RALEIGH, N.C. — Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday unveiled an aggressively populist economic agenda to an enthusiastic but intimate crowd, providing the most detailed vision yet of her governing priorities since becoming the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.
“Together we will build what I call an opportunity economy,” Harris said. “Everyone, regardless of who they are or where they start, has an opportunity to build wealth for themselves and their children.”
Some of the economic policies, which Harris’s campaign had announced earlier on Friday, went beyond what President Joe Biden had promised. While Harris is building on much of Biden’s economic agenda, she is also seeking to roll out policies that are unique to her as she works to define herself to millions of voters who may not have a firm grasp of where she stands on a number of key issues. Some Republicans have criticized Harris’s campaign for lacking substance, which she plans to address head on in the coming days and weeks, her advisers said.
“Building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency because I strongly believe when the middle class is strong, America is strong,” Harris said. “So in the weeks to come, I will address in greater detail my plans to build an opportunity economy.”
The most striking proposals were for the elimination of medical debt for millions of Americans; the “first-ever” ban on price gouging for groceries and food; a cap on prescription drug costs; a $25,000 subsidy for first-time home buyers; and a child tax credit that would provide $6,000 per child to families for the first year of a baby’s life.
The last item followed a suggestion earlier this month from Sen. JD Vance (Ohio), the GOP vice-presidential nominee, that the credit be raised from $2,000 per child to $5,000. Harris is also calling for restoring the Biden administration’s child tax credit that expired at the end of 2021, which raised the benefit for most families from $2,000 per child to $3,000.
The flurry of policy positions — released just before the Democratic National Convention in Chicago begins on Monday — represented the clearest articulation yet of how Harris, who has only had a relatively brief time on the national stage, would handle economic policy if elected this fall. Harris has thus far surrounded herself with many former aides to Biden, and her team had made some overtures to business leaders that they hoped reflected a more centrist approach. But the policy positions she embraced Friday suggest she will continue, if not deepen, the party’s transformation under Biden, who pushed for more aggressive government intervention in the economy on industrial, labor and antitrust policies.
