Kamala Harris is laying out her economic agenda should she win the election come November with a wide-ranging set of priorities spanning from affordable housing to family planning and tackling prescription drug costs.
The Democratic presidential nominee is calling for $6,000 for newborns and expanded Child Tax Credits, $25,000 down payments for some first-time homebuyers, relief from medical debt and other measures for her first 100 days in office.
It is the first time the vice president is outlining her own priorities and setting herself apart from the Biden administration since President Biden’s exit from the presidential race last month.
The Democratic presidential nominee will lay out the proposals with her first policy address focused on the economy and lowering costs for American families during a visit to the battleground state of North Carolina on Friday.
Kamala Harris will give her first policy address which will focus on the economy during a visit to Raleigh, NC on Friday. Ahead of the speech, the Harris campaign unveiled a set of economic proposals the vice president would focus on in her first 100 days in office if elected
While some of the proposals remain light on details and would face an uphill battle in Congress, here’s what is included in the Harris economic wishlist so far:
Tax credits for children
The vice president is calling for a new $6,000 Child Tax Credit for families with a new baby on top of expanding the current Child Tax Credit.
The tax credits for newborns would be aimed at helping middle and low-income families in their baby’s first year of life with the costs of everything from cribs to parents taking off time from work to care for the baby.
Harris is also calling for the return of the expanded Child Tax Credit that was passed in the American Rescue Plan in 2021 but expired the following year. It provided up to $3,600 per child for eligible families depending on their income and children’s ages.
Harris is calling for a $6,000 tax credit per child for newborns and expanding the current Child Tax Credit to levels under the American Rescue Plan for eligible families
The vice president also wants to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, a longtime priority for Democrats, for workers with low-income jobs by up to $1,500.
President Biden before he dropped out of the presidential race vowed to not raise taxes on households earning less than $400,000 a year. It’s a pledge the vice president also wants to keep as the nominee but would mean reaching a deal with Republicans in Congress to address some of the Trump tax law provisions set to expire at the end of next year.
Housing affordability and home credits
As Americans struggle with rising housing costs and being unable to afford their first homes, Harris is calling for up to $25,000 in downpayment assistance to some first-time homebuyers.
It comes after the Biden administration first called for $25,000 in downpayment assistance for 400,000 first-generation home buyers and a $10,000 tax credit for first-time buyers.
The Harris plan would expand the assistance to all eligible first-time homebuyers. Such buyers include families who have paid their rent on time for two years with more support for first-generation homeowners. According to her campaign, it would allow more than four million first-time buyers in four years to get an average of $25,000 in assistance for their first home.
Kamala Harris wants to provide up to $25,000 in downpayment assistance for first time homebuyers and is calling for the construction of three million new housing units over four years
The vice president is also calling for the construction of three million new housing units in her first four years in office if elected to address the housing shortage and affordability crisis. It is an increase on the two million new homes called for under the Biden administration.
She also wants a first-ever tax incentive for homebuilders to build starter homes sold to first-time buyers, to expand incentives already in place for companies that build rental housing and the creation of a $40 billion innovation fund to help local governments find local housing solutions.
The vice president would also pressure Congress to pass laws to crack down on large companies jacking up rental costs and some Wall Street investors from buying up homes in bulk, according to the campaign.
Capping prescription drug costs
Harris is calling for a cap on insulin and out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs at $2,000 for everyone. It would be an expansion of the actions taken under the Biden administration to cap such costs for seniors starting next year.
The vice president also wants to speed up Medicare negotiations over prescription drug costs building on the actions already taken in the Biden administration. She is calling for more transparency in the health care industry and is vowing to work with states to cancel medical debt if elected.
Tackling soaring food costs
Harris wants the first ever federal ban on corporate price-gouging, which her campaign argues would help address the rising cost of groceries as inflation has persisted throughout much of the past four years.
While it is not exactly clear how the proposal would be enforced, the campaign said the plan would ‘set clear rules’ so corporations ‘can’t unfairly exploit consumers’ and give the Federal Trade Commission and state Attorneys General the ability to investigate the food industry and impose ‘harsh penalties’ on corporations that break the rules.
The Democratic presidential nominee is calling for the first ever federal ban on price gouging to address high food prices, but economists warn it won’t bring food costs back down to pre-pandemic levels
The proposals would also crack down on big food corporation mergers that would allow companies to hike food prices and undermine competition, the campaign said.
Such a move has been pushed by some progressive groups who accuse big companies of taking advantage of the pandemic and supply chain challenges to jack up prices, but other economists have been hesitant to blame the price increases on corporate greed and argue a price-gouging ban would not bring down food costs.
