Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, as she outlined the economic policies she would like to adopt in the White House, said millions of Americans are struggling to make ends meet.
The vice president acknowledged that the cost of living in the US is “still too high” but insisted that this was true “long before” the COVID-19 pandemic devastated the global economy as he took office alongside President Joe Biden.
Harris has vowed to put the middle class at the heart of the American economy and insisted that a return of Donald Trump to the presidency only matters about helping “me and people like me.”
Speaking at the Economic Club of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Harris outlined policies to support families, small businesses and manufacturers, offering a stark contrast to Trump’s policies.
“I believe we have an incredible opportunity to make the middle class the engine of American prosperity, to build a stronger economy that allows everyone, everywhere to pursue their dreams and aspirations, and to ensure that the United States of America continues to innovate and compete with the world,” Harris said.
“I still remember my mother sitting at her yellow Formica table late at night, a cup of tea in one hand and a stack of bills in front of her, trying to make sure she got her money paid by the end of the month, just like so many Americans struggling to make ends meet every day,” she continued. “Millions of Americans are sitting at their own kitchen tables facing their own financial pressures.
“Because over the past few decades, our economy has gotten increasingly better for people at the very top and harder for those trying to earn, build and maintain a middle-class lifestyle.”
During the campaign, Ms. Harris launched a platform to challenge Mr. Trump on the economy, consistently ranked among the most important issues for voters, where she has led in some polls, but Mr. Trump maintains a lead on other issues.
In her speech Wednesday, Harris touted proposals such as enacting a $6,000 tax credit for families in the first year after a child is born, introducing a $3,600 tax credit per child for working families and refraining from raising taxes on households making less than $400,000 a year.
She also listed economic proposals she had previously announced during the campaign, including a $25,000 tax credit and other incentives for first-time homebuyers, an expanded tax cut for starting small businesses, a 28% tax on long-term capital gains for the wealthy, universal child care assistance and paid family leave, and a federal ban on price gouging by corporations.
Harris sought to contrast those plans with Trump’s policy platform, which includes plans to cut corporate tax rates and impose tariffs to protect American companies from foreign competition.
“I’m going to forge a new path and grow the American middle class,” Harris said. “Donald Trump is taking America back to the failed policies of the past. He’s not going to grow the middle class. All he cares about is making life better for himself and the wealthiest Americans like him. And that’s evident in his economic policies.”
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“I call my vision an ‘opportunity economy,’ and it’s about making sure that everyone can find a job and have more than that, because, frankly, having a job should be basic, but we should aspire, have ambitions and plans to achieve more. I want Americans and their families to not just get by, but to advance and thrive.”
Harris cited goals of increasing new small business applications to 25 million in the United States by the end of her term as president, as well as doubling the number of registered apprentices. “Donald Trump has cut taxes for big corporations and billionaires while simultaneously cutting small business programs and raising borrowing costs,” she said. “Instead of making it easier to access capital, he has made it harder.”
She also argued that infrastructure from homes to factories is taking too long to build, and that we must ensure America, not China, leads in the industries of the future: “We will invest in biomanufacturing and aerospace, maintain our edge in emerging technologies like AI, quantum computing and blockchain, and extend our lead in clean energy innovation and manufacturing. No one who grew up in America’s greatest industrial or agricultural center should be left behind.”
Harris was introduced by Andrea Stanford, Pittsburgh Regional Manager for Bank of New York Mellon.
“We’ve seen what Donald Trump has done as president,” Stanford said. “He has inflated the national debt, given tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires at the expense of workers, and created incentives to move jobs overseas.”
