August 16, 2024
For the first time since becoming the Democratic nominee for president we heard about Vice President Kamala Harris plans for the economy if she becomes president. She held a campaign event in a Raleigh North Carolina and spoke for about 40 minutes.
Now – much like former President Trump’s economic proposals that I outlined in detail in this video on Wednesday – what Harris announced today were some big ideas – but there weren’t a lot of specifics about how.
“Building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency. Because when the middle class is strong America is strong.”
And just as I said when I reported on trump’s plans – a lot of what Harris proposed today cannot be done by the president alone – these big ideas for the most part – have to go through Congress or through the states. But like Trump and every other politician in the history of this country – Vice President Harris is making campaign promises. So just I did with trump’s plans – I’m going to play you the soundbites of her plans. I’ll start with her plans to lower the cost of food.
“Prices went up during the pandemic but now our supply chains have improved and prices are still high….I will work to pass the first federal ban on price gouging on food, new penalties for opportunistic businesses that exploit crisis and break the rules and we will support smaller food business who are trying to get ahead. We will help the food industry become more competitive because competition is the lifeblood of this country. More competition means lower prices for you and your family.”
Then, she promised to bring down the cost of housing.
“There is a serious housing shortage in this country. It’s too difficult to build and it’s driving prices up. As president I will work in partnership with industry to build the houses we need to rent and buy we will take down barriers at state an local levels. And by the end of my first term we will build 3 million new homes and rentals that are affordable for the middle class and we will do that together….we will make sure those homes actually go to working and middle class Americans not just investors.”
“And while we’re working on building those new homes, my administration will give first time homebuyers with 25-thousand dollars to help with the downpayment on a new home.”
“Some corporate landlords collude with each other to set rental prices artificially high it’s anti-competitive and drives up costs I will fight for a law that cracks down on these practices.”
She also talked about cutting taxes for the middle class.
More than 100 million Americans will get a tax cut and we will do this by restoring two tax cuts designed to help middle class Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit.
By restore she means restoring the Child Tax Credit back to the to $3600 level we saw during the pandemic instead of current $2000 Child Tax Credit. As for the Earned Income Tax Credit she wants to again restore the same provision we saw during the pandemic which gave frontline workers with lower-income jobs without dependent children a tax credit up to $1500. But that wasn’t all.
“As president I’ll not only tax cut but expand it by giving $6000 in tax relief during the first year of a child’s life. … and we will do this while reducing the deficit”
And she also made promises about lowering medical costs. She said she wants to expand on the Biden-era law that caps the price of insulin at $35 for seniors and allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices.
“I will pledge to continue this progress I’ll lower cost of insulin for all Americans and demand transparency for middle men who use opaque practices and profit off your need for medicine.”
“Two months ago I announced medical debt will no longer be used against your credit score and as president I will work with states to cancel medical debt for more Americans.
During her event, Harris mentioned Trump only five times –every time attacking him for what she sees as his economic failures. She said she’ll be going into greater detail about her plans in the coming days and weeks.
Watch Harris’s speech here.
