Pennsauken native launches long-shot presidential bid

Via The Courier Post

CHERRY HILL – When Larry Kotlikoff was 8 years old he worked in his family-owned department store for 25 cents an hour.

During the holiday season, when he wasn’t at Pennsauken Junior High, he’d be stuck inside the store, Kotlikoff’s, in East Camden day and night, helping customers, stocking shelves, and doing just about whatever else his father and uncles could get him to do.

“I think they violated child labor laws,” Kotlikoff joked.

Back then he wasn’t as savvy as he is now and couldn’t properly evaluate his financial stability as a low-wage earner. That’s not a mistake he would make today.

Nearly 60 years later Kotlikoff is a world-traveled economist teaching at Boston College. He has a doctorate in economics from Harvard University and is often featured in publications such as Forbes and Bloomberg as an economic contributor. He’s published 17 books, taught at Yale and UCLA, and served as a member of President Ronald Reagan’s Counsel of Economic Advisors.

But writing about the economy doesn’t seem to be affecting the direction of the country, so Kotlikoff is taking matters into his own hands.

He’s running for president.

“I’m more qualified than these two people to run our country,” he said of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the presumptive nominees of the Democratic and Republican parties, respectively. “Just based on what I know about the problems and what I know about how to fix them.”

There are two central messages inherent in Kotlikoff’s campaign. First is that the economy is actually on the verge of collapse thanks to an enormous government he said is indebted $199 trillion. Second is a promise to leave the country in a better condition for our children than it is in now, something he said is not going to happen with either of the current major candidates.

“Next to Luxembourg, we probably have the worst fiscal situation of any developed country in the world, and this includes Russia and Japan,” he said.

Kotlikoff sees the U.S. economy like a bridge made out of bad cement. Thanks to a number of balkanized institutions, inefficient health care systems, and banks willing to gamble with the public’s money, he said the bridge could collapse as soon as this afternoon.

“I wouldn’t be buying long-term government bonds if you had a gun to my head,” he said.

Kotlikoff has posted a nearly 157-page document on his campaign website outlining how he would fix the United States.

Notable proposals include a tax reform plan that would eliminate the corporate income tax, the personal income tax and the estate and gift tax, and replace them with value added tax, a progressive personal consumption tax, an inheritance tax and a tax on carbon.

On health care, Kotlikoff would eliminate Medicare, Medicaid, and tax subsidies. Instead, giving all Americans a voucher each year that can be used to purchase a basic insurance plan from the private provider of their choosing — effectively giving health care to every U.S. citizen. Vouchers would differ in monetary size, but all buy the same basic plan, that way people with high medical risks are using vouchers worth more, in order to keep insurers from trying to send them elsewhere.

According to Kotlikoff’s site, this would freeze federal health care spending at its current cost, which would save billions over time considering the current cost is projected to continue to rise otherwise.

“I’ve spent a lot of time on health care, I wrote a book about it called ‘The Healthcare Fix,'” Kotlikoff said. “I’ve spent a lot of time talking to the top health economists in our country. I know what I’m talking about when it comes to health care.”

Policy aside, Kotlikoff is trying to do something that’s never been done. The fact remains that his name will not appear on a single ballot in November. Instead, those who want to vote for him will have to write his name in — an option that’s only available in 43 states.

That’s ignoring the fact that there has not been a candidate outside of the Democratic and Republican parties to receive a vote in the electoral college since George C. Wallace earned 46 in 1968 as a member of the far-right, American Independent Party. But even then Wallace was on the ballot, so while his journey was difficult, it highlights the mountain Kotlikoff would have to climb in order to be elected.

Not that he sees it that way.

“It’s just as easy to vote for me as it is to vote for Clinton and Trump,” Kotlikoff said. “I can do this job, I don’t think any other write-in candidate has ever been prepared to do this job.”

His plan to win over Americans revolves around media exposure like this article or appearances on radio and television talk shows as opposed to advertising with the money of big donors and Super PACs. Kotlikoff is barely even asking for small donations. In fact, next to the word “donate” on the button to do so on his website are the words “if you insist.”

This technically isn’t the first time Kotlikoff has run for office. In 2012 he sought the nomination of the nonpartisan third-party group Americans Elect, but his campaign lasted only a few months when he didn’t get the nomination.

This time around, he’s doing it all himself.

“The parties are the problem,” Kotlikoff said. “The parties are focused on maintaining power, they’re really not trying to help the country.”

Kotlikoff said politicians deserve a lot of the skepticism they receive because they’re only interested in helping themselves. That’s why he wants a government of moderate technocrats, people who were trained in the field that they’re working in, as opposed to politicians who rely entirely on other people to inform them about things like economics.

He’s labeled many of his proposals as “purple,” an indication that means both Republicans and Democrats should find something to like in them.

He said that with the immense lack of satisfaction that Americas have with both major candidates, there has never been a better time to try to draw support as an unconventional one. On his site’s blog, he’s already written posts calling for the support of those who voted for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders or Ohio Gov. John Kasich in their respective presidential primaries. Another post asks for the endorsement of former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican nominee for president Mitt Romney.

He said as the mainstream media gets tired of reporting the same “nonstories” about the same two candidates, his campaign should garner new attention and likely grow in the polls thanks to his substantive proposals.

He knows the odds, but Kotlikoff swears this isn’t just a ploy to raise his profile.

“I have a history of doing things that you wouldn’t do if you were only interested in yourself,” he said.