Government knows best or people know best? You choose.

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During 2024, we saw a great example of the different philosophies of our political parties.

Kamala Harris proposed $25,000 loans to small businesses and assistance to black men wanting to get into the marijuana business.  While running for President, Kamala Harris proposed increasing taxes on business and "the rich."  After the election, Senator Elizabeth Warren suggested a way to reduce the deficit is for rich people to return the money given to them by the Government with the Trump tax cuts.  To address housing issues, Kamala Harris proposed building 3 million new homes.  The Mayor of Denver put an initiative on the ballot to raise taxes to help people with rent assistance.  

Donald Trump on the other hand proposed reducing regulations, reducing the tax burden on businesses, and eliminating taxes on hard work with his no tax on tips and no tax on overtime proposals.  To address housing issues, Montana's legislature in the last session provided a property tax rebate and passed State laws limiting local zoning restrictions that required homes to be built on larger lots and limited how many unrelated persons can live in a residence.

Lets unpack the contrasts there.  

Kamala Harris wanted to help small businesses by giving them funding from the Government.  Donald Trump wanted to help small business by reducing government regulation that makes it hard for businesses to succeed.  

Harris' idea is that businesses can only succeed with the help of the Government.  Trump's idea is that businesses have a better chance to succeed if Government gets out of the way.

Regarding taxes, Senator Warren's statement sums up the way Democrats tend to think about tax cuts.  A tax cut is the government giving money to people and companies.  Raising taxes provides the Government more money to spend on programs people in Washington think are important.  Trump's view is a tax cut is allowing people and businesses to keep more of the money they earned and is not a gift from the Government.  Lowering taxes allows people and businesses to keep more of their own money and then people and businesses decide what is important.

Housing has been a big issue.  Vice President Harris proposed building 3 million new homes, presumably with Government tax dollars subsidizing the building.  As mentioned above the City of Denver proposed raising taxes so they could subsidize housing.  An interesting approach - make housing more expensive (because it is homeowners and renters who pay the taxes) to make housing more affordable.  

Contrast that with the approach taken by the Republican legislature in Montana.  The State had a budget surplus so some of the money was returned to taxpayers in the form of State rebate toward property taxes.  The Legislature, then acted to reduce the Government regulation that contributes to higher housing costs while restricting the number of units that can be built.

There clearly is a difference between the philosophies underlying the examples above.  Democrats continue to pile on regulations and red tape and if that creates problems, they offer your money to people they feel need it more than you as a way to solve the problems.*  Donald Trump, coming from a business not a governmental background, follows the philosophy of Ronald Reagan who once said "Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem."  Trump's proposals reflect that approach.  Reduce taxation to give more money back to business and people to decide how to spend it and reduce the red tape that drives up the cost of things they want to buy.



* Whether that spending really does solve any problems is a discussion for another day.






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