LARRY KUDLOW: Blame ‘Bidenflation,’ not the longshoremen

No one likes disruptive strikes, but people should be blaming “Bidenflation” rather than the dockworkers. 

The late Jack Kemp taught me this over 40 years ago: Labor strikes were breaking out all over the country in the 1970s. Business always blamed labor for asking for too much, but Kemp correctly argued that bad money, high taxes and 15 to 20% inflation were the real cause of the labor revolt. 

The same lesson should apply today. Twenty percent inflation over the past three-and-a-half years has brought down real wages for working folks all around the country, and that includes the longshoremen who have just gone on strike on the East Coast. 

Breitbart’s John Carney has calculated that the maximum $39 wage for dockworkers is now worth only $30.70 in 2018 dollars, when the last contract was negotiated.

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The starting wage is the equivalent of $15.75. Real wages have dropped sharply as the cost of living has sky-rocketed. I know it’s fashionable for all the business lobbies and even some conservative editorial pages to beat up on the ILA, but they should be aiming their fire at the Biden-Harris inflation policies, not the workers.   

Let’s not forget that Kamala Harris was a deciding vote for the two biggest inflation policies: the $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan” and the $1.2 trillion misnamed “Inflation Reduction Act.” Plus, they layered on $2 trillion of new regulations that caused higher inflation, and their war on fossil fuels has doubled energy prices, and that too has had a huge inflationary impact. 

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The longshoremen are asking for compensation for Biden-Harris inflation. 

They’d also like some insurance against future inflation. Longshoremen are asking for a $5-an-hour increase, in each year of the six-year deal. If you think that’s too much, as the 77% rise of the contract suggests, then you should give the workers some assurances that we’re not going to spend another $6 or $7 trillion on unnecessary domestic programs, that we’re going to open up the fossil fuel spigots, that were going to roll back cumbersome regulations and that we’re going to cut taxes instead of raising them. 

That is exactly the economic platform that Donald Trump is running on, but Kamala Harris is running a completely different platform. Already, she has advocated $2 trillion in extra spending, with massive tax hikes, price controls, rent controls and a continued war on fossil fuels. 

So, if you’re a longshoreman and you’re negotiating right now, who and what do you trust over the next six years? They’re trying to protect themselves against the worst-case scenario. 

The moral of this story: the American workforce deserves a solid hike in wages. They are trying to make a very important point if someone would just listen carefully. 

This article is adapted from Larry Kudlow’s opening commentary on the Oct. 3, 2024, edition of “Kudlow.”