Harris Unveils Economic Plan Focused on Housing, Food Prices: NPR

Vice President Harris will unveil an economic plan on Friday that will focus on high housing and food costs, top priorities for voters after years of rising prices.

In Raleigh, N.C., Harris will deliver the first major policy speech of her campaign. It’s a city where her campaign is highlighting innovative affordable housing developments, in a state where Democrats are trying to win the presidential race for the first time since 2008.

Polls have shown Biden has struggled to win recognition for his efforts to lower prices, and many voters continue to trust Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump more on the economy, but polls also show voters are less critical of Harris on economic issues.

“Even though our economy is doing well in many ways, the prices for everyday things like groceries are still too high. You know it and I know it,” Harris said on the campaign trail in Las Vegas on August 10.

On Friday, Harris will announce a tax break proposal that her campaign says would create 3 million new housing units over four years, going beyond a Biden White House proposal to ease the housing shortage with 2 million new and renovated homes.

Harris’s plan would provide unspecified tax incentives to homebuilders for first-time homebuyers and affordable rental housing. It would propose a $40 billion fund to help local governments finance development, up from the $20 billion proposed by the Biden White House. Like all spending, these proposals would depend on Congress’ willingness to fund them.

Harris would ask Congress to give first-time homebuyers up to $25,000 toward their down payments, a plan her campaign has said could help more than 4 million first-time buyers. That’s more generous than a plan Biden announced in his State of the Union address this year that would have given first-time homebuyers a $10,000 tax credit and helped about 400,000 first-generation homebuyers with down payment assistance.

Harris Wants to Crack Down on Corporations, Campaign Says

Harris will argue that corporations are making too much money off consumers as she lays out her economic priorities. It’s a theme she has teased on the campaign trail, highlighting her work on price fixing while she was California’s attorney general.

“When I am president, my priority will be to fight to lower prices, to confront big corporations that illegally gouging, to confront corporate landlords that unfairly raise rents for working families, to confront big pharmaceutical companies, and to cap the cost of prescription drugs for all Americans,” he said in an Aug. 7 speech in Detroit.

Harris and Biden delivered campaign-style statements on Thursday about their efforts to lower prescription drug prices for people enrolled in Medicare, a moment as Harris sought to demonstrate her commitment to a policy that polls show is popular but for which Biden has received little recognition.

Her campaign said Harris would support legislation proposed by Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, to limit tax breaks for corporate investors who buy homes, as well as a bill proposed by Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., that would bar rental property owners from buying algorithmic data that helps them raise rent prices.

On food prices, Harris will call for a federal ban on price gouging in the food industry. She will focus specifically on meat prices, blaming the concentrated meatpacking industry for driving up food prices, and will push for her administration to more aggressively investigate and prosecute price fixing in the meat supply chain.

This proposal is similar to the approach taken by the Biden administration, which in September 2021 said it would crack down on price fixing and enforce antitrust laws in the meat industry, as well as provide funding to smaller operators to try to increase competition.

Harris’s plan would give the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general the authority to investigate companies and impose penalties, her campaign said. Many big retailers have kept food prices high instead of passing the savings on to consumers, Harris said.

In his speech, he will say that his administration will carefully review proposed mergers in the food sector to assess the risk that a merger could lead to higher food prices.