Can Rubionomics Succeed? Boris Johnson Will Soon Find Out. The British prime minister follows the Florida senator by clothing liberal policy in conservative rhetoric.

Wall Street Journal ^ | December 19, 2019 | Joseph C. Sternberg

[karpov]

...

Mr. Rubio, seeing how Mr. Trump has activated new segments of the electorate for Republicans, is trying to devise some policy platform to retain those voters once Mr. Trump is no longer on the ballot. The solution is to copy much of the language and some of the policy views of the left so as to avoid alienating those new voters.

The most telling manifestation of this, from both Mr. Johnson and Mr. Rubio, is their approach to productivity and investment. One of their insights is entirely traditional-conservative: Only by boosting productivity can an economy deliver employment and wage growth. But then they steal the first and worst page from the left’s playbook: the conviction that the interests of capital and labor inevitably conflict in this sphere.

In Britain, this takes the form of Mr. Johnson’s plan to freeze further cuts in the headline corporate tax rate while boosting government spending on child-care benefits. He couples this with a very Keynesian focus on the consumption habits and taxation of low-income voters. The Tories have abandoned broad-based tax reform in favor of tweaks (chiefly raising the threshold at which social-insurance taxes kick in) calculated to appeal to working-class voters.

The Rubionomics version is the senator’s fixation on the evils of Wall Street, whether it’s alleged investor short-termism or supposedly rampant share buybacks sapping productive business investment. He couples this with staunch support for tax handouts such as expanded child credits, which take on a Keynesian tinge for their focus on boosting short-term consumption over productive investment.

So far this program has been an electoral winner for Mr. Johnson, but there’s danger ahead. The question neither Mr. Johnson nor Mr. Rubio can convincingly answer is how their preferred policies will actually unlock the private investment their economies—and their new voters—need

[chris37]

Marco Rubio sucks, period, full stop.

[ConservativeMind]

It seems strange to be associating anything Donald or Boris is doing to anything “Rubio.”

I guess the author is a big Rubio Foam supporter and wants all of us to draw analogies between solid leaders and the future President Foam Boy.

[FreedomNotSafety]

Try reading the article instead of guessing. The author is no Rubio fan and doubts BoJos plan will work. But he does seem certain about what would work

“The last time con­ser­v­a­tive par­ties won work­ing-class votes sev­eral elec­tions in a row, it was by tak­ing ex­actly the op­po­site tack. Ronald Rea­gan and Mar­garet Thatcher worked tire­lessly to per­suade vot­ers that cap­i­tal and la­bor would op­er­ate in tan­dem in a less-taxed, less-reg­u­lated econ­omy. That pre­cept had the virtue of be­ing true, which is why it worked eco­nom­i­cally and po­lit­i­cally.”

[Trumpisourlastchance]

John McCain’s successor who will get us nuclearly annihilated. No thanks.

[chris37]

He’s one of my senators.

I can’t wait to not vote for him again.

[lodi90]

Rubio is a cheap shot artist. Loves to run his mouth and take positions of no consequence. China, Venezuela, whatever. What’s so dangerous though is the racial element you can see he is stoking. Just as he abandoned the Tea Party he intends to do the same to Republican voters in general with a new support base of Hispanics. I expect he will duck out of the Senate and run for governor after DeSantis.

[liberalh8ter]

I moved and now Rubio is my rep. I won’t be voting for bubble boy.