New Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled an aggressively populist economic agenda in a speech in North Carolina on Friday, primarily focused on “lowering the cost of living.”
The speech was the first time Harris has delved into any significant detail about his administration — and clearly sought to distance himself on policy from President Biden, the man he recently replaced at the top of the ticket.
“Today, by almost every measure, our economy is the strongest in the world,” Harris said. “Yet we know many Americans are yet to experience this progress in their lives. The costs are still too high [and] it seems too difficult to move forward.”
A quick guide to what Harris suggests and why.
What was in store for Harris on Friday?
With elections approaching, voters almost always say the economy is their top concern — and that’s especially true today, when pandemic-era disruptions caused a painful spike in inflation.
But Biden, 81, struggled to connect with the issue. Partly it was because he was president when prices went up; in part it was because, as inflation began to decline again, many Americans no longer saw him as competent or commanding enough to deserve much credit; and in part it was because he spent a lot of time focusing instead on the rosier aspects of his economic record, such as low unemployment, strong growth and efforts to revive American manufacturing.
Last month’s exchange between Biden and Harris appears to have given Democrats a real chance to reset. Earlier this week, a Financial Times poll showed that roughly as many Americans now trust Harris’s finances (42%) as former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee (41%). Other surveys have shown that “Harris has cut 6 to 9 points from Biden’s previous deficits over Trump,” according to the Washington Post.
Do these numbers mean that Harris suddenly dominates Trump on economic issues? No. But they suggest voters are at least open him in a way they weren’t open to Biden. And on Friday, he used that openness as an opportunity to say that his economic focus as president would be a little different than Biden’s — and a little more in line with what voters say they want.
“The bills are adding up,” Harris said. “Food, rent, gas, school clothes, prescription drugs. After that, many families don’t have much left at the end of the month.
“As president,” he continued, “I will take on the high costs that matter most to most Americans.”
What policy did Harris propose?
The vice president and his campaign floated more than a dozen economic policies on Friday. They include:
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Combating food and grocery “price gouging” by authorizing the Federal Trade Commission to impose large fines on grocers who impose “excessive” price increases on customers
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Eliminating millions of Americans in medical debt, possibly using federal funds to buy out and forgive unpaid debts from health care providers
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Capping the out-of-pocket cost of insulin to $35 per month for all Americans
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Limits Americans’ annual out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs to $2,000
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Offers up to $25,000 in down payment assistance to over one million first-time home buyers
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It requires the construction of three million new apartments in the next four years
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Expands an existing tax incentive for developers building affordable rental housing
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Eliminating tax benefits for Wall Street investors who buy large single-family homes
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Preventing corporate landlords from using algorithmic pricing tools to raise rents by large margins
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A child tax credit that would give families $6,000 per child for the first year of a baby’s life
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Expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-wage workers by up to $1,500
Note that every one of Harris’ proposals is designed to cut the cost of living – whether it’s food, medicine, housing or child care. And almost all of his plans are also “populist,” involving government intervention against corporate interests on behalf of consumers.
“I know most businesses are complying and creating jobs,” Harris said Friday. “But some aren’t, and we need to take action when that’s the case.”
Citing his work to crack down on corporate price-fixing as California attorney general, Harris vowed to “go after bad actors” if elected in November.
Progressives have applauded. “Harris has made a series of policy choices in recent weeks that make it clear that the Democratic Party is committed to a pro-working-family agenda,” said Felicia Wong, president of the Roosevelt Institute, a left-leaning think tank. The Washington Post. “What’s good for free enterprise is good for America” is over.
Are Harris’ policies new?
Many of Harris’ proposals are based on the work of the Biden administration; several go a step further. For example, caps on insulin costs and annual prescription drug costs currently apply to Medicare recipients; Harris would extend them to all Americans. Biden has called for two million homes to be built over the next four years; Harris demands three million units. Harris’ $6,000 newborn tax credit is new, but she also wants to revive Biden’s $3,600 child tax credit for low-income and middle-class families that aged out during the pandemic.
Are Harris’ policies working?
Harris’ plans to bolster the social safety net and expand housing supply are generally seen as sensible. But mainstream economists doubt the effectiveness of the price-cutting ban — and are skeptical that Harris can avoid adding to the deficit without raising taxes on Americans making less than $400,000 a year (which he has vowed not to do). Then there is Congress to contend with. Unless Harris gets large Democratic margins in the House and Senate, how many of these measures could he actually pass?
What did Harris say about Trump?
Protectionist tariffs are the cornerstone of Trump’s economic program. The former president has repeatedly called for a 10 percent tax on all foreign imports — and a 60 percent tax on Chinese goods — in an effort to give U.S. manufacturers a shot.
Combined, these tariffs could cost the typical middle-income U.S. household an extra $1,700 a year, according to an estimate released in May by the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Trump “wants to impose a national sales tax on everyday products and basic necessities,” Harris said Friday. “That means higher prices for almost every one of your daily needs. Trump’s gas tax. Trump’s food tax. Trump’s tax on clothes. Trump’s tax on over-the-counter drugs. …At the moment, when the daily prices are too high, he raises them even higher.”
Harris also criticized Trump’s plans to extend the 2017 tax cuts even for high-income earners and further reduce the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 15 percent.
“If you want to know who someone cares about, see who they’re fighting for,” Harris said. “Donald Trump is fighting for billionaires and big business. I’m fighting to give money back to working Americans.”
How did Trump respond?
The former president previously claimed that Harris’ economic plans are dangerously liberal.
“He’s pushing Maduro’s plan,” Trump said at a news conference in Bedminster, NJ, on Thursday, referring to Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s autocratic leftist. “We call it Maduro’s plan. Like something straight out of Venezuela or the Soviet Union.”
But according to a recent Data for Progress poll, 77 percent of Americans — including 87 percent of Democrats, 80 percent of independents and 65 percent of Republicans — agree that the United States “should do more to stand up to companies that unfairly and illegally raise prices on consumers.”
