America has a horrific child labor problem. Violations have increased more than 250% since 2017. Children have died in shocking circumstances: unjamming a blocked sawmill in Wisconsin, sucked into a poultry machine in Mississippi, falling off a roof in Alabama. What’s most disturbing is that this outcome was completely predictable, the result of an intentional starving of labor law enforcement.

The Democratic-invited witness, Kathryn Anne Edwards, a labor economist at the RAND Corporation, said “unless the intention of the 2017 tax law was to directly transfer income to the richest Americans at incredible expense to ordinary Americans, it was a failure.”

“The ability to identify such bad policies, and the willingness to remake them, will define the next chapter in America’s economic story. The coming election year, arriving in the wake of an epic cataclysm, should be an ideal opportunity. Unfortunately, there’s little prospect of a substantial debate about such crucial issues as housing affordability or how to bolster retirement savings.”