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The Stories That Matter About Money and Politics in the Race to the White House
Kamala Harris will unveil parts of her economic agenda on Friday, including new tax breaks for families and homebuyers and a crackdown on skyrocketing prices, in an effort to convince voters she can address the cost-of-living crisis that has dogged the Biden administration.
The Democratic presidential candidate will outline her plans in a speech in North Carolina, a hotly contested state where her Republican rival Donald Trump delivered his economic policy speech earlier this week.
Trump and Harris are battling for votes with just over 80 days to go until the November presidential election. The Republican nominee has railed against inflation, vowing to reduce fuel and housing costs and laying out his protectionist economic agenda.
Harris’s most significant proposals include a $6,000 tax credit for families with newborns, an extension of the existing credit for families with older children to $3,600 a year, and up to $25,000 in down payment support for first-time home buyers.
Harris, who replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee last month, has been ahead of Trump in some polls but is under pressure to lay out a detailed economic plan of her own. Biden has struggled to convince Americans he has a plan to curb inflation, which jumped to a multi-decade high in 2022 but has since fallen further.
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Harris’ plan to make housing more affordable will also include a goal of building 3 million units in four years.
The vice president will also seek to ban so-called price gouging of food and grocery products, designed to prevent companies from “unfairly” raking in profits, and propose giving the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general the power to penalize companies that don’t comply.
Harris and Trump have traded barbs in recent days over who is best positioned to lead the U.S. economy. Trump, a former real estate executive, held a news conference Thursday at his New Jersey country club, lined with grocery stores, accusing Harris of being a “radical liberal from California who has destroyed the economy, broken the border and destroyed the world, frankly.” On Friday, Trump’s campaign claimed that “Comrade Kamala” had gone “total communist” by proposing to fix prices on consumer goods.
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Trump has long enjoyed an edge with voters when it comes to economic issues. But the most recent Vscek-Michigan Ross poll found that voters were slightly more likely to say they trusted Harris than Trump to handle the economy, with 42 percent trusting Harris and 41 percent supporting Trump.
The University of Michigan consumer sentiment index, released Friday, showed sentiment among Democrats improved 6 percent aVsceker Harris replaced Biden at the top of the presidential ticket, and rose 3 percent among independents. Sentiment among Republicans fell 5 percent over the same period.
Read more from Peter Wells and Eva Xiao in New York
