Thursday, July 15, 2021

The Slippery Glenn Youngkin's "Economic Advisor"




A couple of days ago, we noted dodgy Republican / Trumpist candidate for Governor of Virginia, a smooth charlatan by the name of Glenn Youngkin, was ducking debates with Dem candidate and former Gov. Terry McAuliffe. Youngkin's been absolutely saturating the Dem-stronghold, Northern Virginia suburbs of DC with deceptive, suburban voter-friendly TV ads portraying himself as a can-do outsider, a moderate guy looking to improve schools, business opportunities, etc. Missing is any reference to the enthusiastic endorsement he got from his party's Dear Leader, or references to his right-wing views on womens' reproductive rights or gun safety measures. (Youngkin's TV ads in conservative areas of Virginia hypocritically portray him as an ally of Trump's). 

Youngkin's hidden right-wing agenda is compounded by the report that he's named Trumpist trickle down economics kook and reject for a position on the Federal Reserve Board Stephen Moore as his "senior economic advisor." Jonathan Chait reports in New York Magazine:

“'I have the best senior economic adviser on the planet in Stephen Moore working with me on this,' Youngkin tells the Washington Post.

Stephen Moore is not the best economic adviser on the planet, or for that matter, the country, the state, or any area that contains Steve Moore and any other human being, with the arguable exception of Lawrence Kudlow, Moore’s longtime partner.

Indeed, Moore’s whole career has been a testament to the proposition that one can have a successful career as a Republican Party economist without having any serious grasp of economics."  (our emphasis)

Chait details Moore's long history of being wrong on economic matters (e.g., tax cuts would increase Government revenue: nope!). Moore's also a walking grenade launcher of bizarre reactionary comments, according to the Washington Post:

"In a 2000 column for the National Review, Moore lambasted female athletes who were pressing for equal pay in a Nike ad campaign.

'The women tennis pros don’t really want equal pay for equal work. They want equal pay for inferior work,' Moore wrote. [snip]

During a debate about minimum wage in 2016, Moore claimed that low labor force participation could be corrected by allowing children to work.

'I’m a radical on this; I’d get rid of a lot of these child labor laws. I want people starting to work at 11, 12,' he said during the debate."  (our emphasis)

There's more and it's just as ugly. That Youngkin would have Moore as his senior advisor -- or in any capacity -- speaks volumes about the true guy behind the TV ads running in Northern Virginia. McAuliffe had better get busy revealing the real Youngkin in his own ads, or this charlatan will steal some of those suburban voters in November who haven't been paying attention.

(photo: CBS News)

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