Harris Unveils Economic Policies on Campaign Website

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at Enmarket Arena in Savannah, Ga., on Aug. 29, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Vice President Kamala Harris has outlined her economic proposals on her website, addressing a wide range of issues including taxation, inflation, raising the minimum wage, housing shortages, and cutting red tape.

It’s the first time the Harris campaign has outlined a detailed policy platform since President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign and Harris became the Democratic nominee.

Harris’ economic vision emulates many parts of the president’s 2024 election strategy by pledging tax cuts for more than 100 million working- and middle-class families and vowing to make wealthy Americans and large corporations “pay their fair share.”

Specifically, the campaign promised to roll back the Trump-era tax cuts, institute a billionaire minimum tax, quadruple the tax on stock buybacks, and enact a 28 percent tax on long-term capital gains for Americans earning $1 million or more per year.

The Trump-era tax cuts, enacted as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017, are set to expire in 2025. Ending these tax cuts could be politically tough for the campaign to explain. The Tax Foundation estimated that 62 percent of households will see a tax increase in 2026 if certain provisions are allowed to expire.

Additionally, Harris’s policy page suggests restoring the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Cut.

“Through these two programs, millions of Americans get to keep more of their hard-earned income,” the campaign wrote. “They will also expand the Child Tax Credit to provide a $6,000 tax cut to families with newborn children.”

Harris, the campaign says, will lobby to raise the minimum wage and abolish subminimum wages for tipped workers and people with disabilities. The statement stopped short of offering a dollar figure.

The federal hourly minimum wage has been $7.25 since July 2009, while the subminimum wage for tipped workers is $2.13.

She also aims to end taxes on tips for services and hospitality workers, an idea she adopted after former President Donald Trump made it part of his platform in June.

Housing and Health Care

According to the website, a Harris–Walz administration would aim to lower costs by clamping down on “anti-competitive practices” and “price gouging on food and groceries.” This policy plank has ignited a fierce debate among economists as to whether these would qualify as price controls.

Other economic objectives double down on previous announcements.

On the housing front, Harris’s plan involves addressing the housing affordability challenges gripping the U.S. real estate market.

She would “make rent more affordable and home ownership more attainable” by building 3 million rental units and homes, the campaign says. This will be achieved by cutting red tape to construct more housing faster and by punishing companies that “hoard available homes to drive up prices for local homebuyers.”

For renters and prospective homebuyers, she supports signing legislation “to outlaw new forms of price fixing by corporate landlords” and giving first-time homebuyers up to $25,000 in down payment assistance.

Median existing-home prices reached an all-time high this summer. The nationwide median asking rent was $1,647 in July, just below the record high registered in 2022.

For health care, the vice president supports extending the $35 cap on insulin prices and the $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket spending. The website suggested Medicare and Social Security beneficiaries could “count on getting benefits they earned.”

These federal programs would be strengthened “for the long haul by making millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share in taxes,” according to the policy page.

Harris’s campaign did not explain how the vice president would address the Social Security trust fund exhaustion projected to occur in the next decade or the $63 trillion in long-term unfunded obligations.

Student Debt

As president, Harris would continue the Biden administration’s efforts to forgive student loan debt.

According to the White House, Biden and Harris have approved nearly $169 billion in total student loan forgiveness for about 4.76 million Americans, although many of their proposals have been overturned by the federal courts.

Harris would also maintain the current administration’s energy policies, according to the campaign outline.

Estimates from the Tax Policy Foundation suggest Harris’s economic plan would feature approximately $5 trillion in tax hikes without spending cuts over the next decade.

The Harris campaign claimed that these measures are in “stark contrast” to Trump’s plans.

In July, the Republican National Committee released a Trump-centered platform with the economic goals of ending inflation, halting outsourcing, offering “large tax cuts for workers,” keeping the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency, and canceling the current administration’s electric vehicle mandate.

Moreover, the platform states that the former president would fight to protect these federal programs “with no cuts, including no changes to the retirement age,” among other measures.

(Left) Former President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in Bedminster, N.J., on Aug. 15, 2024. (Right) Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris speaks in Raleigh, N.C., on Aug. 16, 2024. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images; Grant Baldwin/Getty Images

Policy Preview Before Debate

In recent weeks, the vice president has announced a flurry of proposals in speeches, such as a federal ban on price gouging and tax relief for small businesses. The latest campaign update attempts to establish a clear economic agenda ahead of the presidential debate on Sept. 10.

The presidential candidates are neck and neck in the polls. A New York Times-Siena poll shows Trump with a 1-point lead, a Harvard-Harris survey shows a tie, and a national Emerson College Polling survey highlighted Harris with a 2-point gain.

However, Trump continues outperforming Harris on one key issue: the economy.

According to a Sept. 1 ABC News-Ipsos survey, the Republican nominee enjoys an 8-point advantage on the economy and inflation.

The economy remains a top subject for voters heading into the ballot box. The Emerson survey, released on Sept. 5, suggests that 43 percent of voters consider the economy their primary issue, followed by immigration (15 percent).

While U.S. gross domestic product keeps expanding and the growth rate of price inflation has stabilized, multiple surveys continue to spotlight the public’s concerns about the broader economy, from elevated prices to the slowing labor market.

In August, The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index ticked up. The monthly survey revealed consumers sharing concerns about elevated inflation and the labor market.

“Consumers’ assessments of the current labor situation, while still positive, continued to weaken, and assessments of the labor market going forward were more pessimistic,” said Dana M. Peterson, the chief economist at The Conference Board. “This likely reflects the recent increase in unemployment. Consumers were also a bit less positive about future income.”

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s August Survey of Consumer Expectations, consumers still anticipate above-trend inflation in the year ahead, coming in at 3 percent, higher than the U.S. central bank’s inflation target rate of 2 percent.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the August consumer price index on Sept. 11. The Cleveland Fed’s Inflation Nowcasting model predicts the annual inflation rate for August will be 2.6 percent.

The New York Fed also reported data that show more than one-third (37.7 percent) expect the unemployment rate to be higher one year from now.

The U.S. economy added 142,000 new jobs in August, fewer than expected, and the unemployment rate dipped to 4.2 percent.

Also in August, the widely watched University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index fell short of market expectations.

The first debate between Trump and Harris, hosted by ABC News, is set for 9 p.m. EST on Sept. 10.