A Deep Dive into Harris' Key Economic Policies in the 2024 Election
As the 2024 presidential election approaches, Kamala Harris, the current Vice President, presents her economic vision for the country. With a background in public service, from her time as California’s Attorney General to her role in the U.S. Senate, Harris has focused on issues such as economic fairness, consumer protection, and workers' rights. Her campaign platform for 2024 emphasizes middle-class support, proposing policies aimed at lowering costs and creating new economic opportunities.
In an election where the economy could make or break Uncle Sam’s recovery from the pandemic, and consequently sending ripples internationally, what we can expect from the Democratic nominee.
Kamala Harris’ Career: What Have We Seen So Far
When California Senator Kamala Harris received the VP nomination on Biden’s ticket during his 2020 campaign, it was assumed she would be the eventual democratic successor. What was surprising though, was how quickly her time would come. With a career in public service, four years of experience in the White House, as well as significantly more clarity than her Republican counterpart during the campaign trail, we have a little more to evaluate.
As the Attorney General of California from 2011 to 2017, Harris established herself as a staunch advocate for economic fairness and consumer protection. Most notably, she played a pivotal role in securing California’s share of the 2012 National Mortgage Settlement, increasing the state’s relief from an initial $4 billion to approximately $20 billion for struggling homeowners, addressing the fallout of the foreclosure crisis. This action laid the foundation for the California Homeowner Bill of Rights, designed to protect borrowers from abusive practices. Harris also targeted privacy rights, launching the Privacy Enforcement and Protection Unit to safeguard consumers against data breaches and identity theft, and she was aggressive in pursuing for-profit colleges for deceptive practices, as seen in her lawsuit against Corinthian Colleges. Furthering her economic justice agenda, she focused on worker rights, battling wage theft and child labor abuses, while also linking climate action to sustainable job growth and economic stability.
As a U.S. Senator from 2017 to 2021, Harris’s economic approach emphasized equity and support for low- and middle-income Americans. She fiercely opposed the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act for disproportionately favoring the wealthy and responded by proposing the LIFT the Middle Class Act to provide substantial tax credits to working families. Her focus on affordability extended to housing through the Rent Relief Act, aimed at alleviating rent burdens on Americans. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, Harris was a vocal proponent of aggressive economic relief, co-sponsoring legislation for monthly cash payments to Americans to offset financial strain. Her commitment to a $15 minimum wage and strengthened labor rights continued, reflecting her broader focus on economic justice, racial equity, and gender disparities. Harris’s support of the Green New Deal and introduction of the Climate Equity Act demonstrated her intersectional approach to economic policy, blending environmental goals with job creation and social justice.
As Vice President, Harris took on several key roles in the Biden administration’s economic agenda. She championed the American Rescue Plan Act to provide pandemic relief, helping secure direct payments to Americans and an expanded Child Tax Credit. Supporting the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Harris advocated for equitable infrastructure investments, focusing on clean energy, clean water, and broadband expansion for underserved communities. She has also been at the forefront of addressing workforce development, calling for federal support in retraining and upskilling workers for emerging sectors, particularly in clean energy. Tasked with addressing the root causes of migration from Central America, she emphasized economic development and stability in the region through public-private partnerships. Her continued focus on economic equity aligns with her previous work, aiming to ensure that policies support fair wages, affordable childcare, racial justice, and access to capital for small businesses and entrepreneurs.
Yet, as apparent time and time again throughout American politics, past actions and stances are not necessarily indicative of actions and results. While her economic positions were clouded with questions of foreign policy, immigration, and the health of Biden during the first debate and the majority of her early campaign, she released an 82-page document outlining the key economic policies that the Harris-Walz ticket promised to deliver on.
What Exactly Is the Harris-Walz Ticket’s Promise to the American People
Harris’ plan, titled “A New Way Forward for the American Middle Class: A Plan to Lower Costs and Create an Opportunity Economy,” is, as both the title suggests and as the Democratic Nominee has made explicitly clear during media appearance, is devoted to the Middle Class, a group which encompasses roughly 50% of the population. The plan is divided into two overarching themes: lowering costs on everyday necessities and creating pathways for the middle-class American to be able to “get ahead.” Let’s take a look at the specific actionables Harris outlines.
The first section of the Harris-Walz economic plan, which aims to “Lower Costs for Middle-Class Families, targets high prices in six main areas: taxes, food, health-care, prescription drugs, energy, and junk fees. With regards to taxes, Harris has made it clear that she aims to cut the taxes of the everyday American and shift the responsibility to corporations and the top 1%. She plans to do this through tax breaks, proposing up to $6,000 a year in tax breaks for families with newborns and $1,500 annually for 17 million workers, ranging from bus drivers to cashiers.
Particularly inspired by the historical inflation caused by the pandemic, Harris also emphasized the need to fix the issue at hand and make food more affordable. While not outlining specifics, the Vice President mentioned three main target areas: the building of resilient food chain, the revitalization of competition through crackdown on M&A activities, and bans on price gouging.
Harris’ plans for reducing costs of health-care and prescription drugs go hand in hand. Contrary to Trump, Harris has emphasized her staunch support of the Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare, and has pledged to strengthen it. While no specifics were mentioned, she emphasized the expansion of veteran health care, as well as more targeted efforts to fix the opioid crisis. The document outlined actions the democratic party took during the Biden Administration, including the elimination of $7B of healthcare debt and the direction of $160B towards fixing the opioid crisis, yet it is important to note that the former is skewed by the pandemic and efforts for the latter have only been met with a worsening issue). The more detailed portion of her plan comes with her pledge to lower the price of prescription drugs, another issue which has been plaguing the everyday American. Again with a pledge to increase transparency as competition, Harris hopes to also give MediCare the power to negotiate the price of prescription drugs, a move which would transform the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries. In a more actionable plan, Harris pledges to cap the price of insulin at $35.
