Harris vows to expand poverty-fighting child tax credit, hits Trump on tax proposal
As she wrapped up her speech, Kamala Harris debuted a proposal to bring back a tax credit that was credited with dramatically reducing child poverty in the single year it was in effect, and expanding it further.
The expanded child tax credit cut poverty for children by about half in 2021, but expired the following year, when negotiations over renewing it broke down. Harris told voters that she would bring back the credit, and make it even more generous:
As President, I’ll not only restore that tax cut, but expand it. We will provide $6,000 in tax relief to families during the first year of a child’s life. Now, think what that means. Think what that means. That is a vital, vital year of critical development of a child, and the cost can really add up, especially for young parents who need to buy diapers and clothes and a car seat and so much else.
She argued that she could reduce the federal budget deficit while implementing this plan, though did not quite say how, instead hitting Donald Trump over his policies towards lowering taxes:
And we will do this while reducing the deficit. Compare my plan with what Donald Trump intends to do, he plans to give billionaires massive tax cuts year after year, and he plans to cut corporate taxes by over a trillion dollars, even as they pull in record profits. And that’s on top of the $2tn tax cut he already signed into law when he was president, which, by the way, overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly went to the wealthiest Americans and corporations and exploded the national deficit.
You know, I think that if you want to know who someone cares about, look who they fight for.
Key events
And then Harris came at Donald Trump with a tried-and-true attack used by Democrats everywhere, by warning that he would repeal the Affordable Care Act.
There’s lots to say about the law, which polling from health policy research firm KFF indicates is generally popular, but which most Republicans continue to oppose. But here’s one thing to keep in mind: it was first passed in 2010, which means there are lots of voters out there who never experienced what the American health insurance system was like before its changes took effect.
Harris warned the crowd that repealing the law “would take us back to a time when insurance companies could deny people with pre-existing conditions”, she said, adding that 45 million Americans rely on the law for health coverage.
At that point, the crowd began chanting, “We’re not going back!”
Harris accuses Trump of proposing ‘national sales tax’ with tariff policies
Donald Trump has made levying new tariffs on foreign imports a key part of his platform, but Kamala Harris is warning the crowd in North Carolina that the idea amounts to “a national sales tax” on everyday goods.
“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. And, you know, economists have done the math. Donald Trump’s plan would cost a typical family $3,900 a year,” the vice-president said.
“At this moment when everyday prices are too high, he will make them even higher.”
What’s an “opportunity economy”?
Harris defined it for the crowd at Wake Tech Community College in Raleigh, North Carolina:
An economy where everyone can compete and have a real chance to succeed. Everyone, regardless of who they are or where they start, has an opportunity to build wealth for themselves and their children and where we remove the barriers to opportunity, so anyone who wants to start a business or advance their career can access the tools and the resources that are necessary to do so.
I will focus on cutting needless bureaucracy and unnecessary regulatory red tape and encouraging innovative technologies while protecting consumers and creating a stable business environment with consistent and transparent rules of the road.
As president, I will bring together labor with small businesses and major companies to invest in America, to create good jobs, achieve broad-based growth and ensure that America continues to define the future and lead the world.
Acknowledging inflation’s toll, Harris says ‘costs are still too high’
Inflation has been one of the biggest problems Joe Biden has faced during his presidency, and in her speech in North Carolina, Kamala Harris acknowledged that despite steady hiring and economic growth in recent years, many Americans do not feel that they are prosperous.
“We have created 16m new jobs. We have made historic investments in infrastructure, in Chips manufacturing, in clean energy, and new numbers this week alone show that inflation is down under 3%,” the vice-president said.
“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 too many people, no matter how much they work, it feels so hard to just be able to get ahead. As president, I will be laser focused on creating opportunities for the middle class that advance their economic security, stability and dignity.”
She then rolled out what seems to be a new tag line for her campaign: “Together, we will build what I call an opportunity economy.”
Harris takes the stage in North Carolina to debut economic agenda
Kamala Harris just took the stage in North Carolina to speak about her economic policies, which are focused on how to bring down costs for consumers.
We’ll let you know what she says.
Joanna Walters
Jon Tester, a US senator from Montana, is one of three Democratic senators who don’t plan to attend the Democratic national convention next week because they are busily campaigning at home while facing tight races this November, according to several reports.
Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Jackie Rosen of Nevada will also not be pursuing an Italian beef sandwich during downtime in Chicago at the DNC, CBS News reports, citing sources.
The outcome of any one of their races this election could determine which party controls the US Senate.
NPR, referring to Tester as the “last Democrat standing” in bright red Montana, reported that his campaign said that, as the only working farmer in the chamber, he is too busy with the harvest to attend the convention. He also has not endorsed Kamala Harris for the party’s nomination for president.
CBS says that Tester and Brown both called on Joe Biden to quit his fading re-election campaign, which he eventually did and then endorsed Harris to succeed him. Meanwhile Rosen campaigned for Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, last week in Las Vegas.
Rachel Leingang
Outside the Democratic national convention next week, organizers expect tens of thousands of people to march in Chicago to pressure the party to stop the war in Gaza. Inside the convention, uncommitted delegates plan to push anti-war demands in hopes of winning more allies to the cause.
The two movements show the continued fractures among Democratic voters, even at a time of increased unity.
The anti-war movement has planned for Democratic convention demonstrations for months. Joe Biden’s decision not to continue his re-election campaign and Kamala Harris’s ascension to the top of the ticket have not hindered those plans.
Voters who cast protest votes in the Democratic primaries in several states won 30 delegates, who are now headed to the convention. Minnesota won the most uncommitted delegates, with 11. Others come from Michigan, Washington, Hawaii and more.
A coalition of more than 200 groups planned the March on the DNC, which is behind protests scheduled for Monday and Thursday at Union Park, near the convention site, to bookend the convention. The group is still wrangling with the city to secure a longer protest route and speaker space, given the high numbers of protesters expected.
Read the full report here.
The day so far
Evidence mounts Kamala Harris and the Democrats have momentum with voters as they head into next week’s pivotal convention in Chicago. The vice-president has a small lead over Trump in crucial swing state Pennsylvania, a poll released yesterday said, while another that came out today showed Americans have a more favorable impression of her running mate Tim Walz than JD Vance, the Ohio senator who is Donald Trump’s vice-presidential pick. Later today, Harris will speak in North Carolina about her plan to lower consumer prices, though even some Democratic-leaning economists are skeptical of her proposals against price gouging. The vice-president’s event is scheduled to begin at 2.45pm.
Here’s what else has been going on today:
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Vance defended Trump’s tendency to levy personal attacks against Harris, saying his advice to the former president is: “be yourself”.
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Philadelphia will host the debate between Harris and Trump set for 10 September, and Joe Biden is also to drop by the city today for a few hours for reasons that are not yet clear.
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The Harris campaign criticized Trump, after he yesterday downplayed the importance of the top military award for those killed or wounded in action.
Vance advises Trump to ‘be yourself’ amid worries over his campaign tactics
JD Vance took questions from reporters during his campaign stop at a police union office in Milwaukee, where one wanted to know if he would advise Donald Trump to focus more on policy and less on personal grievances as he looks for an edge against Kamala Harris.
Some prominent Republicans have recently called on Trump to end the personal attacks against Harris and other Democrats – such as questioning the size of her rally crowds or her racial identity – and instead take her to task on the policies where the GOP is seen as having the advantage with voters, such as addressing migration and fighting crime.
But Trump’s running mate Vance sees no need to change tack: “I don’t think the president needs to pivot, and, if I told him that, I can guess what he’d say. I think that the reason that president Trump has been so successful connecting with Americans is, even when they disagree with something that he might say, they know that he just is who he is.
“I’d much rather have a political candidate who I disagreed with 25% of the time, but was a real human being and was willing to speak off the cuff, than to have somebody like Kamala Harris who hides behind a teleprompter and doesn’t speak to the American people directly unless she’s got a script in front of her telling her exactly what to say,” the Ohio senator continued, adding that he was addressing public safety measures in Wisconsin today, and had talked about trade policy and veterans issues at campaign stops earlier in the week.
“My only advice to my running mate is, be yourself and let people see who you are. And, I think he’s doing that … now on the campaign trail,” Vance said.
Later today, Kamala Harris will make a speech in North Carolina outlining her economic proposals.
