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Kamala Harris on Friday unveiled parts of her economic plan, which includes new tax relief for families and homebuyers and curbs on inflation, as she tries to convince voters she can tackle the cost-of-living crisis that has plagued the Biden administration.
The Democratic presidential candidate laid out the plans in a speech in a battleground state in North Carolina, where his Republican rival Donald Trump delivered his own speech on economic policy earlier this week.
With 80 days until the November presidential election, Trump and Harris are battling for votes. The Republican candidate has railed against inflation while promising to cut fuel and housing costs and set his own protectionist economic agenda.
Harris said if elected president, he would “focus laser on creating opportunities for the middle class to advance their economic security, stability and dignity.” The vice president said he would lay out more economic plans in the coming weeks, but on Friday focused on his plans to reduce the cost of living.
“Look, the bills add up. Food, rent, gas, going back to school, clothes, prescriptions, after all that, many families don’t have much left at the end of the month,” he said.
Among Harris’ most prominent proposals are a $6,000 tax credit for families with newborns, a credit expansion of $3,600 a year for families with older children, and up to $25,000 in downpayment support for first-time homebuyers.
Harris, who replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee last month, has been ahead of Trump in some polls, but is under pressure to come up with his own comprehensive economic plan. Biden has struggled to convince Americans he has a plan to end decades of high inflation by 2022, but has since faltered.
Haris’ plan to make housing more affordable includes a target of building 3 million homes over four years.
The vice president will try to ban so-called price gouging on food and groceries, designed to prevent corporations from making “unfair” profits, and will propose giving the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general the power to impose fines. Don’t conform.
Harris and Trump have been at odds in recent days over who would be best to shepherd the U.S. economy. Trump, a former real estate executive, held a press conference at his New Jersey country club on Thursday, accusing Harris of being a “radical California liberal who broke the economy, broke the border, broke the world.” . On Friday, the Trump campaign said “Comrade Kamala” had gone “full-on communist” by proposing to fix prices on consumer goods.
Harris on Friday sought to draw a contrast between Trump’s proposals, including a pledge to extend 2017 tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, and his own.
“Donald Trump is fighting for billionaires and big corporations,” he said. “I will fight to give money back to working and middle-class Americans.”
Trump has long enjoyed an advantage in the eyes of voters when it comes to economic issues. But the most recent FT-Michigan Ross poll found voters slightly more likely to say they trust Harris than Trump to handle the economy, with 42 percent trusting Harris and 41 percent backing Trump.
The University of Michigan’s index of consumer sentiment, released Friday, improved 6 percent among Democrats and 3 percent among independents after Harris Biden became president. Sentiment among Republicans fell 5 percent over the same period.
Additional reporting by Peter Wells and Eva Xiao in New York
