Kamala Harris Rolls Out Economic Plan with Up to $1.7 Trillion in Handouts

Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to the swing state of North Carolina on Friday to give her first policy address as Democratic presidential nominee where she vowed to create an ‘opportunity economy’ by building up the middle class.

The vice president said when the economy is strong ‘America is strong’ and rolled out a series of policy proposals she would push for in her first 100 days in office if elected president.

But she ended up bungling the announcement of her ban on price gouging instead mispronouncing it as ‘price gauging.’

During her speech, Harris touted some of the policies advanced under the Biden administration and vowed to go further while setting a sharp contrast with her political opponent Donald Trump.

The vice president claimed the proposals would provide relief for millions of families while reducing the federal deficit but did not get into specific details on how it would be paid for.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates her series of expanded tax credits, subsidies and support for homebuyers would increase the deficit by $1.7 trillion over a decade. But according to the campaign, any additional costs above the 2025 fiscal year Biden-Harris budget would be offset by increased taxes on corporations and high earners.

One of the policies unveiled on Friday was a $6,000 tax credit for newborns. Harris also wants for the return of the expanded the Child Tax Credit to the level it was under the American Rescue Plan in 2021.

‘Think what that means, that is a vital, vital year of critical development of a child,’ Harris said of the new tax credit for children in their first year.

On housing, the vice president called for three million new units over her first four years in office, one million more than were called for under President Biden.

She also wants to provide incentives for companies to build starter homes and is urging Congress to pass laws preventing large companies from buying up and jacking up the price of rentals.

Harris also called for $25,000 down payments for some first-time homebuyers, an expansion of a proposal under the Biden administration for assistance to first-generations homebuyers.

The vice president drew from her own experience talking about her family renting while she was growing up and her mother’s excitement at finally being able to buy a home when Harris was a teenager.

When it comes to prescription drug prices, the vice president called for expanding the cap on out-of-pocket costs for prescription drug pricing at $2,000 not just for seniors but everyone.

She also called for accelerating the speed of Medicare prescription drug price negotiations and for further transparency in the industry.

Earlier this week, the vice president’s campaign unveiled Harris’ plan for a federal ban on price-gouging. It’s a controversial policy that has received pushback from some economists who warned such policies would not bring food costs down.

Economist Jason Furman who served in the Obama administration told the Washington Post it could mean ‘bigger shortages, less supply and ultimately risk higher prices and worse outcomes for consumers’ if enforced in a real way.

During her remarks, Harris said food prices remain too high. She argued as president she would ‘go after the bad actors’ and claimed competition is the ‘life blood of our economy.’

But when she went to announce the price-gouging measure, the vice president ended up mispronouncing ‘gouging’ stead saying ‘gauging.’

‘My plan will include new penalties for opportunistic companies that exploit crises and break the rules, and we will support smaller food businesses that are trying to play by the rules and get ahead,’ she said.

Friday’s address was the first time the vice president outlined her own administration priorities and setting herself apart from the president since Biden’s exit from the presidential race last month.

Harris touted some of the policies enacted during the Biden administration and said the U.S. economy has come along way since the president came into office during the coronavirus pandemic with record job creation. But she acknowledged prices still remain too high.

The vice president delivered her remarks at the Hendrick Center for Automotive Excellence at Wake Tech, a community college in Raleigh, North Carolina. The vice president’s visit to the battleground state is her eighth stop there this year.

She was set to return to Raleigh for a rally last week with running mate Tim Walz, but the event was put off due to a storm making its way through the south.

Among those in attendance for Harris’ address was Deborah Collier, a black small business owner and Harris supporter who has several McDonald’s restaurants in Raleigh.

‘What’s most important to me is that they will be advocates of small business because we are the backbone of the country. We hire, and we keep the economy going using all of the different supplies and vendors that we use,’ she said.

‘Over the last two terms with [North Carolina Governor] Roy Cooper, I have seen what it’s like to have someone in office who’s willing to reach across aisle and my hope is that she will do the same thing, and we can get some things done,’ she added.

Both Cooper, a Democrat, and Democratic candidate for governor Josh Stein were in attendance for her speech as the crowd at times chanted ‘we’re not going back’ and ‘new way forward.’

Harris visit to the state comes just days after former President Donald Trump visited Asheville, North Carolina to give his own addressed billed as an economic speech.

Harris accused him of offering ‘no serious plans’ and accused him of wanting a national sales tax on everyday needs, a reference to his proposal for tariffs.

She also accused the ex-president of wanting to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Ahead of her remarks, Republicans blasted the vice president for her economic agenda on a call with reporters. They accused her of copying proposals from Trump and blasted other priorities claiming they made ‘no sense.’

Republicans have pointed to the inflation rates under the Trump administration versus the Biden administration, blaming the current administration’s policies rather than the supply chain challenges and shortages coming out of the coronavirus pandemic for elevated prices.