Populist? Hardly
We know that populist economics is little more than warmed-over left-wing economics. But is the new Ways and Means Chair even talking about populism?
Is this the new normal in Republican federal politics?
Representative Jason Smith will lead the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, putting a decidedly populist and pro-Donald Trump lawmaker in charge of the chamber’s tax, trade and health agenda.
Smith, who advocates positioning the GOP as the party of the working class, represents a shift in Republican economic strategy away from the pro-free-trade, pro-business alignment it’s espoused for decades.
We know that populist economics is little more than warmed-over left-wing economics. And this Bloomberg piece posits that Smith represents the more populist wing of the party.
But is Smith a populist? Maybe not, per the Wall Street Journal:
In a statement Monday, Mr. Smith said he hoped to build on the 2017 tax law, conduct tough oversight over the IRS and boost domestic energy production.
"We have made a commitment to the American people to build a stronger economy that gives everyone -- not just the wealthy and politically connected -- greater opportunity to build a more prosperous future for themselves and their families," he said.
Mr. Smith may provide some departures from a more typical pro-corporate Republican approach to policy. In the statement, he questioned whether the U.S. should continue providing tax benefits to companies that "have shed their American identity in favor of a relationship with China."
What exactly is populist about Smith’s statement? The idea that the government should not favor the wealthy and the politically connected has been the bulwark of my very conservative economic philosophy for a long time.
If anything it’s a libertarian economic philosophy more than a populist one.
That’s not to say that Smith has not taken bad, left-wing economic votes before. He voted for Trump’s economic stimulus plan and he voted for the Paycheck Protection Act.
Before obtaining the gavel, Smith said “he'd focus on access to health care in rural America, telehealth, price transparency, health care security, innovation and “aggressive oversight.”” Not exactly an issue that screams out as being populist.
Don’t get me wrong, I would prefer that Smith would focus his energies on sweeping tax reform, broad entitlement reform, Obamacare repeal and total repeal of corporate welfare. But I find it hard to make a case that Smith is pushing populism at the moment.
Let’s what and see what Smith does with the gavel, and then we’ll be able to determine just how populist Ways and Means gets during this session.