WASHINGTON (AP) — Derided by Donald Trump as a “communist,” Kamala Harris is banking on her reputation as a capitalist.
Harris attacks him as a prosperous kid who received $400 million on a “silver platter” from his father, but Trump resorts to his blatant populism.
The two presidential candidates will face off in two speeches Wednesday that will showcase how they are honing their economic messaging for voters in swing states, both seeking to counter criticism of them while making their best arguments to a public still concerned about the health of the economy.
Vice President Harris will speak at the Economic Club of Pittsburgh, where she plans to emphasize a “pragmatic” philosophy while outlining fresh policies to boost domestic manufacturing, according to a senior campaign official who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the upcoming speech. The Democratic nominee’s remarks come after she told a distinguished audience of donors in New York City on Sunday that she would cut any “red tape” that slows growth.
Former President Trump is scheduled to give a speech in Mint Hill, North Carolina, about how he will protect workers. The Republican candidate made his name as a businessman, but has recently expressed a willingness to crack down on corporations, proposing to cap interest rates on credit cards and impose a whopping 200 percent tariff on tractor maker John Deere if it moves jobs to Mexico.
Both candidates are emphasizing the economy at a time when polls show it is one of the most significant issues for voters as they consider who to support. A recent AP-NORC poll found that neither candidate has a decisive lead with the population on the issue.
Both want to portray themselves as tax-cutting politicians and accuse each other of supporting massive tax increases on the middle class. This is a significant shift in messaging as inflation concerns have eased somewhat following the Federal Reserve’s rate cut last week.
Billionaire Mark Cuban said business leaders like him support Harris because she takes thoughtful positions that are understandable to companies even if they have a different view.
“I want a president who will delve into the details and have a policy team that understands all the implications of the proposals,” Cuban said Tuesday in a conference call with reporters arranged by Harris’ campaign team.
Trump initially stressed the importance of increasing oil production, cutting the corporate tax rate and maintaining tax breaks for the wealthy to spur economic growth. But in recent days he has floated a number of other ideas. In addition to not raising taxes on tips, Social Security or overtime pay, he wants to cap the interest rate on credit cards at 10% and create low-tax zones on federal lands to attract employers. Trump also wants to eliminate the cap on deductions for state and local taxes that he added to the tax code in 2017 during his presidency.
“Americans will no longer worry about losing their jobs to foreign countries, but foreign countries will worry about losing their jobs to America,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
Both candidates see an opportunity to denigrate each other’s tax ideas. Trump recently called Harris the “tax queen.” She wants to raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% and tax the unrealized capital gains of people with assets over $100 million. She would operate the revenue from this and other measures to maintain tax cuts for the middle class that expire after 2025 and offer fresh tax breaks to parents and business owners. Many of her measures are based on ideas originally proposed by President Joe Biden.
Trump claims their tax increases will ultimately trickle down to the middle class.
“She’s after your money,” he told an audience on Monday. “She’s after your pensions and she’s after your savings.”
Harris has shown that two can play that game. She called his call for tariffs a “national sales tax” because it could raise the cost of coffee, clothing, electronics, cars and almost anything that is imported or depends on imported parts. Her campaign team likes to cite an analysis by Brendan Duke of the Center for American Progress, who estimates that a 20% across-the-board tariff would cost a typical family nearly $4,000 a year. For middle-income taxpayers, that amount would effectively raise their total federal taxes by 50%, according to calculations based on Treasury Department data.
Speaking in Georgia on Tuesday, Trump praised the word “tariffs,” calling it “one of the most beautiful words I’ve ever heard.” He said the tariffs would raise hundreds of billions in tax revenue and would not cause inflation.
Most economic analyses assume that comprehensive tariffs would exacerbate inflation. Investment bank Goldman Sachs said that the tariffs, accompanied by a crackdown on immigrants in the US, would hurt growth.
Harris’ efforts to empower the middle class were her top priority. She frequently spoke about her own middle-class background, suggesting that her ideas were the result of personal evolution.
But at an event in New York City on Sunday, she also addressed companies that want less drama in their dealings with the government.
“We will create a stable business environment with consistent and transparent rules of the road,” Harris said. “We will invest in semiconductors, clean energy and other industries of the future. And we will cut unnecessary red tape and bureaucracy. All of this will create jobs, drive broad-based economic growth and cement America’s leadership in the world.”
