Vice President Kamala Harris will begin outlining her plans for the US economy in a speech this afternoon, covering issues ranging from housing costs to food prices.

For the Democratic candidate, it will be the first comprehensive foray into economic policy since she announced her candidacy for president.

The plan “will address some of the biggest problems facing American families and strengthen their financial security,” the campaign said in a statement.

In her speech at 2:45 p.m. Eastern time in Raleigh, North Carolina, she is likely to voice a critical view of corporate mergers, announce new efforts to reduce health care costs and introduce the initiative to increase the child tax credit to $6,000 for the first year of a child’s life.

Your new plan also includes a $25,000 first-time homebuyer loan.

With her speech, the campaign is trying to maintain its political momentum by focusing on issues discussed around the kitchen table and the costs of everyday life. Harris appears to be neck and neck with former President Donald Trump ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week.

But the speech is also likely to leave key areas of Harris’ potential economic agenda largely undefined on a range of issues ranging from many key tax issues to manufacturing policy to rising national debt.

Here we find out what this week’s much-watched release tells us so far about Harris’ economic plans and what still needs to be fleshed out in the coming weeks.

A focus on the sensitive topic of housing

The plan, released on Friday, includes several measures aimed at the real estate market, where stubborn price pressures remain despite overall declining inflation.

Persistent housing cost increases are still largely attributed to the lack of housing supply. To combat this problem, the Vice President announced a series of tax breaks that her campaign said could lead to the construction of three million housing units over the next four years.

On the supply side of the equation, the plan includes a proposal for what the campaign calls the first entry-level homebuilding tax incentive, a credit that would go to builders who construct homes that are eventually sold to first-time buyers.

The plan also proposes a new $40 billion innovation fund to focus on local governments and their rental markets.

There will finally be a loan for home buyers. If she wins the election, Harris will ask Congress for a new $25,000 first-time home buyer loan to be used as a down payment for people in good standing who want to buy their first home. President Biden had previously called for a $10,000 loan.

The story continues

Harris will also promote other plans that focus on housing market abuses, including a bill called the Stop Predatory Investing Act, which has long been on hold on Capitol Hill.

Trump, for his part, has often talked about opening up new federal lands to development in order to reduce housing costs.

He has also already sharply criticized Harris’ economic plan, calling it a “fake economic plan” during appearances in North Carolina and New Jersey this week.

He accuses her of her various plans being pointless because she has been in office for three and a half years and could have implemented her ideas during that time.

“Remember, she goes to work every morning in the West Wing,” Trump told the crowd in Asheville, North Carolina, on Wednesday.

A great interest in food prices and health costs

The Harris/Walz campaign plan released on Friday also includes a focus on prices in grocery stores and doctor’s offices.

In her speech, Harris will announce plans for what she calls a nationwide ban on food “price gouging” by giving new legislative powers to regulatory agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

She will also likely signal a critical view of mergers in the grocery industry, previewing her speech by also citing a proposed merger between Kroger (KR) and Albertsons (ACI) as an example of a merger that could lead to higher grocery prices.

The Vice President will also address the issue of medical costs in her speech.

One idea from Harris would be to build on an achievement of the Biden administration and cap the cost of insulin at $35 and the co-payment for prescription drugs at $2,000 for everyone.

With the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, Biden signed a law with similar limits, but only for seniors.

Harris would also accelerate ongoing Medicare drug pricing negotiations, which were also enshrined in the 2022 law. The Biden administration has released its first wave of negotiated prescription drug prices, which it says will save $6 billion.

The new Harris plan also includes measures related to medical debt, including an initiative to remove these charges from credit reports and continuing the Biden administration’s efforts to cancel up to $7 billion in existing medical debt.

Trump went into less detail on health care issues, but in his economic policy speech in North Carolina on Wednesday he said he would not necessarily try to repeal the 2010 Affordable Care Act – as he did in his first term – and that he would only pursue reforms if a better plan emerged.

“We’re going to keep it,” he told the crowd in Asheville, “unless we can think of something better.”

As expected, Harris will also renew her call for an expansion of the child tax credit in her speech and even proposes a tax credit of $6,000 for families with newborns.

The plan would provide this credit for the first year of a child’s life and then a tax credit of $3,600 per child for eligible families in subsequent years.

The proposal comes after Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance floated the idea of ​​a $5,000 credit in a television appearance last weekend.

Harris also proposes expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit, a tax credit aimed at low- to middle-income workers and families.

Ben Werschkul is Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.

Click here for political news about economy and money

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance