Memo to Vance & GOP: Youll never outspend the left so stop trying

It was probably inevitable that the right’s economic populism would degenerate into promises of more government checks.Last week, the Trump administration floated the idea of redirecting federal child-care aid so low-income married stay-at-home parents could get a $9,000 subsidy per child for day care.The policy, reportedly hatched by Vice President JD Vance, would use the Department of Health and Human Services’ Child Care and Development Fund, originally created in the 1990s for low-income single parents.Vance’s defenders stress that the program merely redirects “existing subsidies” and wouldn’t add to the debt.The notion that Vance was fiscally responsible was quickly shattered later in the week when he defended President Donald Trump’s promise to hand every adult a $5,000 “dividend” check, should Republicans hold on to Congress.“We’re taking in an extraordinary amount of revenue,” Vance told Fox News’ Bret Baier.“What the president is saying is, ‘If you keep it going, if you keep us in power and allow us to continue to do these things, then you’re going to share in some of the benefit of this incredible wealth that we are creating in the United States of America.’”None of this is true.Import taxes on Americans don’t create any wealth — they extract it.The administration collected roughly $300 billion from American consumers through tariffs last year.The “revenue” was supposedly going to be used to pay down the debt.Handing out roughly $1.3 trillion to voters, while running an existing $2 trillion deficit, isn’t a “dividend” payment as much as a brazen socialistic redistribution stunt that would add $1 trillion to the deficit.Of course, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s contention that the proposal was an “insult” to voters and democracy itself is risible considering that socialistic redistribution is the foundation of the Democratic Party’s entire economic agenda these days.More than anything, Schum...