Harris has also backed reparations, which would cost the federal government trillions of dollars, would result in costly copycat demands for reparations by other groups, and would not solve underlying racial problems such as wealth gaps (which were not caused by slavery or Jim Crow in the first place).

Harris has endorsed $5 trillion in tax hikes, including corporate tax rates that would be higher than in Socialist Venezuela, and higher than in Europe and China. She supports tax rates on dividends and capital gains that would be twice as high as in communist China.

But those tax increases would be nowhere near enough to pay for all the government spending she wants.

As vice president, Kamala Harris cast tie-breaking votes in the Senate to pass massive spending increases backed by Joe Biden that made inflation get worse, according to economists.

Kamala Harris is hostile to free speech, free markets, and fiscal responsibility. In 2019, Kamala Harris called for restricting online speech and pressuring social media companies to restrict speech. As California’s attorney general, Harris was especially hostile to free speech, notes the Wall Street Journal.

“While in the US Senate, nobody was to the left of Kamala Harris. Not even” socialist senator “Bernie Sanders,” notes Jeremy Redfern. As Newsweek reported:

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s pick for his vice presidential running mate, Democratic California Senator Kamala Harris, was ranked as being more liberal than Democratic Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, the congressperson often considered the furthest left within the Democratic caucus.

The government watchdog website GovTrack.us ranked all 100 U.S. Senators with an “ideology score” from 1.0 (most conservative) to 0.0 (most liberal). The score is based on each senator’s legislative behavior: namely, how similar the pattern of bills and resolutions they co-sponsor are to other congress members….GovTrack.us gave Sanders an ideology score of 0.02 and Harris a score of 0.00. together, they ranked as the most liberal members of the Senate. The website said Harris joined bipartisan bills the least often compared to Senate Democrats.

Harris has long supported rent control, even though 93% of economists think that rent control is a bad idea that reduces the quantity and quality of housing available.

Even Obama administration officials have said that rent control is stupid and counterproductive. Harris’s support for rent control marks her as a left-wing Democrat, because rent control doesn’t work. Rent control discourages construction of rental housing, turns some buildings into slums by leaving the landlord with less money for maintenance, makes it hard for new residents to find housing, and encourages empty-nesters to stay in four-bedroom apartments they no longer need, rather than moving out and letting a family with kids live in it. “Obama economic advisor Jason Furman has, in line with a strong majority of economists, acknowledged that ‘Rent control has been about as disgraced as any economic policy in the tool kit.’”

Harris also supports price controls, which 95% of economists oppose, because price controls cause shortages, shrink the economy, and create deadweight losses.

Reproduction of this article is freely permitted.

LU Staff

LU Staff

Promoting and defending liberty, as defined by the nation’s founders, requires both facts and philosophical thought, transcending all elements of our culture, from partisan politics to social issues, the workings of government, and entertainment and off-duty interests. Liberty Unyielding is committed to bringing together voices that will fuel the flame of liberty, with a dialogue that is lively and informative.

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