Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to the key swing state of North Carolina on Friday to give her first speech as a Democratic presidential candidate, where she promised to create an “economy of opportunity” by building the middle class.
The vice president said that when the economy is strong, “America is strong” and laid out a series of policy proposals she would push in her first 100 days in office if elected president.
But he ended up making a mistake when announcing his ban on price gouging, instead mispronouncing it as ‘price gouging’.
During her speech, Harris touted some of the policies pushed forward under the Biden administration and promised to go further, drawing a stark contrast with her political opponent Donald Trump.
The vice president said the proposals would provide relief to millions of families while reducing the federal deficit, but he did not go into specifics about how that would be paid for.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that its suite of expanded tax credits, subsidies and homebuyer support would increase the deficit by $1.7 trillion over a decade. But according to the campaign, any additional costs above the Biden-Harris budget for fiscal year 2025 would be offset by higher taxes on corporations and high-income individuals.
Kamala Harris traveled to Raleigh, North Carolina, to deliver her first policy speech as a Democratic presidential candidate focusing on the economy on August 16, 2024.
One of the policies unveiled Friday was a $6,000 tax credit for newborns. Harris also wants to return the expanded Child Tax Credit to the level it was under the American Rescue Plan in 2021.
“Think about what that means: It’s a vital, critical developmental year for a child,” Harris said of the new child tax credit in its first year.
On housing, the vice president called for three million new units during her first four years in office, one million more than President Biden requested.
He also wants to offer incentives to companies to build first-time homes and is urging Congress to pass laws that would prevent big companies from buying and raising rents.
Harris also called for $25,000 down payments for some first-time homebuyers, an expansion of a Biden administration proposal to help first-generation homebuyers.
The vice president drew on her own experience as she talked about her family living in rented housing while she was growing up and her mother’s excitement about finally being able to buy a home when Harris was a teenager.
On prescription drug prices, the vice president called for expanding the cap on out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs by $2,000, not just for seniors but for everyone.
He also called for speeding up negotiations on Medicare prescription drug prices and for greater transparency in the industry.
Earlier this week, the vice president’s campaign unveiled Harris’ plan to ban price gouging at the federal level. It’s a controversial policy that has drawn criticism from some economists who warned that such policies would not reduce food costs.
Economist Jason Furman, who served in the Obama administration, told the Washington Post that this could mean “greater shortages, reduced supply and, ultimately, the risk of higher prices and worse outcomes for consumers” if implemented in practice.
During her remarks, Harris said food prices remain too high. She said that as president she would “go after bad actors” and claimed that competition is “the lifeblood of our economy.”
But when she went to announce the price increase measure, the vice president ended up mispronouncing “speculation” instead of “measurement.”
“My plan will include new sanctions for opportunistic companies that take advantage of crises and break the rules, and we will support smaller food companies trying to comply with the rules and get ahead,” he said.
Kamala Harris greets Durham County Commissioner upon her arrival in Raleigh for her economic address on August 16, 2024
Friday’s speech marked the first time the vice president outlined her own administration priorities and differed from the president since Biden’s exit from the presidential race last month.
Harris praised some of the policies enacted during the Biden administration and said the U.S. economy has come a long way since the president took office during the coronavirus pandemic, with record job creation. But she acknowledged that prices remain too high.
The vice president delivered her speech at the Hendrick Center for Automotive Excellence at Wake Tech, a community college in Raleigh, North Carolina. The vice president’s visit to the battleground state is her eighth stop there this year.
He was scheduled to return to Raleigh for a rally last week with running mate Tim Walz, but the event was postponed due to a storm heading south.
Among those attending Harris’ speech was Deborah Collier, a Black small business owner and Harris supporter who owns several McDonald’s restaurants in Raleigh.
“The most important thing to me is that they are advocates for small businesses, because we are the backbone of the country. We hire and keep the economy going using all the different supplies and vendors that we use,” he said.
“Over the last two terms with (North Carolina Gov.) Roy Cooper, I’ve seen what it’s like to have someone in office who is willing to build bridges and my hope is that she will do the same and we can get some things done,” he added.
Both Cooper, a Democrat, and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Josh Stein were present for his speech as the crowd chanted at times “we’re not going back” and “a new way forward.”
Harris’ visit to the state comes just days after former President Donald Trump visited Asheville, North Carolina, to deliver his own billed economic speech.
Harris accused him of not offering “any serious plan” and accused him of wanting a national sales tax on everyday goods, a reference to his tariff proposal.
He also accused the former president of wanting to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Former President Donald Trump speaks in Asheville, North Carolina, on Aug. 14, 2024. The Republican presidential candidate has accused Harris of copying his proposal to stop taxing tips for service workers. He proposed it in Nevada earlier this year. Last week, Harris supported eliminating tip taxes during a rally in Las Vegas
Before her remarks, Republicans criticized the vice president for her economic agenda in a call with reporters. They accused her of copying Trump’s proposals and criticized other priorities, saying they “didn’t make sense.”
Republicans have pointed to inflation rates under the Trump administration compared to the Biden administration, blaming the current administration’s policies rather than supply chain challenges and shortages stemming from the coronavirus pandemic for high prices.