The News
Kamala Harris will signal Thursday night whether her campaign will run hard away from Joe Biden’s unpopular economic leadership — or try to take credit for a record that’s resulted in robust growth despite signs of flagging voter confidence.
Major polls since her campaign rocketed to life last month tell a conflicting story, with the Washington Post-ABC survey finding Donald Trump with an advantage on the economy but the Financial Times indicating she had closed the gap.
Several ex-Biden aides told Semafor that Harris’ early series of plans suggest she’s trying to show that she’s different from Biden — without departing meaningfully from his core agenda. A Harris presidency might build on Biden’s platform while retooling it in relatively narrow areas, like the child tax credit and affordable housing.
“It’s not a time to do super-surprising new things when you’ve been part of an administration that’s been quite successful on the economy,” said Kimberly Clausing, who served as a senior Treasury Department official during the Biden administration. “We’re really in a kind of Goldilocks place right now, neither too hot nor too cold.”
Still, the high degree of initial overlap between Harris’ economic plans and Biden’s offers Trump a chance to try to tie her to the sitting president’s relative unpopularity, if he can stay on message. And while her bid to beef up the child tax credit and housing assistance bolsters Harris’ goal of emphasizing financial security for families, her biggest attempted split from Biden — on high grocery prices — has stumbled hardest out of the gate.
The Democratic platform includes a range of signature economic priorities approved by party representatives before Biden stepped aside last month and presented as a “vision” for the party going forward. Semafor asked the Harris campaign to reaffirm elements of the DNC platform as part of its own agenda and didn’t receive a response on the record.
Based on what Harris and her campaign have endorsed, here’s a guide to what she is getting behind and what she’s still only entertaining.
What she's backed
A $6,000 child tax credit for newborns:
Harris has endorsed a sizable child tax credit expansion for children in their first year, along with restoring the Biden-era child tax credit that provided monthly cash payments to parents of up to $300 a month. The Harris credit would cost $117 billion annually and reduce the child poverty rate by 31%, according to calculations by Max Ghenis of the Policy Engine. During its brief lifespan until Senate Republicans and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin blocked an extension, the Biden child tax credit dented the child poverty rate and brought the US in line with Germany.
$25,000 in downpayment assistance for first-time homebuyers:
Harris wants federal assistance for homebuyers that would more than double the $10,000 sum sought by Biden. The move is aimed to provide financial help, though some economists have raised concern that it will juice demand too much at a moment when housing supply is scarce. “In many places, it is too difficult to build, and it’s driving prices up,” Harris said during an economic speech on Friday.
Tackling rising rents:
Harris has endorsed a pair of bills aimed at keeping rent prices down. One measure pushed by Democratic Sens. Sherrod Brown and Ron Wyden, among others, would bar an investor who bought at least 50 single family-rental units from receiving tax benefits.
The other piece of legislation would prohibit rental property owners from contracting a company that participates in rental price coordination. The Biden administration is on the verge of a crackdown on the practice: The Department of Justice is preparing a lawsuit against a software company alleging it has colluded to help landlords fix rent prices.
Before he relinquished his position atop the Democratic ticket, Biden supported a 5% cap on rent hikes nationwide.
Biden’s $5 trillion tax agenda:
The Harris campaign has endorsed the full scope of Biden’s tax increases, including the “billionaire tax” on the income of the super-rich who claim more than $100 million in assets; taxing capital gains at the same rate as wage income; and eliminating stepped-up basis which currently enables tycoons like Elon Musk to transfer vast fortunes to their heirs without paying tax on the accumulated value — as long as the assets aren’t sold.
Anti-price gouging plans for groceries:
Harris is seeking to crack down on “price gouging” in the food and grocery sector, proposing to empower the Federal Trade Commission to penalize large companies for “excessive” price hikes — without specifying the circumstances that would trigger that regulatory power. Her idea has drawn skepticism and some outright criticism from economists who argue new federal restrictions on price increases will lead to a shortage of goods. The proposal has also triggered a barrage of GOP attacks.
Ending taxes on tips:
Harris has thrown her support behind a proposal to get rid of taxes on tips. It’s an idea that Trump first put forward in an apparent effort to win over service and hospitality workers in the swing state of Nevada. The Trump campaign hasn’t said how his version would be structured, however, while the Harris campaign is signaling that tips would still be subject to payroll taxes, preserving an important funding stream for Social Security and Medicare. An analysis from the Yale Budget Lab indicates tipped employees compose only 2% of the American workforce.
What she might back but hasn't yet
Medicare expansion:
The DNC platform includes an expansion of Medicare so it covers dental, vision, and hearing benefits. It’s a provision championed by independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, but it was jettisoned during Build Back Better talks in late 2021.
Childcare subsidies:
Biden’s latest budget would cap childcare costs at 7% of an eligible family’s annual income, a level similar to the House-passed Build Back Better Act.
12 weeks of national paid family and medical leave:
Both the DNC platform and fiscal year 2025 White House budget proposal include support for a 12 week paid time off measure. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’s running mate, said earlier this month that passing a national paid leave law should be the top legislative priority if Democrats win control of the White House and Congress in November. “We’re the last nation on Earth basically not to do this,” Walz told Ezra Klein of The New York Times.
Medicaid coverage gap closure:
Harris has previously campaigned with Biden this year on closing the coverage gap in the 10 GOP states that still haven’t expanded Medicaid. An estimated 2.8 million people earn too much to qualify for Medicaid, but earn too little to be eligible for government subsidies.
Lifting the cap on taxable income for Social Security:
The DNC platform says Democrats will ask the wealthiest Americans “to pay their fair share,” an allusion to lifting the payroll tax cap which currently tops out at $168,000 (adjusted for inflation every year). Biden pursued the change in 2020 but it fell out of his White House budgets in ensuing years. Progressives in Congress view it as the most effective path to extend the program’s solvency by 75 years.
$15 minimum wage:
Harris has pledged to increase the federal minimum wage, which hasn’t budged from $7.25 an hour set in 2009. Yet she hasn’t specified which level. The DNC platform, though, says Democrats “will keep pushing Congress to increase it to at least $15 for all Americans.”
Notable
- Harris’ price gouging plan would have no specific price triggers and likely only apply to emergency situations, The New York Times hears from “people familiar with” the proposal.
- Cryptocurrency may have friends in a Harris administration, per a campaign advisor who said growing digital assets would be a priority, Bloomberg reports.