The vice-president is trying to convince Americans that she is the best candidate to lower costs, which rose at rates not seen since the 1980s during Joe Biden’s presidency.
As part of her pitch to voters, Harris will propose a federal ban on price gouging, which her campaign defines as when suppliers unfairly raise prices on consumers.
The New York Times today took a closer look at Harris’s proposal, which addresses a problem that actually has a few different definitions:
To some, it means companies are using shortages as an opportunity to raise prices rapidly, taking advantage of an imbalance between supply and demand to rake in huge profits.
That kind of behavior is common – even expected – in economics, and tends to crop up when products become hard to get.
For others, “price gouging” suggests that companies are choosing to produce less – effectively keeping something in short supply – so that they can charge more. At least in theory, such a situation should be only temporary. New competitors should enter the market and provide products at a price people can afford. And some seem to use the term to mean that companies have been taking advantage of a moment of rapid inflation to pass through price increases of their own.
The Times found that even among some Democratic-leaning economists, Harris’s proposal is controversial, as it may have unintended consequences on the market competition that can lower prices during times of strained supplies – which is what the US went through in 2021 and 2022, as the global economy recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic:
Isabella Weber, an economist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said that shortages and higher raw material costs during the pandemic seemed to work like a coordination tool: Many companies found that they could charge more because their competitors were doing the same. That allowed them to maintain or even increase profits.
That could set a worrisome precedent, she said. In future shocks, companies may not feel much urgency to rapidly fix supply chain problems, aware that they can pull in big profits in the meantime.
And while the businesses are likely to ramp up production and lower prices in the longer term – they would eventually face consumer pushback or lose out to competitors – even a temporary period of very high inflation can be tough on the average person.
“If the worst of times for ordinary people ends up being the best of times for corporations,” she said, people may feel cheated. “Some sort of basic social contract is kind of crumpling.”
She applauded Ms Harris’s plan to combat grocery price gouging.
Mr Furman [a former Obama administration economist], by contrast, said there was a risk that policies meant to curb corporate price gouging could instead keep the economy from adjusting. If prices do not rise in response to strong demand, new companies may not have as much inclination to jump into the market to ramp up supply.
“This is not sensible policy, and I think the biggest hope is that it ends up being a lot of rhetoric and no reality,” he said. “There’s no upside here, and there is some downside.”
In further good news for Democrats, a Washington Post analysis of polling data confirms that the Sun belt states Joe Biden carried in 2020 appear winnable by Kamala Harris this year, expanding the vice-president’s pathways to the 270 electoral votes needed to become the next president. Here’s more, from the Guardian’s Robert Tait:
Kamala Harris’s surge in popularity since replacing Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee has opened up a surprise second path to victory in November, according to a fresh analysis of recent voter surveys.
An aggregate of polls modelled by the Washington Post shows that the US vice-president has become newly competitive in four southern Sun belt states that were previously leaning heavily towards Donald Trump, the Republican nominee and former president.
If the trend holds, it means Harris could eke out an electoral college victory either by winning those states – Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina – or, alternatively, by capturing three swing states in the midwestern Rust belt, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Trump, by contrast, would need to capture both groups of states to earn the 270 electoral college votes necessary to secure victory, according to the model.
The opening up a potential second front in Harris’s pathway to victory may be the biggest boon yet from her elevation to the top of the Democratic ticket in place of Biden, whose only path to staying in office appeared to hinge on winning the three Rust belt states.
Walz has made a positive first impression on Americans, Vance not so much – poll
Over the past few weeks, Americans have learned a whole lot more about the Ohio senator JD Vance and the Minnesota governor, Tim Walz, after Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, respectively, named them as their running mates.
A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll indicates that it is Walz who has made a better first impression, with 39% viewing him either strongly or somewhat favorably, and 30% with some degree of unfavorability.
Vance, by contrast, has a 30% favorability rate, and 42% unfavorability. There’s lots to digest in the data, but here’s one interesting finding about the senator: his net favorability is at -10 points among both people without children, and with them, despite Vance decrying Democrats as “childless cat ladies”.
Vance is currently in Milwaukee, and set to soon talk about his proposals to fight crime at a police union. We’ll tell you what he says.