Live from the Airport Diner in Manchester, NHJournal presents Diner Table Economics!
Want to hear the specific economic proposals from the people who want to serve as the next member of Congress from New Hampshire’s Second Congressional District? You’ll get it here, straight from the candidates themselves, over a cup of coffee at the iconic Airport Diner.
No “horserace politics,” no “politics of personality,” just a 25-minute conversation about jobs, inflation, taxes, and spending. The policy positions from taxes to job creation that impact the daily lives of Granite Staters and all Americans.
In this edition, entrepreneur and author Vikram Mansharamani, Republican candidate in the NH-02 primary, talks about his views on economic policy.
A few highlights:
Is inflation still a problem in the Second Congressional District?
“So as I go around the district, I’m talking to people and they say, ‘Oh, prices are high.’ And that’s true. Prices are still high. But everybody else — the D.C. folks, the career politicians and bureaucrats — they’re saying, ‘Inflation’s down.’ But just because inflation is down doesn’t mean prices are down. It means the change in prices is down.
“Think of it this way: If your eggs cost $10 a dozen this year, and next year they cost $10 a dozen, you’re still feeling the pain. But inflation went down to zero for eggs.”
What’s the solution to New Hampshire’s housing shortage?
“I’m always a believer that markets work. And so if you really want to know why we have a housing problem, you have to blame Gov. Chris Sununu. Why? Because he did a great job! Everyone wants to come here. That’s the problem. The legislature’s done a great job. They’ve kept taxes low. This is a great place. People want to come here.
“So, what happened? We had inflation. It’s more expensive to build a house. And so when housing prices are higher and you have more people coming. It’s more demand, less supply. And we’ve got a problem.
“A lot of housing is, unfortunately, very local. I say ‘unfortunately’ for me as a federal candidate, it’s not exactly what I’m going to be focused on. But I think we focus on inflation at the federal level. That can ripple down. And when we have lower interest rates, that’s going to help housing at the local level.”
What about energy policy?
“I want an ‘all of the above’ energy approach. And in particular, one that utilizes all our natural resources, which are hydrocarbons here in America. Number one, more energy. More supply. With all else being equal, prices are coming down and that’s going to lower inflation.
“Number two, it’s going to take resources away from the countries that hate us most. Putin is one of the world’s largest beneficiaries of high energy prices. Lower the price of oil, take away revenues from Putin, make the world safer.
“And number three — here’s the kicker that agitates a lot of people: more oil and gas production in America is going to save the environment.
“We have regulations on our oil and gas production here. We don’t let the methane just go into the atmosphere. We don’t dump the drilling fluids in the water that we might be drinking. We have environmental regulations. So a barrel of oil, or natural gas, produced in the United States is cleaner than a barrel of oil produced in Kazakhstan. Indonesia, you pick your place in the world. That means oil produced here crowds out dirty oil produced there. So make the world safer and save the environment just by drilling, baby, drilling here. Let’s do it.”
Diner Table Economics is sponsored by Americans for Prosperity of New Hampshire.
