Economists who have endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris’ economic proposals have produced no evidence to back up their claims, according to two former advisers for Donald Trump.
With only six days left in the presidential race, it seems that economic issues will be key in determining who wins the White House as voters nationwide continue to struggle with the impacts of inflation. Both candidates have made these issues central to their campaigns, but uncertainty lingers about how each would handle the American economy.
“Proponents of the position that Ms. Harris’ economy would outperform Mr. Trump’s should show their work,” Kevin Hassett and Casey B. Mulligan wrote in a Tuesday column for The Wall Street Journal.
The pair, who both served on the Trump administration’s Council of Economic Advisers, were critiquing the recent endorsement of Harris by a group of fellow economists.
A letter released last Wednesday, signed by 23 recipients of the Nobel Prize for economics, said that Harris “would be a far better steward of our economy than Donald Trump.”
“Simply put, Harris’ policies will result in a stronger economic performance, with economic growth that is more robust, more sustainable, and more equitable,” the letter continued.
Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris at a campaign rally on October 28, 2024, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Last week, 23 Nobel economists signed a letter endorsing Harris as a better “steward” for the American economy.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
However, this letter, as well as the other endorsements Harris has enjoyed from the nation’s economists, is simply an act of “political posturing” according to Hassett and Mulligan, and lacks any substantiating proof.
For Trump, meanwhile, the pair said: “There is ample evidence that his tax cuts and deregulatory efforts had salutary effects.” They cited an August paper from the America First Policy Institute, which concluded that the “pro-growth tax reform” of the former president’s administration “is an essential element of pro-growth economic policy.”
Newsweek has reached out to the Harris campaign for comment on Hassett and Mulligan’s article.
Economists have taken issue with other aspects of Trump’s manifesto, in particular the potential economic consequences of high tariffs on foreign imports and the mass-deportation program he has floated to his supporters.
While the U.S. economy is showing signs of rebounding, with inflation cooling to a three-year low in September, Americans are still grappling with price pressures and are disappointed in the economic policies of the current administration.
A Newsweek poll conducted in early October revealed that 51 percent of voters believe the economy is moving in the wrong direction, while only 30 percent are hopeful about America’s economic outlook.
The final New York Times-Siena College poll of likely voters found that 52 percent of respondents said they trusted the former president “to do a better job” on the economy than his counterpart, who received only 45 percent of the vote.
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