Joe McConnell
In her first speech focused on economic policy, Kamala Harris called for millions of new homes, aid for first-time buyers, tax breaks for families and a ban on “overstocking” at grocery stores.
The Democratic presidential candidate’s plans are based on ideas from the Biden administration and are aimed at addressing voters’ concerns after prices soared in 2021.
Many proposals would require action in Congress, where similar ideas have stalled in the past.
Donald Trump has said the vice president has already had more than three years with the administration to fulfill her promises, which his campaign has called “dangerously progressive.”
“Where has she been and why didn’t she do it?” he asked.
Ms. Harris responded in a speech in North Carolina on Friday, saying: “I think if you want to know who someone cares about, look at who they’re fighting for.
“Donald Trump is fighting for billionaires and corporations. I will fight to give money back to the working and middle class of America.”
The campaign’s proposals include a “first-ever” tax credit for builders of homes sold to first-time buyers, as well as up to $25,000 in down payment assistance for “eligible” first-time buyers, a move his campaign estimates could reach four million households over four years.
He also called for capping the monthly price of insulin, a diabetes drug, at $35 for everyone, finding a way to cancel medical debt and giving families a $6,000 tax credit each year when they have a new child.
She is supporting a federal law that would prohibit companies from overcharging food products and has urged action on a congressional bill that would bar landlords from using services that “coordinate” rents.
Democrats and their allies are hoping Ms. Harris will prove a more forceful and reliable messenger than President Joe Biden on the economic crisis.
Robert Weissman, co-chairman of the consumer watchdog Public Citizen, called Ms. Harris’s plans a “pro-consumer, anti-corporate abuse agenda.”
“THE [Biden] “The administration has talked about it, but it hasn’t pushed forward with any proposed measures that are anywhere near as aggressive as what Harris is doing,” he said.
However, pollster Micah Roberts, a partner at Public Opinion Strategies, said inflation would likely continue to pose a challenge for Democrats, noting that voters have long shown greater trust in Trump and Republicans on economic issues.
“Trump has been ahead on this issue for more than a year,” said Ms. Roberts, the Republican half of a bipartisan team that recently conducted a poll on economic issues for CNBC that found Mr. Trump still has a big lead over Ms. Harris on the issue.
Without a radical change, he said, it would be “hard for me to believe” that the margin had suddenly closed.
While analysts say some of Harris’s proposals, such as a ban on price speculation, are likely to be well received, they have also drawn criticism from some economists.
Many states already have bans on price gouging, which are enforced in emergencies such as hurricanes.
But economists say the term is difficult to define and that expanding such rules could backfire by discouraging companies from producing more during times of tight supply.
Michael Salinger, a professor of markets, public policy, and law at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, said a similar ban was discussed when he was chief economist of the Federal Trade Commission during the George W. Bush administration.
“I thought it was a bad idea then and I think it is a bad idea now,” he said. “Imposing controls on competitive markets will lead to shortages; that has always been our experience.”
He said Harris’s other campaign plans would also raise questions, given their costs.
For example, the proposal to increase the child tax credit to $3,600, which Congress temporarily adopted during the pandemic and then decided not to extend, would cost more than $1 trillion, according to some estimates.
With populism on the rise in both parties, that cost hasn’t deterred Trump’s pick for vice president, J.D. Vance, from supporting an even greater expansion of the tax credit.
Professor Salinger said Trump’s other economic plans were unlikely to solve the inflation problems.
Economists expect the increased drilling to have little impact, given the global nature of energy markets, and have warned that Trump’s promise to impose a 10% or higher tax on imports would push up prices.
At present, price increases have moderated as shocks from supply chain disruptions due to the pandemic and the war in Ukraine have subsided.
Inflation, which measures the pace of price increases, was 2.9% in July, the smallest annual increase since March 2021, the Labor Department said this week.
It is approaching the 2% pace considered normal, even though prices have increased by about 20% since January 2021.
“The problem that people object to is that even though inflation is going down, prices are still higher, and that is true, but they are higher because of the natural workings of market forces,” Professor Salinger said.
“Trying to thwart the operation of market forces is a lot like trying to stem the tides,” he added. “You can’t just do that.”
