The Pursuit of Economic Growth: A Review

By Tom Donelson, Americas Majority Foundation Project Director, Research Associate
JD Johannes, VCREEK/AMG
Clara Del Villar, research director of Senior Initiative, FreedomWorks Foundation

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We at Americas Majority Foundation have used our research to gauge voters’ view and help design policy recommendation as a result. This election is in the balance and the Coronavirus is the wild card since we don’t know how this virus will progress throughout the country and impact the economy over the next year.

Coronavirus impact on the economy is Democrat only shot at winning as their leading candidate, Joe Biden, is weak. Joe Biden has never been the best of candidates in his heyday and now there are times that he never seem to know where he is at and gaffes are a daily part of his day nor will the Biden’s corruption of using his office to benefit his family be forgotten by Republicans in
ads.

Bernie Sanders efforts to transform America scares even many Democrats including many on the left. In Sanders’s worldview, there is no mention of creating wealth or expanding opportunity for the middle class or the poor. As National Review’s Kevin Williamson noted, “Sanders worldview begins with the idea there are just too few people, the 1percent, who have far too much wealth and this wealth has allowed the Rich the tilt the economy in their favor. Sanders believes in a zero-sum economics in which wealth is not created but needs to be shared equally.”

Biden is considered a moderate, but any politician would look moderate compared to Bernie Sanders. Sanders view on the economy deals not with growing the economy but dealing with the unfairness of stagnant economy. Tom Donelson wrote in the Rise of National Populism and Democratic Socialism of Bernie Sanders economic views, “Sanders stated during this election,
‘You can’t just continue growth for the sake of growth in a world in which we are struggling with climate change and all kinds of environmental problems. All right? You don’t necessarily need a choice of 23 underarm spray deodorants or of 18 different pairs of sneakers when children are hungry in this country. I don’t think the media appreciates the kind of stress that ordinary Americans are working on.’ For Sanders, all of economics is a zero-sum game in which a producer of underarm deodorants are stealing food from hungry children and government must step in to guide businesses in the right direction while taking from the wealthy to share with the Middle Class and the poor…While Sanders talks mostly about class, the machinery of the Democratic Party is built on activists, public sector unions, along with upper income consultants who benefit from government largess and are funded by leftist oligarchs.” Sanders goal is controlling the economy to ensure fairness. Biden wing of the Party is not much different in their goals, but the machinery of the Democratic Party is built on expanding government and the administrative state, but the result is the same, no emphasis on economic growth and growing the economic pie. Bernie Sanders views now dominate the Democratic Party and Joe Biden is running on his platform.

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