By Karen Rubin
Democratic candidate for president Kamala Harris is proposing an “Opportunity Economy” agenda where everyone has an equal opportunity to go as far as their talent, hard work and ambition takes them. Republican candidate Donald Trump is offering a Feudal Economy of nobles, vassals and serfs, where the rich get to lord power over the working poor and middle class.
Harris’ idea is to build upon what Joe Biden’s historic, transformational presidency has already accomplished in building an economy “from the bottom up and the middle out,” founded on economic justice and inclusiveness. This has included significantly lowering costs to give families more breathing room; capping the cost of drugs and out-of-pocket payments for seniors which Harris hopes to expand to all; trying multiple times to forgive or reduce student debt (each time overturned by Republicans who are happy to take the PPP money and run); pressuring companies to get rid of junk fees costing consumers billions of dollars; promoting competition and prosecuting monopolistic practices and price-gouging, and expanding access and reducing the cost of health care as a right, not a privilege (Trump and Republicans are still vowing to repeal the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare until it became hugely popular).
Harris has been clear on how she hopes to implement her Opportunity Economy in her first 100 days:
Create affordable housing: Build 3 million new homes and create new tax incentives for builders who construct affordable units and starter homes; prevent corporate landlords from colluding to raise rents; Block Wall Street investors from buying homes in bulk to resell at a premium or use as high-rate rentals; Provide $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers.
Lower grocery prices: Pass the first-ever federal ban on corporate price gouging on food and groceries; Take an aggressive approach to proposed mergers that reduce competition and hurt consumers among the biggest food producers (the two largest grocery chains in the U.S., Kroger, which admitted to price-gouging, wants to merge with Albertsons).
Cut health care costs: Expand the Biden administration’s landmark $35 price cap on insulin and $2000 annual limit on out-of-pocket drug costs secured for Medicare recipients to cover all Americans; Expand the drugs with negotiated prices; Crack down on pharmaceutical companies that block competition; Work with states to cancel medical debt for millions of Americans; Expand subsidies for Affordable Care Act plans that would save health insurance customers an average of $700 on their premiums.
Build a fair tax code: Raise the Child Tax Credit to $3,600 per child for middle class and working families, and $6,000 for families with newborns; Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit for workers in lower-income jobs, cutting taxes by up to $1,250; Eliminate tax on tips for hospitality and service workers making less than $80,000.
It is infuriating that no one asks Trump to discuss his economic plan – beyond hyperbolic statements – because he doesn’t actually know or care. But others have thought things out quite intensely, laying out their own 100-days of sweeping economic policy changes.
Trump has offered his solution to inflation (indeed every problem), which he promises he can get under control “very fast,” “immediately” with “drill baby drill” – even though the U.S. is already energy independent, is one of the biggest exporters of fossil fuel and gas prices (which are set on a global market, not by the president) are the lowest in three years at $3.36 a gallon [and expected to continue to drop.
Why don’t they ever ask Trump what eggs, milk and gas actually cost? Or even what inflation is? Yet Trump, who has said he should control the Fed instead of having it function independently to keep inflation low (2% target) and employment full, attacks Harris’ proposal to enforce rules against price-gouging, monopolistic price fixing and promote competition as “Communist,” settling on a new derogatory nickname of “Comrade Kamala”
Trump’s big idea (wanting to sound tough on the rest of the world) to raise tariffs 10% or 20% (he hasn’t decided which number has the better ring) on all imports, from food to clothes and cars, and as much as 60 percent on imports from China, would be paid by American consumers, increasing costs (inflation) for families an average of $3,900 a year. His last foray into tough-guy tariffs cost taxpayers billions of dollars to bail out American farmers. He apparently still hasn’t learned how tariffs actually work.
Trump wants to extend his 2017 tax cuts that almost exclusively benefitted the richest individuals and corporations while literally screwing the middle class (capping the deductibility of state and local taxes in order to stick it to Blue States) that already has added $2 trillion to the national debt. That would work out to a handout of $3.5 million per billionaire each year to the top 0.1%, who already pay a tax rate averaging 8%, a fraction of what teachers, nurses, firefighters pay, through a tactic of buy-borrow-die (the five richest men on Forbes’ 2024 Billionaire list claim to earn $1 in salary, because their actual wealth is hardly taxed at all).
Meanwhile, Trump wants to give big corporations, which already saw their tax rate cut from 35% to 21%, a further cut to 18% – a $1.5 trillion windfall that doesn’t “trickle down” but rather goes into stock-buybacks, CEO pay and shareholder dividends.
Indeed, Trump would also reverse Biden’s success at recouping unpaid taxes ($1.5 billion recovered this year) and make it easier for wealthy tax cheats (like him) to avoid paying what they owe.
Sixteen Nobel Laureate economists have said Trump’s policies would add $6 trillion to the national debt and kill 3 million jobs.
Harris believes billionaires and corporations should pay their fair share.
“Vice President Harris has made clear that building up the middle class will be a defining goal of her presidency,” her campaign stated. “She will deliver for Americans who are demanding a new way forward towards a future that lifts up all Americans so that they can not just get by but get ahead.”