Dangerous Economic Policies: This Will Destroy the American Dream!

Don't mess with the American Dream. There's a reason people go through barbwire to try and get in here. We don't want to set a policy up where they're trying to get out of America.

Let's go ahead and bring in Kevin O. He's the chairman of O Ventures and Shark Tank Superstar and investor. Kevin, you're the perfect guy to have on this topic. I've been reading up on what you've said over the last couple of weeks about the proposals out of the Harris campaign.

Let's start with one of her top economic issues, which is her proposed curbs to so-called price gouging. You say this has been tried as a policy in other countries; it has failed every single time down the line, and there's no real way to get it implemented here in the United States, right?

“No, there isn't. This is Soviet-style price control, which leads to inflation, supply shortages, very big problems in terms of competition in the market because you don't get competitors coming in when the government decides pricing. She was basing that off the idea of gouging under state laws like Texas. If there's a flood, there's a short period where they go after people at raised prices, but you can't do that nationally, and nobody wants it. I think it's a very populist idea, impossible to implement, would never pass Congress. So she seems to be throwing a lot of stuff at the wall. I understand why she's doing it; she's being encouraged by what she's seeing in the polling. But a lot of these proposals have not, you know, been scrutinized by you reporters.

On a one-on-one interview, you to actually understand how they'd be implemented. This is an incredibly bad idea, tried in the 70s in America. It doesn't work in Venezuela, North Korea, anywhere. It's just un-American, and so everybody knows that. So I'm just wondering how long she gets away with it. I'm not saying she doesn't understand her strategy, but throwing this stuff at the wall and not being accountable for it is not how to run a campaign. I don't think. I think swing state voters smell it, and they won't like it. That could hurt her.”

So I want to ask you about housing, one of her other big proposals. You say that her idea to build 3 million new homes in the US is just a non-starter. Likewise, subsidizing lower-income first-time home buyers of 25,000 bucks is only going to cause inflation. Can you unravel that for us a bit?

“Very simply. I'm in the real estate market; many are. I'm an investor in real estate. It's a state mandate. So when you want to build a house in a state, you've got to get a permit. I don't know what state is going to give her a permit for 3 million homes, and so that's never going to happen. Secondly, the reason there's been so much inflation in housing is not just the market; it's the regulatory environment. California is a very good example. Half the cost of a house, 40 to 50%, is the cost of the regulatory hurdle to get the permit in the first place. So that has to be changed.

Now this idea of giving free money from a helicopter in an inflated market that's tight, where there's no supply—and the reason there's no supply is half the mortgages that are still out there for the next three years are at under 4%. So if you own one of those mortgages, you're never going to sell your house. It's an anomaly. Yeah, well, you're not going to sell your house, and so as a reason you don't want to pay a 7.2% mortgage. You're not dumb. So that's why there's no supply.

So this idea that you're going to give $25,000 of free dollars to people, let's say there's one house on your street for sale, and all of a sudden, you give nine buyers $25,000 more each—all of that goes to the seller. They'll just raise their price $25,000. This idea is beyond insane. It's just the worst policy I've ever heard, and everybody in real estate knows it's a non-starter. That's the second idea I know would never stick, would never get through Congress.

I mean, how many ways can you think to print money? That's why you have inflation; you've got to stop. Remember, this is the same person, and she's going to have to take scrutiny on this in questions that signed that bill that we didn't need, you know, the Inflation Reduction Act that ended up being very inflationary. At some point, you have to answer this.

So I'm looking forward to this thing tonight, although it's not live, but I've never seen in history a presidential candidate avoid the press. That's going to end in the next 68 days, and then we'll find out where she stands. I'm not a guess; what she's doing seems to be working for her, but you’ve got to face the light eventually. You got to face the music.”

Um, Kevin, let's talk about her tax policy. The Wall Street Journal has done their analysis. This is what they report back: they say ultimately big picture here is that under her plan, taxes would go up for high-income households across the board. Most Americans’ taxes would remain unchanged or possibly lower, and a whole lot of lower-income parents would get some new breaks. Does that match your read on it, and what do you think?

“I'm worried about something far more sinister—the idea to raise capital gains tax to make America uncompetitive. You got to think about capital. We're the number one economy on Earth. Most foreign capital wants to invest in America because it's competitive. But when all of a sudden you make us, and you're looking at the G20, all countries where your sovereign wealth, you want to put hundred billion dollars to work in infrastructure—you care about capital gains tax; you care about the corporate tax rate. Remember, 82% of jobs in America are created by private companies; they're corporations. That's who America works with and for, and how we pay for our society. Why do you want to punish the for success?

At the end of the day, when you make yourself so uncompetitive in the plethora of economies that compete with us and all of a sudden say corporate tax rates are the highest, now we're in the bottom quartile of competition. It'll be like what happened when we had 28% plus corporate taxes when companies started going to Ireland. We've already tried this; it doesn't work, and I want to hear her answer that question. I really, really want to hear how she feels about the number one economy. Remember, she's the steward of the number one economy on Earth. This is a really, really, really bad idea—an incredibly bad policy.”

Kevin, I only got a couple seconds left, but can you lay out for average American voters, who may not be so, you know, may not have a whole lot of investments, may not be earning over a million dollars a year, who are the folks who are going to get hit hardest with the new Harris plan? Why should they care about the capital gains tax?

“Because 62% of jobs in America are where they work—companies between 5 and 500 employees. You want to do everything in your tax plan to support American entrepreneurship. That's what made this economy over 200 years ago. That's what keeps it the number one destination for capital around the world. We do not want to punish American entrepreneurs. The number one export of America is not a product or service; it’s the American Dream. That's the number one export. Don't mess with the American Dream.

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