As the battle for the White House intensifies, US Vice President Kamala Harris is leaving no room for Republican candidate Donald Trump. In her first speech on economic policy, Harris described her forward-looking agenda as creating an “economy of opportunity” that offers Americans a real chance of success. At the same time, she criticized Trump for focusing exclusively on supporting the rich and big business.

Harris advocated building millions of new homes and supporting first-time buyers, proposed tax relief for families and called for a ban on “price gouging” in the grocery trade. The economic proposals come at a time when inflation has fallen in recent months from a peak of 9.1% in June 2022.

Harris said her proposals are designed to directly address the financial difficulties facing American families. They aim to more effectively reduce inflationary pressures and provide immediate relief in areas such as food, housing and child care.

“As president, I will focus intensely on creating opportunities for the middle class to improve their economic security, stability and dignity,” Harris said.

“First” nationwide ban on unfair prices for everyday goods

Harris’ proposal to ban grocery store price gouging at the federal level for the first time is aimed at capturing voters’ attention. She plans to empower the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to impose large fines on grocery chains that impose “excessive” price increases.

Harris intends to enforce this ban within her first 100 days in office and will direct the FTC to impose penalties on companies that do not comply.

Supplement for first-time home buyers

Harris stressed that housing costs are a significant obstacle to economic prosperity. She proposed providing up to $25,000 (Rs 2,065,000 lakh) as down payment to first-time home buyers and called for the construction of three million affordable housing units for the middle class.

Lower insulin costs

Kamala Harris called for capping the monthly price of insulin to treat diabetes at $35 (INR 2,880) for everyone, exploring options to eliminate medical debt and offering families a tax credit of $6,000 (Rs 496,800 lakh) in the year a child is born.

Support with childcare

Harris plans to use the child tax credit to offer $6,000 to families in the first year of a child’s life. This new tax credit would complement the Biden administration’s temporary increase in the child tax credit during the pandemic, which research shows has significantly reduced child poverty.

Harris’ proposal is a response to a proposal by Ohio Senator JD Vance earlier this month to increase the exemption from $2,000 to $5,000 per child.

Harris described her forward-looking agenda as creating an “economy of opportunity” that gives Americans a real chance to succeed, while criticizing Trump for focusing only on supporting the wealthy and big business.

Trump gave two speeches this week focusing on the economy and his policies, but has yet to unveil a detailed economic plan. He has frequently criticized the Biden-Harris administration for high inflation and promised to quickly bring prices down. He also accused Harris of wanting to impose “communist price controls.”