Tax lean

Neither progressive nor populist policies will help Americans thrive

What issues matter most to Americans this year? Public surveys couldn’t be clearer: inflation, jobs, and the economy top the list for most voters.

Neither the progressive Left nor the populist Right is offering a coherent agenda for stimulating growth, boosting job creation, and reducing the cost of living — as evidenced by the content of the major-party campaigns for president.

As FreeCon signatory Nathan Benefield put it last week in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “eco­nomic fear­mon­ger­ing drives the di­sas­trous pol­i­cies both candidates propose in response to voter concerns. And each can­di­date is guilty of blam­ing a boo­gey­man.

“For Kamala Har­ris, greedy cor­po­ra­tions are goug­ing cus­tom­ers and rak­ing in prof­its,” wrote Benefield, senior vice president of the Commonwealth Foundation. “For Don­ald Trump, for­eign gov­ern­ments — pri­mar­ily China — con­trol the flow and pric­ing of con­sumer goods into our coun­try.”

As explained in our statement of principles, Freedom Conservatives believe “the free enterprise system is the foundation of prosperity.”

Rather than flirt with tax hikes, heavier regulation, or central planning, FreeCons champion “competitive markets, greater individual choice, and free trade with free people, while upholding the rule of law, freedom of contract, and freedom of association.”

Here are examples of FreeCons working diligently on these issues.

Time for relief

Justin Owen is president & CEO of the Beacon Center, a public policy think tank based in Tennessee. He’s also a FreeCon signatory.

Owen led the effort to enshrine right-to-work in the Tennessee Constitution and helped enact tort reform, deregulation, and school choice in his state.

Under his leadership, Beacon also helped repeal Tennessee’s Hall Income Tax and death tax, saving taxpayers nearly $4 billion to date.

Owen appears frequently on television and radio programs and has written for such publications as the Wall Street Journal, National Review, Forbes, the Daily Caller, the Memphis Commercial Appeal, the Knoxville News Sentinel, and the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

He received his J.D. from the Humphreys School of Law at the University of Memphis and his undergraduate degree from Middle Tennessee State University.

In a Nashville Tennessean op-ed coauthored with Arthur Laffer and Joe Scarlett, Owen advocated limits on property taxes across the state. “Housing is a fundamental need for all Americans, whether they rent or own their home.

“Government should never work to make housing less affordable through exorbitant property tax hikes on its citizens.”

Harder school

Bryan Riley is director of the National Taxpayers Union’s Free Trade Initiative and a FreeCon signatory.

Riley has led grassroots campaigns in support of policies such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and in opposition to special-interest efforts to get the government to pick winners and losers in the U.S. economy.

He’s been quoted such publications as the Washington Post, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal.

Riley holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Kansas State University and a master’s degree in economics from the University of Southern California.

He first came to Washington as an NTU intern during the Reagan administration and continues to champion President Reagan’s pro-trade vision for America.

In a recent post, Riley made creative use of an infographic to convey the real tariff burden on American families:

“The overwhelming majority of shoes and clothing sold in the United States is imported,” Riley pointed out, but tariffs make even domestically produced goods more expensive “by driving up the cost of imported inputs” for American companies.

Radical hikes

Tim Andrews is director of consumer issues for Americans for Tax Reform and the Tholos Foundation. He is also a FreeCon signatory.

Andrews previously served as executive director of the Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance and is an advisor to the UK Taxpayers Foundation, the Commonwealth Freedom of Movement Foundation, the HR Nicholls Society, and the Australian Libertarian Society.

A graduate of the University of Sydney with degrees in economics and law and a masters in public policy, he has been published throughout the United States and Australia.

In a recent ATR commentary, Andrews examined the fiscal-policy record of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, now the Democratic nominee for vice president.

In 2021, Walz tried to impose a large tax increase on low-income Minnesotans, including a 33% hike in the tobacco excise tax and a 95% sales tax on vape devices.

“If passed, it would have made the Minnesota tobacco tax not only the highest in the midwest, but one of the highest in the country,” Andrews wrote. “This would have damaged local businesses and cost jobs as sales went to the black market.”

In pushing these “radical tax hikes,” he continued, “Gov. Walz showed loud and clear he is no friend of consumers, taxpayers, or small businesses.”

In the mix

• Did all the talk of freedom at last month’s Democratic National Convention signal some momentous change in the party’s governing philosophy? Not all, wrote FreeCon signatory Alex Salter at RealClearPolitics.

“It takes serious chutzpah to gaslight an entire nation,” wrote Salter, an economics professor at Texas Tech. “Those who recognize the inestimable moral value of freedom will have to look for a different political philosophy than progressivism.

“Conservatism stands ready to welcome and receive them. Especially noteworthy is the Freedom Conservatism movement, endorsed by hundreds of leading conservative academics, journalists, policy experts, and public servants. Its statement of principles makes clear that Freedom Conservatives are totally devoted to ordered liberty and America’s best political traditions.”

Salter also discussed progressivism and Freedom Conservatism during a subsequent appearance on Denver station KOA.

• At National Review Online, FreeCon signatory Akash Chougule argued that tolerating chaos along the southern border undermines the rule of law and the case for legal immigration. “Restoring Americans’ belief in the power of a properly functioning legal-immigration system is a national necessity, and it starts by securing the border,” he wrote. “So long as our border isn’t secure, Americans’ support for legal immigration will continue to drop.”

• Viral claims on social media about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio eating pet cats are “entirely baseless,” FreeCon signatory Peter Gattuso reported in The Dispatch. The town’s police department said it “no credible reports” of immigrants —illegal or legal — harming or eating pets, and no evidence of other concerning illegal behavior.

There was “a cat abuse-related incident in the state late last month — more than 150 miles away in Canton,” Gattuso wrote. “According to the report, law enforcement arrested a 27-year old woman accused of killing and eating a cat in a residential neighborhood. Critically, there is no indication that the suspect was an immigrant.”