MY VOTE FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
To no one’s surprise I’m sure, I’m voting for Kamala Harris. This is a strong vote for her and utter rejection of Donald Trump. In no particular order:
1. The Affordable Care Act. She wants to expand and increase health coverage for the uninsured – improved premium assistance in the Exchanges to help the 20 million uninsured pay for coverage, and improved financial assistance for the non-Expansion states to adopt the Medicaid expansion. Trump tried repeatedly to repeal, eliminate and kill the ACA, then tried to weaken, hamper and harm it during his four years in office. I spent much of my professional career trying to get coverage for America’s uninsured, no way would I ever vote for someone who was adamantly opposed and sought to undermine it during the four years he was President.
2. Taxes and the economy. https://apps.urban.org/features/2024-candidates-tax-policy Harris wants to retain the expiring tax cuts for people making less than $400,000 a year and restore the higher tax rates for those making over $400,000 and increase the corporate tax rates halfway to where they were. She wants tax credits for new borns, for first time home buyers, for children, for start-up small businesses, and for building housing for low and moderate income families and individuals. He wants further cuts in corporate income taxes, to retain the Trump era tax cuts for the wealthy. He wants to cut taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security income. Her plans cost much less and add less to the federal deficit and are much better targeted to the middle class and below, while most of the benefits of his plans inure to the wealthy. For selfish and good policy reasons, I do agree with his proposal to stop taxing Social Security benefits. For a good, thoughtful and balanced overview, see https://www.npr.org/2024/10/03/g-s1-26141/how-do-trump-and-harris-economic-plans-compare-an-economist-weighs-in
3. Immigration and immigrants https://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/en/commentaries/trump-vs-harris-where-they-stand-on-immigration/ Trump wants to deport 15 million immigrants, end birthright citizenship, restrict legal immigration, and close the borders. Harris wants to strengthen border enforcement consistent with the bi-partisan Senate agreement. She does not support Trump’s draconian proposals such as mass round ups, or ending birthright citizenship. My experience as a small business employer was that immigrants were terrific and vital additions to our workforce and to the fabric of this nation and our understanding of the world. Trump’s proposals would be very bad for the economy. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/05/20/trump-immigration-undocumented-economy/
4. Tariffs and the economy https://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/tariffs-vs-tax-breaks-how-trump-harris-proposals-compare-rcna170881 Trump wants broad and stiff tariffs while Harris wants targeted ones. Harris is correct that tariffs act like a national sales tax on imported goods, and the economists say that Trump’s proposals would reignite inflation. Trump’s proposals are likely to generate retaliatory tariffs from our trading partners and set off trade wars that will hurt the global economy and the US consumer most of all.
5. Reproductive rights https://www.healthline.com/health-news/trump-vs-harris-abortion-ivf-reproductive-rights-2024-presidential-election#takeaway Trump wants to let states decide whether and how much to restrict women’s and men’s reproductive rights. Harris wants to restore Roe v. Wade. Neither would have the votes in the Senate to ban or restore reproductive freedoms. Trump and his allies would seek to use the federal government to further restrict reproductive issues while Harris and her allies will seek to use the federal government’s powers to protect reproductive freedom. This has spillover effects into access to contraception and in vitro fertilization. It is one of those silver bullet issues for families to defeat Trump and his allies in Congress and state elected offices.
6. January 6, protecting democracy and the rule of law. Trump maintains he had nothing to do with the January 6 insurrection, says he will pardon those convicted in taking over the US Capitol and wounding police officers seeking to protect it and the US lawmakers, and he refuses to commit to conceding and a peaceful transition if he loses. Harris blames Trump for promoting the attack on the Capitol, for pressing his Vice President not to certify the election results and for the fake electors scheme. This is one of the bed rock principles of America’s constitutional democracy and should disqualify Trump from ever holding office if he can be put on trial and convicted for his conduct. Trump and his allies have rights of freedom of speech and assembly, but do not have the right to throw out the results of free and fair elections as they sought to do in 2020-21. Trump and his fellow co-conspirators should be on trial and accountable if convicted for their conduct.
7. The nation’s security. During his term in office and since, Trump sought to break up NATO and the Western alliances, and as a result, many long time Republican national security officials oppose his election to the Presidency. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/22/bipartisan-national-security-group-endorses-harris-over-trump.html Harris is fairly middle of the road, bi-partisan, normal on foreign policy. We face big threats from Russia, Iran, China and North Korea; I’d far prefer having a steady hand on the tiller of state as opposed to a chaos maker of the nth degree.
8. Climate change Biden passed extensive subsidies for electric vehicles, solar panel manufacturing, and CHIP making. At the same time he approved lots of oil and gas exploration, and the US became the largest oil producer in the world. Harris seems intent on following the path of the Biden Administration — i,e. subsidies for clean energy not mandates as we transition away from fossil fuels. Trump would repeal the advances made under Biden and return to a policy of “drill baby drill”. He claims climate change is a hoax. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-harris-climate-change-2024/ He withdrew from the Paris climate accords during his first term and would do so again. As such, he represents a danger to the planet and human survival. Witness the monster hurricanes and awful heatwaves and raging forest fires and devastating floods. In Chinese culture, this would indicate the withdrawal of the mandate from Heaven. In Judaeo-Christian culture it’s the seven plagues messaging “let my people go”.