The Harris-Walz ticket closes their economic plan with pledges to lower energy costs and protect consumers from fees and fraud. The former relies on tax break to facilitate the switch to green energy for the average family, piggybacking off of recent legislation such as the Inflation Reduction Act. While no specific number was floated around for how much the everyday American would save, Harris outlined recent comparable acts which offer between $300 and $500 in yearly savings. The latter – protection from fees and fraud – stems from recent criticism of corporations such as Ticketmaster and airlines which have historically utilized hidden “junk” fees or have made it super difficult to cancel subscriptions. The bottomline is that the democratic ticket pledges to save consumer time and money.
The second section of the Harris-Walz plan, titled “Build an Opportunity Economy to Help Americans Get Ahead and Build Wealth” focuses more on the macroeconomy and building resilience. While not as focused as the first section, many specific actionables are offered.
The first of these actionables relate to affordable housing, an issue which has become increasingly prevalent since the pandemic. Harris proposes a $40B fund to expand housing, with funding going towards both construction for the expansion of rental supply and tax credits to incentivize the development of low-income rental housing. Harris also proposes a new tax credit to incentivize house renovations, hoping to incentivize individuals in low-income communities to stay in their municipality rather than move elsewhere. It is important to note that the democratic nominees were explicit in stating that the proposed credit is not to be used by private equity firms attempting to turn a profit. The administration also pledged to crack down on both abusive corporate landlords, who exhibit practices including poor maintenance and algorithmic prices, as well as “wall street investors,” who purchase property to turn a profit. Finally, in perhaps the most unprecedented move, Harris pledges $25,000 in down payment assistance for new buyers. While not providing specifics on where funding will be coming from, amidst an unprecedented deficit, the proposed down payment assistance would, as estimates show, result in an extra 3.2M first-time homebuyers, with 1M of them being Black or Latino.
The next item on the Harris-Walz ticket is investment in small businesses, where Harris lauded her existing track record where new business applications averaged 430,000 per month in 2024, up 50% than 2019. Harris hopes to continue on these efforts, targeting 25M new business applications by 2028. She hopes to do this through expanding the small-business tax credit by 1000% (up to $50,000, from 5,000), as well as the funding of incubators to give small businesses – especially in manufacturing – the ability to compete with large ones. Most meaningfully, Harris also pledged that a third of federal contracts would be awarded to small businesses.
Harris also stressed the importance of investing in American industry and innovation. Once again honing on the actions of the Biden administration, Harris stresses that “collectively, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the American Rescue Plan have catalyzed more than $900 billion of investments in manufacturing and related sectors. These investments span the full range of American industry, from automobile assembly lines, to broadband infrastructure, to semiconductors and clean energy technology.” Indeed, by investing into essential industries such as data centers, aerospace, semiconductors, and biotechnology, all while cutting the red-tape to spur innovation, Harris hopes to be able to level the playing field with China.
While stressing the importance of international economic strength, Harris also emphasized the domestic economy. In addition to pledging to increase the minimum wage and standing by unions, the former Attorney General acknowledged the fact that too many jobs are limited by degree requirements. As a solution, Kamala Harris referenced existing programs such as the Department of Transportation and Workforce Hubs, which pledge money and time to train skilled workers. While aware of this on a national level, the plan emphasized efforts in areas that are currently lacking, including rural areas underserved urban areas, Indian territories, and U.S territories such as Puerto Rico. Harris also, as mentioned earlier, emphasized the need for affordable child care, and offered significant tax breaks to first-time parents to offset some of these costs.
Part six of seven focused on retirement. Again, without offerings specific, Harris and Walz recognized the need to strengthen the depleting Social Security Net and Medicare, while also building on the Butch Lewis Act, which prevents cuts into pension plans. Lowering the costs of prescription drugs, Harris argues, will further ease the burden on the retired population.
Harris ends her plan with a general reiteration of the statements she made throughout her campaign. As president, Harris promises a more equitable tax breakdown through crackdown on the upper class and businesses, ensuring they pay their fair share while also finding a balance to ensure competition and growth.
So, where does that leave voters?
While the economy may not be the most pressing issue discussed by the candidates, it is certainly at the forefront of many voters, who are becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of clarity and answers. Here’s what voters are left with.
The Democratic ticket, unlike past years, is less focused on the lower class and more focused on the middle-class. The unprecedented strategy shifts the focus of the campaign trails to a previously ignored group. New proposals including small business funding and downpayment assistance can offer vital help, yet only for a niche group of people. While leaving the issue of the deficit relatively unaddressed, Harris offers a variety of new tax breaks and programs targeted to the 50% of Americans who are characterized as Middle Class, hoping to fund efforts through a more stringent crackdown (without raising taxes) on the Upper Class and enforcing payments.
Trump, however, is more of a wildcard. The numbers during the Trump administration (before the pandemic) looked unprecedentedly strong, yet some critics question whether the policies are a byproduct of Trump policies while others question the long-term viability. While no specifics have been outlined, a Trump presidency will once again mean a decrease in international trade and an increase in domestic spending.