RALEIGH — Vice president Kamala Harris stopped in North Carolina’s capital Friday to energize a crowd about her economic plan, should she win her campaign run to become the 48th President of the United States.
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Her goal is to expand tax credits that help the middle class, prop up more homes to tackle the affordable housing crisis and incentivize builders, provide funding for first-time homebuyers, strengthen policies to bring down food costs, and slash prescription drug prices for more people.
“As president I will be laser-focused on creating opportunities for the middle class that advance their economic security, stability and dignity,” Harris said at Wake Tech Community College’s north campus.
Harris vowed to create an “opportunity economy,” something she coined as wealth-building for everyone, to include access to tools and resources offered to advance business and prosperity. She also said she would address “unnecessary” regulatory red tape for small businesses and boost innovation and technology.
One component of her plan tackles lowering the cost of living. Harris homed in on the food industry, noting the price of bread and ground beef has escalated by 50% since the Covid-19 pandemic’s 2020 onset. Inversely, she added big food companies are seeing their highest profits in two decades.
“And while many grocery chains pass along these savings, others still aren’t,” Harris said. “Look, I know most businesses are creating jobs, contributing to our economy and playing by the rules, but some are not, and that’s just not right, and we need to take action when that is the case.”
Though recently economists from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco did not find evidence of price-gouging as a main cause of rising inflation, Harris said she would pass a federal price-gouging ban. Price-gouging laws already exist and little information was provided on how this one would work, but Harris indicated it could include “new penalties,” particularly targeting rule-breakers.
Harris also pledged to support smaller food businesses playing by the rules in an attempt to get ahead, adding competition is the “life blood” of America: “More competition means lower prices for you and your families.”
Housing was also broached during her 20-minute minute speech. Harris aims to bring online 3 million more affordable houses — new and rentals — by the end of her first presidential term to address the nationwide crisis.
Her administration would put forth a tax incentive for home builders to construct starter homes for first-time buyers. As well, there would be expanded tax incentives for businesses that build affordable rentals. A $40 billion “innovation fund” will be created to help prop up local housing markets with new methods of construction financing.
Like Trump has suggested in recent weeks and before him, President Joe Biden, she also floated federal land to to help bring in more affordable units.
More so, she said her team will ensure the homes are for the working class and not investors.
“Some corporate landlords collude with each other to set artificially high rental prices, often using algorithms in price fixing software to do it,” she said. “It’s anti-competitive and it drives up costs. I will fight for a law that cracks down on these practices.”
She also committed to help first-time homebuyers who qualify with $25,000 to go toward their down payment for a new home. The money would be applicable for people who have paid their rent on time and could affect roughly 4 million new buyers in four years, according to Harris. She also has proposed a $10,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers.
Harris also addressed restoring two tax cuts that benefit the middle class: the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit. Temporary during Covid-19 and paid for by American Rescue Plans, Harris calls for their permanency.
Shea wants to see the child income credit increase from $2,000 to $3,600. Harris also wants to add a new credit to provide qualifying families $6,000 in relief the first year they have a new child.
The EITC enhanced benefit also expired from ARPA funds and Harris wants it restored. Workers without child dependents were allowed a maximum credit of $1,500 in 2021.
“The middle class is one of America’s greatest strengths, and to protect it, we must defend basic principles — such as your salary should be enough to provide you and your family with a good quality of life, such as no child should have to grow up in poverty, such as after years of hard work, you should be able to retire with dignity, and you should be able to join a union if you choose,” Harris said.
She compared her goals to her opponent’s, saying economists have listed out Trump’s planned tax increases to cost Americans roughly “$3,900” more annually.
“He wants to impose a national sales tax on everyday products and basic necessities that we import from other countries that will devastate Americans,” she said. “This will mean higher prices on just about every one of your daily needs — a Trump tax on gas, a Trump tax on food, a Trump tax on clothing, a Trump tax on over-the-counter, medication.”
Trump has proposed a worldwide 10% tariff and 60% tariff on Chinese goods, which would raise household taxes on all income levels, according to Tax Policy Center.
The Republican candidate spoke in Asheville for more than an hour Wednesday to address his own economic outlook. He pledged to end regulations that kill jobs and roll back fossil fuel production and investments in green energy, while also boosting oil production, and ending taxes on both Social Security and gratuity income.
He said he wanted his cabinet to “use every tool and authority at their disposal to defeat inflation and to bring consumer prices rapidly down.”
However, Trump spent a lot of his time lambasting Harris, by saying her “liberal extremism” is part of the reason voters are paying more for everyday items today. Trump also indicated the Biden administration is no longer esteemed worldwide: “We were respected by everybody in the world. Today we’re being laughed at.”
Harris told the Raleigh crowd Friday that Trump’s concerns are only to line the pockets of billionaires and cut corporate taxes.
“And that’s on top of the $2 trillion tax cut he already signed into law when he was president, which, by the way, overwhelmingly went to the wealthiest Americans and corporations and exploded the national deficit,” Harris said. “If you want to know who someone cares about, look who they fight for. Donald Trump fights for billionaires and large corporations. I will fight to give money back to working and middle-class Americans.”
Harris pointed to her record as California attorney general holding businesses accountable for excessively increasing prices, saying she won consumers $1 billion while acting attorney general in California.
“Believe me, as president I will go after the bad actors,” she said.
Harris also touted the Biden administration’s successes on healthcare, particularly a program she fostered to disallow agencies to use unpaid medical debt against a consumer’s credit score. Harris took a moment to thank Gov. Roy Cooper for his recent program taking shape to erase medical debt for many low-income patients.
Reducing prescription costs was among other line items discussed. Harris boasted about bringing down insulin prices for seniors to $35, adding the administration announced Thursday it’s lowering the price of 10 more life-saving drugs by up to 80%. Her goal as president, she said, is to extend these savings to everyone, not just seniors, and continue forth with the Affordable Care Act, insuring millions of people who can’t be denied for pre-existing conditions.
“We all remember what that was and we’re not going back,” she said, adding her opponent’s desire is to cut ACA.
“He tried to cut Medicare every year he was president, threatening a program that tens of millions of seniors count on,” Harris said.
Her economic plan would have to be agreed upon by Congress and the wishlist could run $1.8 to $2 trillion, according to early estimates from watchdog group Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
The Hill reported Friday that Trump responded to Harris’ plan as “socialist” policies that would not help American consumers.
It’s Harris’ 16th visit to the Tar Heel state as vice president. North Carolina is one of seven swing states polled recently in a newly released Cook Political Report Swing State Survey. It shows Harris is leading Trump 48% to 47%; the former Republican president won North Carolina against Biden by 1.5% in 2020.
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