WASHINGTON – Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to announce economic policy proposals to support small businesses during a campaign speech in New Hampshire on Wednesday.
The Democratic presidential candidate will campaign in Portsmouth for an expansion of the tax deduction to $50,000 for startup costs, up from the current $5,000, a campaign official said in a background report on Tuesday. Harris will also propose a standard deduction for businesses to simplify tax filing for entrepreneurs.
Congress writes the country’s tax laws, so any changes depend on which party gains control the House and Senate in November. Many provisions enacted as part of the Trump-era 2017 tax law expire at the end of 2025, leaving the next Congress with the daunting task of overhauling the tax law.
The announcement is part of Harris’s push for what she calls an “opportunity economy” that would include an expanded child tax credit – up to $6,000 – for new parents, a $25,000 down payment for first-time home buyers and tools to combat “price gouging” by large business, which Harris blames for high food prices. told CNN’s Dana Bash on Thursday.
Message from the middle class
Harris, whose running mate is Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, has focused on middle-class support in recent weeks.
The former California attorney general and U.S. senator is also expected to unveil a series of other proposals on Wednesday to encourage more small business creation, with her goal of generating 25 million new applications under her administration if elected.
Proposals include making licensing easier to allow companies to expand across state lines and providing incentives for state and local governments to “cut red tape” and reduce regulations. Harris will also push to award more federal contracts to small businesses and create a fund that would allow local banks to cover interest costs for companies expanding into underinvested regions.
Harris’s stay in New Hampshire is one of at least three presidential campaign events this week. On Thursday, she will return to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she and President Joe Biden sat down in support of unions during Labor Day on Monday.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will attend a town hall meeting in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Wednesday and a campaign rally in Mosinee, Wisconsin, on Saturday.
Trump attacked Biden and Harris on Monday on his online platform Truth Social, blaming the government for the high prices.
Trump wrote in his typical mix of upper and lower case letters that under Harris, whom he calls “comrade,” “all Americans are suffering this holiday weekend – high gas prices, increased transportation costs, and skyrocketing food prices. We cannot continue to live under this weak and failed ‘leadership.'”
US presidents do not set transportation or food prices.
