Tax cuts, housing incentives, more price controls

Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday delivered an economic policy speech aimed at appealing to middle-class voters by focusing on lowering the costs of food, housing, health care and child care.

In a speech in Raleigh, North Carolina, the Democratic presidential candidate laid out a vision for what she called an “opportunity economy,” one that rests at its core on basic financial security.

Her plan includes a federal ban on food price hikes, a new $6,000 child tax credit for families with newborns, and a $25,000 down payment boost for first-time homebuyers, among a host of other proposals.

Harris has framed this proposal in stark contrast to those put forward by her rival, former President Donald Trump.

She criticized the Republican candidate's support for imposing comprehensive tariffs on imported goods, describing it as a “Trump tax,” while accusing him of seeking to cut taxes for billionaires and corporations.

“I think if you want to know who someone cares about, look at who they're fighting for,” Harris said.

Although her plans still lack precise details, they have already come under heavy criticism from Republicans and economic analysts who warn that they are moving toward government price fixing.

“The government setting prices is a really big mistake,” Kevin Hassett, a senior White House economic adviser under Trump, said during a press call earlier Friday.

Meanwhile, the nonprofit Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that policies in Harris's economic plan would raise the deficit by $1.7 trillion over the next decade.

Friday's speech was Harris' first political address since taking office to succeed President Joe Biden after he dropped out of the race last month.

With less than 90 days until Election Day, Harris is working to take credit for the Biden administration’s economic achievements, while trying to flip the script on a key issue where her predecessor received consistently low marks.

This is also what her economic plan includes, according to her election campaign.

In an effort to address persistently high food prices, Harris will work with Congress to push through the first-ever federal ban on “corporate price gouging of food and grocery items.”

This includes setting “clear rules of the road” so that companies cannot “unfairly exploit consumers to make excessive corporate profits” from essential goods, according to the fact sheet.

To investigate and punish alleged violations, Harris wants to give the FTC and state attorneys general broad powers.

The Harris administration will also take a tough regulatory approach to proposed mergers and consolidations among the largest food producers.

Harris' plan would help financially distressed renters by preventing data companies from raising rents and preventing Wall Street investors from buying homes in bulk to resell them at a higher price.

Harris will also call on the United States to build three million new housing units over the next four years. To facilitate this, she will call for new tax incentives for builders who build “first homes.”

Any changes to the tax code require congressional approval, and depend largely on which party controls the House and Senate.

As the supply of first-home housing expands, Harris’ plan would “provide working families who have paid their rent on time for two years and are purchasing their first home up to $25,000 in down payment assistance, with more generous support for first-generation homeowners,” according to the fact sheet.

Harris will seek to expand the Biden administration's historic $35 price cap on insulin for Medicare beneficiaries to cover insulin for all Americans, not just seniors.

Like her plans to cut costs in the food industry, Harris's health care policy relies in part on tougher regulations and stricter enforcement of antitrust laws.

The plan calls for “tough action against drug companies that stifle competition and abusive practices by middlemen in the drug industry,” according to Harris’ campaign.

Restoring the expanded child tax credits first introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic is a long-standing goal of the Biden administration, and one that Harris would embrace if elected president.

It would also go further, proposing an expanded tax break of up to $6,000 for families with a newborn child.

The Harris campaign describes this year as “a year when many families’ expenses are at an all-time high—including cribs, diapers, car seats, and more.” The campaign also notes that many parents who don’t have access to paid leave are forced to choose between spending time with their children or working enough hours to make ends meet.

Just three weeks into the campaign, Harris has erased Trump's poll advantage over Biden.

But the vice president largely avoided addressing policy specifics, choosing instead to draw comparisons with Trump.

In her speech to the Tar Heel State House, Harris began to lay out a vision for the economy that builds on the Biden administration’s economic record — and in some ways departs from it.

On Thursday, Harris and Biden appeared together in Maryland to promote an agreement with drug companies to lower the cost of the 10 most expensive prescription drugs under Medicare.

The historic negotiations — enabled by Biden’s pivotal spending legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act — will deliver about $6 billion in net savings for Medicare when it officially takes effect in 2026, according to the government.

The vice president's speech came just two days after Trump delivered his own speech focusing on the economy in North Carolina.

In a speech in Asheville, Trump launched personal attacks on Harris and blamed her for the rising consumer prices that Biden has spent much of his presidency working to reverse.

Recent polls suggest that the state that Trump won in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections is now within reach for Harris in 2024.

A new round of swing state polls released Wednesday by the Cook Political Report showed Harris leading Trump in North Carolina by one percentage point, 48-47, which is still within the poll's margin of error.