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Cailianshe News, July 22 (Editor: Xiaoxiang)Although US Vice President Harris has not yet secured the Democratic presidential nomination, this does not seem to prevent people from carefully studying Harris' potential economic policy agenda.Many industry insiders have concluded that the final economic agenda of this highest-ranking female elected official in American history may be more progressive than "Biden Economics" and will also be more incompatible with "Trump Economics"!

In fact, as early as the first Democratic presidential debate in 2019, Harris, then a senator from California, had severely criticized "Trumpnomics." At that time, the future US vice president severely accused Trump's tax cuts of being gifts to the rich, believed that the booming stock market had left a large number of middle-class people behind, and warned that Trump's reckless trade agenda was hurting farmers in the heartland of the United States.

“To put it bluntly, this economy is not working for working people,” Harris said at the time. “For too long, the rules have been made for those who have the most wealth, not for those who work the most.”

Today,As Harris prepares to succeed Biden as the potential Democratic presidential nominee, her challenge now will be to more clearly articulate her vision for navigating an economy that is still struggling with inflation while drawing a line under Trump, who has promised more tax cuts and tariffs.

It is worth mentioning that during Biden's administration, Harris, as his deputy, has been an active defender of the White House's economic agenda, and has been constantly promoting the benefits of legislation such as the American Rescue Plan introduced in 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022. Therefore, in the eyes of many people, if Harris eventually takes office, her policy priorities for the next four years are expected to be basically consistent with Biden's. In a report earlier this month that Harris's chances of being nominated exceeded Biden, we also interpreted this.

but,During her tenure as attorney general and senator, Harris was sometimes more "progressive" than the president, pushing for universal health care while calling for more generous tax breaks for working Americans and paying for them by increasing taxes on corporations. Therefore, some analysts believe that although Harris is expected to follow Biden's style in many ways, there may be some differences between the two in some areas.

Terry Haines, founder of Pangaea Policy, believes that Harris is closer to the progressive wing of the Democratic Party than Biden, and her future proposals may be "more active in supporting welfare and housing projects." Harris may also do more work in bank supervision or consumer-oriented supervision.

In recent weeks, Ms. Harris has embarked on her own “opportunity tour,” touting a series of economic achievements made by the administration over the past four years, including that wages have risen faster than inflation, manufacturing jobs are growing and Democrats have fought to forgive student loan debt. “As Democrats, we are sometimes criticized for what we do, but we have also solved long-term problems that have hindered wealth creation,” Ms. Harris said at an event in San Francisco this month.

The following are some of the positions Harris has held on some economic issues since entering politics, as summarized by industry insiders.

tax

As a presidential candidate, Ms Harris proposed providing a monthly tax credit worth up to $500 for people earning less than $100,000 to replace the tax cuts introduced by Mr Trump in 2017.

Harris' proposed legislation, called the LIFT the Middle Class Act, was unveiled in 2018 and seeks to address the rising cost of living by providing money to middle-class and working families to help cover everyday expenses. She described it as a way to close the gap between rich and poor in the United States.

In 2019, Harris also proposed increasing estate taxes on the wealthy to pay for a $300 billion teacher pay raise plan, which was called "the largest federal investment in teacher salaries in American history" and would raise the average salary of American teachers by $13,500.

It is worth mentioning that in the last election, when Biden and Harris competed for the Democratic nomination, they actually had some differences on how much the corporate tax rate should be raised. Harris hopes to increase the corporate tax rate from 21% to 35%, which is significantly higher than the 28% proposed by Biden. Trump currently hopes to further reduce the corporate tax rate to 20%.

housing issue

Last week, the Biden administration proposed a plan to force corporate landlords to limit rent increases to 5% and called on Congress to support investments in more affordable housing.

Harris has made affordable housing a priority during her time in the Senate and her last campaign for president, but she's taking a different approach. She's introduced the Rent Relief Act, which would provide a refundable tax credit to renters making less than $100,000 to cover housing costs that exceed 30% of their income.

To help the poorest, Harris also called for emergency relief funds for the homeless and $100 billion in communities where people have historically been unable to get home loans due to discrimination.

trading

During a Democratic primary debate in late 2019, Harris strongly accused Trump of being "erratic" on trade policy and said his tariff war hurt Iowa soybean farmers who faced foreign retaliation.

Harris has said she would focus on promoting U.S. exports and declared, "I am not a protectionist Democrat."

Harris reiterated her previous criticism of Trump last week when discussing his plan to impose a 10% tariff on all goods imported into the United States, saying such a policy would raise the cost of gasoline, groceries and clothing.

"His (Trump's) tariffs will increase costs for families on everyday expenses," Harris said at an event in North Carolina.

Supervision

Ms. Harris, who served as California’s attorney general from 2011 to 2017, also has a keen eye on consumer protection issues. In 2016, she threatened Uber with legal action if the company did not remove self-driving cars from California roads.

She pulled California out of a national settlement with big banks after the 2008 financial crisis, using her power to wrest more money from major mortgage lenders and later announced that California homeowners would receive $12 billion in mortgage relief as a result.

However, Harris has also been criticized during her political career for failing to prosecute OneWest Bank and its then-chief executive, Steven T. Mnuchin, who later became Treasury secretary during Mr. Trump’s last term, after the California Department of Justice found “extensive improprieties” in the bank’s foreclosure practices.

Climate and Energy

Harris' positions on climate and energy are similar to Biden's. But throughout her career, she has made clear that clean energy and environmental justice are priorities.

When Biden announced Harris as his 2020 running mate, he highlighted her tough stance against Big Oil during her time in key posts in California, noting that she had filed lawsuits against Big Oil while serving as San Francisco’s district attorney from 2004 to 2011 and as the state’s attorney general from January 2017 until she became a U.S. senator.

Last year, Harris attended international climate negotiations for the first time, announced a $3 billion injection into the Green Climate Fund, and delivered her first major international speech on the topic of climate. As vice president, Harris also worked on the EPA's policy push to address long-standing environmental issues, such as the multibillion-dollar program to replace lead pipes and lead paint across the country.

AI

As vice president, Harris has been particularly outspoken on AI. In a November 2023 speech, she warned of the "existential" threat posed by AI, saying it could "endanger the survival of the human race."

In a meeting with tech executives including Microsoft's Satya Nadella, OpenAI's Sam Altman and Google's Sundar Pichai, Harris also warned that they had a "moral" obligation to guard against the dangers that artificial intelligence could bring.

She supports a Biden executive order on artificial intelligence that seeks to provide stronger protections for consumers, specifically mentioning the impact of AI-generated scam calls and unlabeled AI-generated content.

(Cailianshe Xiaoxiang)