Kamala Harris’ Big Economic Speech Breaks With Biden And Continues His Legacy

Vice President Kamala Harris will propose a ban on price gouging by food companies, along with incentives to build new housing and a significant expansion of the child tax credit at a campaign rally in North Carolina on Friday as the Democratic presidential nominee hones her economic message.

Harris plans to announce that, during her first 100 days as president, she would call for the the “first-ever federal ban on price gouging on food and groceries” so that big corporations “can’t unfairly exploit consumers to run up excessive corporate profits on food and groceries.” She will also propose building 3 million additional homes in her first term, spurring construction with an $80 billion federal fund. And she will push to expand the child tax credit to $3,600 per child, including a $6,000 credit for children in their first year of life.

The proposals reflect a distinct focus on the high cost of living, a key frustration for consumers after years of price increases. Even though inflation has slowed, unemployment remains low and gross domestic product is expanding, people remain focused more on daily price changes they see in grocery stores — a major vulnerability for Democrats this November.

“Vice President Harris has made clear that building up the middle class will be a defining goal of her presidency,” the Harris campaign wrote in a fact sheet explaining her proposals. “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.”

Democrats had occasionally grown frustrated with President Joe Biden’s campaign for repeatedly trying — and mostly failing — to sell the country on his economic record by focusing on the low unemployment rate and job growth, when those are not central voter concerns. Harris seems to be giving up those efforts.

But the price gouging push also reflects a Democratic vision for a government more willing to intervene in the economy, including on antitrust enforcement, and picks up several unfinished Biden administration priorities on housing and expanding the child tax credit. Harris on Friday will highlight meat prices in particular, arguing the meat industry is enjoying higher profits thanks in part to excessive consolidation, since just a few companies control the market.

Harris’ comments are a continuation of the Biden administration’s efforts to blame inflation on corporate decision-making rather than federal spending. The consensus view among economists is that the economic stimulus measures Congress passed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic contributed at least somewhat to higher prices, and that corporate greed is less a factor. The biggest factor, most believe, was pandemic-caused supply chain snarls.

“The fact that gasoline is up 30 percent, families can’t afford baby formula, and seniors on a fixed income are having to come out of retirement has nothing to do with price gouging and everything to do with Kamala Harris’ failed economic and energy policies over the past four years,” Karoline Leavitt, press secretary for the Donald Trump campaign, said in a statement Thursday.

Trump sought to illustrate the pain of inflation this week by holding up a container of Tic Tacs, and then showing a smaller Tic Tac container, an apparent example of “shrinkflation” that Biden has previously attributed to corporate greed.

“This is Tic Tac. This is inflation. Inflation is destroying our country,” Trump said.

In a speech on Thursday at his golf club in New Jersey, Trump specifically attacked Harris’ plan to tame grocery prices as “communist,” dubbing it “the Maduro plan, like something straight out of Venezuela or the Soviet Union.” (Nicolás Maduro is the authoritarian socialist leader of Venezuela.)

Data published this week showed inflation falling, with June prices up only 2.9% from the prior year, the smallest increase since March 2021. At the same time, the stock market remains near record highs and unemployment has been low for almost all of Biden’s tenure. Despite this, voters have consistently given Biden poor marks on the economy because of his administration’s struggles with inflation.

A major driver of inflation has been rent increases, which Harris’ plan also aims to tackle. She will ask Congress to pass a ban on landlords using algorithms to set rental rates and to remove tax breaks her campaign says have helped large corporations buy up single family homes. She also plans to offer a $25,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers.

“There’s a serious housing shortage across America and it’s driving prices up. Vice President Harris will work in partnership with workers and the private sector to build the housing the country needs, both to rent and to buy, and take down barriers that stand in the way of building new housing, including at the state and local level,” her campaign wrote in a fact sheet explaining her proposal. “This will make rents and mortgages cheaper.”

Harris’ attack on corporate price gouging Friday follows the Biden administration’s efforts this week to highlight proposals to crack down on corporate red tape that makes it a headache to cancel gym memberships and newspaper subscriptions.

Taylor Jo Isenberg, director of Economic Security Project Action, an organization that advocates for government intervention against monopolies, praised the Biden administration for embracing stronger enforcement actions by the Federal Trade Commission, which has targeted both subscription cancellation and also sued to prevent company mergers in the meat industry.

“It’s a broader understanding and shift in the Democratic Party around the power of enforcing the law,” Isenberg said.

The Biden administration this week also touted a significant cost-saving achievement: lower prices for prescription drugs under Medicare, thanks to long-sought legislation Biden signed into law two years ago allowing the retirement health care program to negotiate deals with drug companies. The cost savings could amount to more than $1 billion for seniors in 2026.

Top Republicans such as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) called the proposal “price fixing” and claimed it would hurt the pharmaceutical industry.