Vice President Kamala Harris was brought up short during a “60 Minutes” interview when asked for specifics of her plan to boost small businesses after CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker accused her of being unrealistic.
Harris, 59, was unable to explain how her fiscal policies would work in “the real world,” including by passing both chambers of what is likely to be a divided Congress.
“My plan is about saying that when you invest in small businesses you invest in the middle class and you strengthen America’s economy,” Harris told Whitaker during the sitdown, which will air in full at 8 p.m. ET.
“Small businesses are part of the backbone of America’s economy,” she restated.
“Pardon me, Madam Vice President, the question was, ‘How are you going to pay for it?’” Whitaker interrupted.
“Well, one of the things I’m gonna make sure,” Harris began, blinking repeatedly in apparent surprise at the questioner’s pushback, “that the richest among us — who can afford it — pay their fair share in taxes.”
“It is not right that teachers and nurses and firefighters are paying a higher tax rate than billionaires and the biggest corporations. And I plan on making that fair,” she went on.
“But we’re dealing with the real world here,” Whitaker interjected. “How are you going to get this through Congress?”
“You know, when you talk quietly with a lot of folks in Congress they know exactly what I’m talking about ’cause their constituents know exactly what I’m talking about,” the vice president said before repeating herself yet again. “Their constituents are those firefighters and teachers and nurses.”
Harris’ economic agenda — which includes increasing the amount in tax deductions offered for startups to $50,000 — is estimated to add $3.5 trillion to the national debt, according to a nonpartisan analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget released Monday, even while raising taxes on corporations, the ultra-wealthy and others to the tune of $4.25 trillion.
Billionaires and other high-income earners also do not pay lower tax rates than teachers, nurses or firefighters, according to analyses by both the US Treasury Department and the Congressional Budget Office.
The top 1% income bracket shoulders 46% of the nation’s tax burden at a current taxation rate of 37%, according to economists.
The average tax rate for teachers, nurses and firefighters based on those occupations’ median income is 22% — but could be as low as 12% for married couples and heads of households.
Critics have harped on Harris’ word salads during her time in office, which have earned her comparisons to Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ vacuous character Selina Meyer in HBO’s “Veep.”
Often, the vice president resorts to repetition when asked to clarify her positions — most recently in an interview last week with MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle, when Harris used the word “holistic” three times in 23 seconds.