During a campaign rally in North Carolina on Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris promised to make “cutting costs a top priority” if elected president and unveiled new plans. food and housing costscut and expand prescription drug prices child tax credit.
Harris said the Biden administration has made progress considering the Covid economy inherited from former President Donald Trump, but it’s not enough because “many Americans have yet to feel that progress in their daily lives.”
“Costs are still very high. And on a deeper level, for too many people, it feels so hard to get ahead, no matter how hard they try,” he told the crowd. “As president, I will take on high costs that are important to most Americans, such as food costs. We all know that prices have increased during the pandemic, with supply chains shutting down and failing, but our supply chains have improved now and prices are still very high.”
Harris campaign described his suggestions before his speech. He said he would work with Congress to enact a “federal ban on food and grocery price gouging” by establishing rules to make it clear that “big corporations cannot unfairly exploit consumers” to boost their profits. He also said he would seek new powers for the Federal Trade Commission and state prosecutors to “impose tough new penalties on companies that break the rules.”
Trump’s campaign branded the vice president as “Comrade Kamala,” calling the idea a “communist” policy.
“It’s hard to overstate how disastrous an idea it is to allow city bureaucrats to dictate the price of groceries in cities, suburbs and rural communities across the country – eliminating the free market’s necessary supply and demand signals and ultimately leading to higher prices.” prices for consumers,” the campaign’s agile response team said in an unsigned statement.
Harris Raleigh noted, “Look, I know that most businesses create jobs, contribute to our economy and play by the rules, but some don’t and that’s just not right, and when that happens, we have to act. .”
He announced plans to create a tax break for homebuilders who build starter homes for first-time buyers and said he would provide a $25,000 subsidy to first-time homebuyers. As part of this, he promised to reduce “unnecessary red tape and unnecessary regulatory red tape” and said he would encourage “innovative technologies while protecting consumers”. He promised to build a “stable business environment with consistent and transparent traffic rules”.
The vice president floated a plan to expand the child tax credit and offer “a $6,000 tax credit to families in the first year of a child’s life.” He said he would seek to extend Medicare’s $35 monthly out-of-pocket insulin cap to everyone and that the administration would expand the Medicare drug price negotiation program.
Both of these policies have faced opposition from Republicans in Congress. In the Senate, Republicans killed a sentence limit insulin costs On the private market in 2022 and earlier this month they a younger child blocked the tax credit bill More so than Harris suggests.
Harris also took aim at Trump’s proposal to implement it general tariffs on imported products.
“He wants to impose a de facto national sales tax on everyday products and basic necessities that we import from other countries that will destroy Americans,” he said. “This will mean higher prices on almost every one of your daily necessities. Trump tax on gas. Trump tax on food. Trump tax on clothing. Trump’s tax on over-the-counter drugs.” (Trump has staunchly defended his tariffs to confront foreign countries.)
He also attacked the GOP nominee trying to cancel the Affordable Care Act“We’re not going back!” – the main part of his rally speeches, which he adopted as a new campaign theme against the returning former president.
And he shut Trump down the right-wing Project 2025 plan while criticizing plans to expand Trump tax cuts for higher earners.
“He plans to give massive tax cuts to billionaires year after year and cut corporate taxes by more than a trillion dollars while they enjoy record profits,” Harris said.
Meanwhile, Harris accepted President Joe Biden’s pledge not to raise taxes on Americans making less than $400,000, signaling that Trump would extend at least some of the tax cuts for lower earners. When it expires at the end of 2025.
Harris added that “in the coming weeks, I will talk more about my plans to build an opportunity economy.”
He said the choice in the 2024 election was between “two very different visions for our nation”.
“Ours is focused on the future, and the other is focused on the past,” he said.