Millions of Americans are struggling to make ends meet, Kamala Harris has said, as the Democratic presidential candidate fleshed out the economic agenda she hopes to adopt in the White House.
Conceding that the cost of living in America “is still just too high”, the vice-president argued this was true “long before” the Covid-19 pandemic ravaged the global economy, and she took office with the president, Joe Biden.
Harris pledged to put the middle class at the heart of the US economy – and claimed Donald Trump was only interested in helping “himself, and people like himself” if he regains the presidency.
Addressing the Economic Club in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Harris sought to provide a stark contrast to Trump’s agenda as she outlined policies to support families, small businesses and manufacturers.
“I believe we have an extraordinary opportunity to make our middle class the engine of America’s prosperity, to build a stronger economy where everyone, everywhere has a chance to pursue their dreams and aspirations, and to ensure that the United States of America continues to out-innovate and out-compete the world,” said Harris.
“I still remember my mother sitting at that yellow formica table, late at night, cup of tea in hand, with a pile of bills in front of her, just trying to make sure that she paid them off by the end of the month, like so many Americans trying to make it all work every day,” she continued. “Millions of Americans are sitting around their own kitchen tables and facing their own financial pressures.
“Because over the past several decades, our economy has grown better and better for those at the very top – and increasingly difficult for those trying to attain, build and hold on to a middle-class life.”
Harris laid out her stall as her campaign seeks to challenge Trump on the economy. While some polls have put Harris ahead on the issue, which is consistently ranked as among the most important for voters, Trump has maintained a lead in others.
In her speech on Wednesday, Harris touted her proposals to enact a $6,000 tax credit for families during the first year of a child’s life; introduce a $3,600 tax credit per child for working families; and refrain from increasing taxes on households with less than $400,000 of annual income.
She also cited previously announced economic proposals from her campaign including a $25,000 tax credit and other incentives for first-time home buyers, expanding a small business creation tax break, taxing long-term capital gains for wealthy individuals at 28%, universal childcare and paid family leave, and enacting a federal ban on corporate price gouging.
Harris tried to contrast such plans with Trump’s policy platform, which includes plans to cut corporate tax rates and impose tariffs to protect US companies from foreign competition.
“I intend to chart a new way forward and grow America’s middle class,” Harris said. “Donald Trump intends to take America backward to the failed policies of the past. He has no intention to grow our middle class. He’s only interested in making life better for himself and people like himself, the wealthiest of Americans. You can see it spelled out in his economic agenda.
“I call my vision the opportunity economy, and it’s about making sure everyone can find a job and more. Because, frankly, having a job should be baseline, and we should aspire and have the ambition and plan to do more. I want Americans and families to be able to not just get by, but be able to get ahead, to thrive.”
Harris cited a goal to achieve 25m new small business applications in the US by the end of her first presidential term and to double the number of registered apprenticeships. “At the same time that Donald Trump was giving a tax cut to big corporations and billionaires, he tried to slash programs for small businesses and raise borrowing costs for them,” she said. “Instead of making it easier, he actually made it more difficult for them to access capital.”
She also asserted support to ensure the US leads in future industries rather than China, arguing building infrastructure – from housing to factories – takes too long.“We will invest in bio-manufacturing and aerospace; remain dominant in AI and quantum computing, blockchain and other emerging technologies; expand our lead in clean energy innovation and manufacturing,. No one who grows up in America’s greatest industrial or agricultural centers should be abandoned.”
Harris was introduced by Andréa Stanford..
“We’ve seen what Donald Trump did as president,” Stanford said. “He blew up the national debt, gave tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires, at the expense of working people and created incentives to ship jobs overseas.”
