John Jefferson
Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris unveiled her economic plan in a speech in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday afternoon, warning that her rival, Donald Trump, would “make the cost of living go up for millions of Americans.”
The vice president focused on economic initiatives that would benefit the middle class, with tax cuts she said would benefit 100 million Americans, a federal ban on price gouging, lower drug prices, and the building of millions more homes. Harris compared each aspect of her agenda to that of Trump, promising a bright future in contrast to the former president’s dark vision of the past.
“If you want to know who someone cares about, look who they fight for,” Harris said, adding that Trump is fighting for billionaires and large companies while she is fighting for “working and middle class Americans.”
“He offered no serious plans to reduce costs for middle-class families, no plan to expand access to housing or health care. And that actually, I think for most of us, was not surprising,” she said at the end of her speech.
Speaking to the Raleigh crowd on Friday afternoon, Harris said: “As president, I will be laser focused on creating opportunities for the middle class that advance their economic security, stability and dignity. Together, we will build what I call an opportunity economy.”
More than one million Americans will get tax relief under her plan, she said, referring to the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit.
“Key to creating this opportunity economy is building up our middle class,” she said. Building up the middle class is going to be a “defining goal” of her presidency, Harris told the crowd. By contrast, Trump plans to “devastate” the middle class, she said.
Her plan, she said, will focus on lowering the cost of living, increasing economic security for all Americans, ensuring salaries are “enough to provide you and your family with a good quality of life,” making sure no child should have to grow up in poverty, and allowing Americans to “retire with dignity.”
She said she grew up middle class, with parents who were “renters,” and noted that one of her first jobs was working for McDonald’s for “family money.” If elected, Harris would make history as the first president to work at the fast food chain.
As part of her plan, Harris also said she would “take on health care,” and received cheers from the crowd when she mentioned the Biden-Harris administration’s successful efforts to lower the costs of insulin and prescription drugs.
The audience started chanting “We’re not going back!” beating Harris to the punch, when she said that Donald Trump tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Her plan also offers a first-ever federal ban on price gouging on food, she said, which will provide “new penalities for opportunistic companies that break the rules.”
Read the full article here