2024-08-16 20:30:34
Kamala Harris called for millions of new homes to be built, help for first-time buyers, tax cuts for families and a ban on grocery “price gouging” in her first speech focused on economic policy.
The Democratic presidential candidate’s plan builds on ideas from the Biden administration and aims to address voter concerns after a surge in prices since 2021.
Many of the proposals would require action by Congress, where similar ideas have stalled in the past.
Donald Trump said the vice president had delivered on her promises in more than three years in government, while his campaign called her administration “dangerous liberal”.
He asked, “Where has she been? Why hasn’t she done this yet?”
Harris fired back during a speech in North Carolina on Friday: “I think if you want to know who someone cares about, look at who they fight for.
“Donald Trump fights for billionaires and big corporations. I will fight to give money back to working and middle class Americans.”
The campaign’s proposals include an “unprecedented” homebuilder tax credit for first-time buyers and up to $25,000 in down payment assistance for “qualified” first-time buyers, which her campaign estimates could benefit four million households over four years.
She also called for capping the monthly price of the diabetes drug insulin at $35 per person, finding a way to cancel medical debt and giving families a $6,000 tax credit the year they have a new baby.
She supports a federal law that would prohibit companies from charging excessive prices for groceries and has urged Congress to pass a bill that would ban landlords from using services that “coordinate” rents.
Democrats and their allies hope Harris can be more forceful and trustworthy than President Joe Biden in addressing economic issues.
Robert Weissman, co-chairman of the consumer watchdog Public Interest Research Institute, described Ms Harris’s plan as a “pro-consumer, anti-corporate abuse agenda”.
“this [Biden] The government did talk about it, but they didn’t pursue the proposed measures as aggressively as Harris did,” he said.
But Micah Roberts, a pollster and partner at Public Opinion Strategies, said inflation is likely to remain a challenge for Democrats, noting that voters have long trusted Trump and the Republican Party more on economic issues.
“Trump has been ahead on these issues for over a year,” said Roberts, the Republican member of a bipartisan group that recently conducted a survey on the economy for CNBC that found Trump still far ahead of Harris on the topic.
He said that without major changes, “it’s hard for me to believe” that profit margins would suddenly narrow.
While analysts say some of Harris’ proposals, such as a ban on price gouging, are likely to be popular, they have also drawn criticism from some economists.
Many states have statutes prohibiting price gouging and they are enforced during emergencies such as hurricanes.
But economists say the term is difficult to define and that expanding such rules could ultimately backfire by discouraging companies from increasing production when supplies are short.
Michael Salinger, a professor of markets, public policy and law at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, said he discussed a similar ban when he was chief economist at the Federal Trade Commission during the George W. Bush administration.
“I thought it was a bad idea then, and I think it’s a bad idea now,” he said. “Imposing controls on a competitive market leads to shortages — that’s what we’ve always experienced.”
He said other plans by the Harris campaign would also face questions given the cost.
For example, Congress temporarily increased the child tax credit to $3,600 during the pandemic and chose not to extend it, a proposal that would have cost more than $1 trillion, according to Some estimates.
That cost didn’t stop Trump’s pick for vice presidential nominee, J.D. Vance, from supporting a larger tax credit expansion, as populism dominates in both parties.
Professor Salinger said Trump’s other economic plans were unlikely to address inflation.
Economists predict the impact of increased drilling will be limited given the global nature of energy markets and warn that Trump’s pledge to impose tariffs of 10% or more on imports will push up prices.
For now, price increases have been slowing as the shock from pandemic supply chain problems and the war in Ukraine fades.
The U.S. Labor Department said this week that inflation, which tracks the pace of price increases, was 2.9% in July, the smallest annual gain since March 2021.
Although prices have risen by about 20% since January 2021, this is close to the normal 2% pace.
“The objection people have is that even if inflation goes down, prices are still higher, which is true, but prices are going up because of the natural process of market forces,” Professor Salinger said.
“Trying to block market forces is like trying to stop the tide from rising and falling,” he added. “You just can’t do it.”
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