RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris is touting a broad range of economic policy proposals that would include new tax cuts and cost-of-living cuts for Americans to address voters’ financial concerns that Republican President Donald Trump is trying to pin on her.
Harris traveled to the swing state of North Carolina on Friday to outline her plans, which include a proposal for a nationwide ban on price gouging on food. She also proposes a $25,000 down payment for certain first-time home buyers and tax breaks for home construction, among other things.
Harris is calling for tax relief for families and middle- and low-income earners. She would escalate the child tax credit to up to $3,600 – and to $6,000 for children in their first year. Harris would expand the earned income tax credit to lower-income earners without children, which the campaign estimates would lower their effective tax rate by $1,500. Harris also wants to reduce health insurance premiums through the Affordable Care Act.
Overall, the plan represents a continuation of many of the Biden administration’s priorities, but with a significant shift in focus from job creation and infrastructure to issues more closely tied to lowering the cost of living – food prices, housing and tax relief for families. Many initiatives would require congressional approval, which is far from certain in the current political environment, and there were few details on how the ideas would be funded.
Some of Trump’s economic advisers opposed the proposal. Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the former president’s campaign, called the vice president’s plans “the most socialist and authoritarian model.” Kevin Hassett, former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors during the Trump administration, called it “completely absurd” that the government would play a role in setting food prices, referring to Harris’ proposal to ban “corporate profiteering” in the food and grocery trade at the federal level.
Stephen Moore, who has advised Trump on economic issues, argued that inflation has risen “catastrophically” under the Biden administration and accused the Biden administration and Harris of “trying to blame Trump for many of the problems they created.”
But the vice president is actually trying to downplay Trump’s attacks that she is a “radical California liberal who ruined the economy,” as he said in a speech on Thursday at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he displayed popular grocery stores symbolizing high food prices.
Year-over-year inflation has hit its lowest level in more than three years, but food prices are still 21 percent higher than they were three years ago. A Labor Department report this week showed that nearly all of July’s inflation came from higher rents and other housing costs, a trend that is moderating, according to real-time data. As a result, housing costs should rise more slowly in the coming months, contributing to lower inflation.
Harris’ grocery pricing proposal would direct the Federal Trade Commission to penalize “large companies” that escalate prices and cite a lack of competition in the meatpacking industry as a reason for the rise in meat prices.
Polls show that Americans trust Trump more than Harris on economic issues: About 45 percent say Trump is better positioned to handle the economy, while 38 percent say the same about Harris. According to the latest poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, about one in ten don’t trust either Harris or Trump to manage the economy better.
Harris has capitalized on renewed enthusiasm since the Democratic campaign restarted, and has launched a blitz on battleground states in recent weeks that has increased the number of elections strategists see as closely contested. In North Carolina, Democrats are cautiously navigating the new energy in an economically energetic state that has not been won by a Democratic presidential candidate since Barack Obama in 2008.
North Carolina has been a popular destination for Biden and Harris’ visits this year. After Biden’s disastrous performance at the debate against Trump in June, Raleigh was the first city where he held a rally to re-mobilize Democratic voters. Harris also made two stops in North Carolina – in Greensboro and Fayetteville – in the weeks before Biden’s decision to drop out of the race.
Governor Roy Cooper told the crowd Friday: “I have that 2008 feeling.”
“We in North Carolina know what this means because that was the last time we voted for a Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama,” Cooper said. “It’s time for North Carolina to make history again.”
Steven Greene, a political science professor at North Carolina State University, said the state had “started from a situation where Joe Biden was almost certain to lose here, while Kamala Harris has a very real chance of winning.”
Deborah Holder, a 68-year-old Raleigh resident who runs six McDonald’s stores, said of the vice president, “Her culture will be a tremendous strength for her because she will be able to look at the rest of us not just as her constituents, but as people she has interacted with in all walks of life.”
Holder said that as a business owner, she would be content to hear from the vice president how she plans to support miniature businesses across the country.
“We are the backbone of this country, we are the ones who hire people,” she said.
Dan Kanninen, head of swing states for the Harris campaign, said North Carolina “has the same chance as any other state to be the tipping point, which is why we have invested heavily in this state from the beginning.”
Harris is trying to strike a balance between defining her own image and her economic agenda, without ignoring the Biden administration’s track record.
Biden was asked Thursday whether he thought Harris would distance herself from his economic record. “She won’t,” he said.
In their first joint speech since Biden’s exit, he and Harris presented successful negotiations in Maryland on Thursday to lower the prices of 10 prescription drugs for Medicare recipients. The move was made possible by a provision of the Inflation Reduction Act, a sweeping bill that largely focuses on climate and health policy.
During the event, Harris praised Biden and said “few politicians in our country have done more” to make health care affordable. The president criticized substantial pharmaceutical companies, arguing that Trump is “fighting to get rid of what we just passed.”
Biden repeated some of the measures proposed by Harris and touted his economic legacy.
“I have no problem with corporations making money, but I have no problem with price gouging,” Biden said. “I thank God that in the last three months of my term as President of the United States, I have finally been able to accomplish what I tried to do as a young Senator.”
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Associated Press writer Meg Kinnard contributed to this report from Chapin, South Carolina.
