JD Vance says modern GOP economics favor Hamilton over Friedman
Vice President JD Vance argues that today’s right-of-center economic approach resembles Alexander Hamilton’s activist vision rather than Milton Friedman’s free-market doctrine.
In a recent commentary, Vice President JD Vance declared that contemporary Republican economic policy aligns more with Alexander Hamilton’s activist state than with Milton Friedman’s market-first philosophy, labeling the change as beneficial. He highlighted Hamilton’s legacy of using federal power to drive growth through tools such as national banks, tariffs and direct subsidies, contrasting it with Friedman’s view that government intervention should be the exception.
The piece points out that Republican doubts about pure free markets are not new, referencing Theodore Roosevelt’s antitrust actions and a strand of early-20th-century Northeastern Republicans who rejected Barry Goldwater’s libertarian agenda. What sets Vance’s stance apart, the author notes, is his reliance on religious language to justify the shift and his willingness to embed it deeply within one outlet administration’s agenda.
Why it matters
It signals a potential reorientation of GOP economic policy toward greater government involvement.
In this story
