Trump Republicans change Republican stance on labor, free markets and regulations | Wilnesh News

Disdain for America’s corporate giants is a key element of the new conservative, populist approach to economics.

Caught in the culture wars of the Trump era, these new populists don’t see corporate CEOs as natural allies for the Republican Party in a broader war against big government. Instead, they view C-suite executives as woke elitists seeking to impose their liberal cultural values ​​on middle America.

They believe that Reagan’s low-tax, low-regulation, free-market ideology did not work well for American workers, but worked very well for corporate elites.

Some argue that this wealthy class does not live in the same place or share the same values ​​as most social conservatives.

This new thinking urges conservatives to reject the kind of traditional Republican economic dogma that groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable have championed for decades in Washington.

Instead, the new populists hope to bring conservatives together to build a broader coalition, a kind of American capitalist workers’ party. They also have a specific list of goals.

To be clear, this is not yet the dominant idea in Republican economic thinking in Washington. But there’s no doubt it’s on the rise.

Bolstered by Trump’s success in reshaping the Republican Party in his own image, the new populism aims to capture the political energy of Kid Rock’s Bud Light brews and inject it into the dust of macroeconomic thinking Flying corners.

If Trump wins the November election, this new thinking will be felt in every economic decision made by his second administration. It could also upend old alliances, seeking to return economic power to workers rather than employers, and to local communities rather than national elites.

Even if Trump loses in November, this new approach to economics is likely to leave its mark on next year’s policy battles over issues such as unions, tariffs and whether to retain a 2017 corporate tax rate cut.

The new populist ideas emerging on the political right are being refined and promoted in Washington through a budding network of institutions. Chief among them is the nonprofit think tank American Compass, founded in 2020 by Oren Cass.

Cass believes that Republican economic policy has been focused on the wrong goals: lowering prices and increasing consumption.

Instead, he said, Republicans need to focus on production and value creation. “The mindset change is realizing that work is important and production is important,” Kass told me.

“The purpose of economic policy is to consume as much as possible, and that’s definitely a black-letter economic doctrine. But not all markets are productive markets. And there’s nothing that guarantees that doing things that optimize profits is good for society.”

According to Kass, much of the damage to the fabric of American society has been caused by decades of offshoring of American manufacturing. To solve the problem, he and others like him want to see sweeping tariffs.

Kass has also been scathing about Wall Street: “The private equity and hedge fund industries don’t generate value,” he said in our recent interview. “They get value out of the economy.”

“The hedge fund industry’s $300 billion in fees is not $300 billion in value,” he added.

What Kass and other neoconservative economists have in mind is to use the great power of the state—something that conservative politicians once outright opposed—to push companies to adopt more socially beneficial ways of working.

“The goal is to make productive activities more attractive and unproductive activities less attractive,” Kass said.

Cass’ economic approach could have serious consequences for Wall Street. He envisions a financial transactions tax aimed at raising the cost of trading assets and reducing what he sees as the financialization of the economy.

As Biden explained on CNBC during the 2020 campaign, he also supports a financial transaction tax.

“The constant rotation of assets creates no value and in fact creates the opposite value,” Kass said. He would also force public pension funds to invest their entire portfolios in domestic investments.

For Cass, cutting taxes—traditionally a top Republican priority—isn’t on the list at all. “There are times when tax cuts are needed, like they were in the 1970s,” Kass said.

“But it’s not conservative at all to elevate these things into dogma and say this is always the answer, more is better. This old ‘you shouldn’t raise taxes’ argument is a thing of the past.”

These are not the types of economic thinking that executives on Wall Street or Silicon Valley would want to hear if a Republican administration were to take office.

“The kindest way to put it is economic populism,” said former Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, who left office last year.

“But in reality, this is left-wing collectivism and statism.” Toomey said that if Trump is re-elected as president, it is unclear to what extent he will adopt this new thinking.

“I think this is a very serious threat to the Republican Party,” Toomey told me. “If the Republican Party looks like it has more in common with the left, a lot of people will leave the Republican Party.”

Coming up Wednesday: Part two of Eamonn Javers’ column on neoconservative populism. This time, Javers looks at the key figures leading the shift in the Republican approach to labor, free markets and regulation.