Harris leans into populism with proposal for middle-class and lower-income tax relief

By Tami Luhby, Ebony Davis and Eric Bradner, CNN

(CNN) — Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday unveiled a populist economic agenda, proposing a new plan to provide tax relief for more than 100 million middle-class and lower-income Americans as she builds out the details of her governing agenda weeks after locking down the Democratic presidential nomination.

The vice president proposed her economic platform — which includes measures aimed at making housing, groceries, health care and child rearing more affordable — in a speech in battleground North Carolina. It comes as her Republican rival, former President Donald Trump, seeks to pin blame on Harris for the spike in inflation since she and President Joe Biden took office.

Harris’ proposals largely build on Biden’s economic platform, reviving or extending temporary measures that congressional Democrats enacted in major packages when the party controlled Congress during the first two years of Biden’s term.

Harris said she would “build on the foundations” of economic progress made by the Biden administration.

“Still, we know that many Americans don’t yet feel that progress in their daily lives. Costs are still too high, and on a deeper level, for many people, no matter how much they work, it feels so hard just to be able to get ahead,” she said.

She said a “defining goal of her presidency” would be to build what she called an “opportunity economy” for the middle class. She also vowed to rein in the rising prices of goods like groceries and take on price gouging.

“As president, I will take on the high costs that matter most to most Americans,” she said. “I know most businesses are creating jobs, contributing to our economy and playing by the rules. But some are not, and that’s just not right, and we need to take action when that is the case.”

Before his departure from the 2024 race last month, Biden struggled to articulate and defend his economic record. Harris is seeking to sell an amped-up series of progressive proposals with a more forward-looking message — one that pledges to strengthen the middle class and take on big businesses that she says bear the blame for rising costs.

The Democratic nominee’s release of her economic agenda comes days before Democrats gather in Chicago for the party’s convention, where they will seek to draw contrasts between Harris’ vision and Trump’s economic record.

Harris on Friday took aim at Trump’s economic proposals — particularly his calls for 10% to 20% tariffs on imported goods, costs that experts say companies would pass on to consumers by raising prices.

The vice president said Trump’s proposals would “devastate the middle class, punish working people and make the cost of living go up for millions of Americans.”

“He wants to impose what is in effect a national sales tax on everyday products and basic necessities that we import from other countries. That will devastate Americans. It will mean higher prices on just about every one of your daily needs. A Trump tax on gas. A Trump tax on food. A Trump tax on clothing. A Trump tax on over-the-counter medication,” Harris said. “At this moment when prices are too high, he would make them even higher.”

Harris’ new proposals would require congressional approval, and she has not specified how she’d pay for her costly wish list at a time when the federal debt is swiftly rising – other than saying she would ask the wealthy and large corporations to pay their fair share. Those details will come later, people familiar with the matter tell CNN, as Harris’ team plans a series of rollouts on economic policies centered on specific themes.

All told, the package could increase deficits by $1.7 trillion over a decade, or $2 trillion if the temporary housing provisions were made permanent, according to an analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. The watchdog group noted that certain details are lacking for a full analysis.

Tax credits for families

Harris’ plan would restore the American Rescue Plan’s popular expansion of the child tax credit to as much as $3,600, up from $2,000, and call for it to be made permanent. The enhancement was only in effect in 2021. Biden and Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill have been unsuccessful in their efforts to partially revive it – in part because of its hefty price tag. A bipartisan bill that would have temporarily beefed up the child tax credit passed the House earlier this year but was blocked by Republicans in the Senate.

The proposal would also add a new child tax credit of up to $6,000 for middle-class and lower-income families with children in their first year of life. That’s when a family’s expenses, such as cribs, diapers and car seats, can be at their highest and when many parents have to take time off from their jobs, the campaign noted.

The agenda also calls for restoring the American Rescue Plan’s enhancement of the earned income tax credit, known as the EITC, which increased the maximum credit for workers without dependent children to roughly $1,500. That previous boost was only in effect for 2021.

The vice president’s package calls for extending the more generous Affordable Care Act premium subsidies that are set to expire at the end of 2025. The enhancement, which was made available through the American Rescue Plan and extended by the Inflation Reduction Act, has helped push sign-ups for Obamacare coverage to record levels.

Harris’ proposed plan does not specify how long these costly provisions would be in effect.

Her focus on the child tax credit comes as she faces constant attacks from the Trump campaign, particularly the GOP vice presidential nominee, JD Vance, for being anti-family. Vance told CBS News over the weekend that he wants to increase the child tax credit to $5,000 per child. Former President Donald Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 doubled the child tax credit to the current $2,000 – though that enhancement is set to expire at the end of next year, along with the law’s other individual income tax provisions.

Other efforts to lower costs

Along with the tax credits, Harris’ economic agenda addressed housing, food and health care costs, building on Biden administration efforts.

CNN previously reported that it includes a four-year plan to lower housing costs, including $25,000 in down payment assistance and a $10,000 tax credit for first-time homeowners and actions aimed at spurring the construction of new housing, including tax incentives for building starter homes and affordable rental units.

The plan also highlights two main proposals that aim to lower rent costs in the US. The first would block landlords from using algorithm-driven price-setting tools to set rents. The second would discourage wealthy investors from buying up properties and marking up rents in bulk by removing tax benefits for investors who buy large numbers of single-family rental homes.

She also called for a federal ban on price gouging to lower grocery prices and everyday costs, though her campaign has released few details about the proposal. Harris argues that big grocery chains have seen their production costs flatten and profits grow but have kept prices high.

As for making health care more affordable, Harris wants to expand the current $35 monthly cap on out-of-pocket costs for insulin and the upcoming $2,000 annual limit on out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs generally to all Americans, not just Medicare enrollees.

Harris’ plan would also accelerate the speed of Medicare’s drug price negotiations so that the costs of more medications come down faster. The Biden administration just announced the results of the first-ever round of negotiations, which is expected to result in billions of dollars in savings for Medicare and senior citizens.

In addition, Harris said she would work with states to cancel medical debt for millions of Americans and help them avoid falling behind on health care bills in the future. Harris has overseen the Biden administration’s efforts to remove medical debt from credit reports.

This story has been updated with additional information.

CNN’s Kayla Tausche contributed to this story.

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