Harris leans into populism with proposal for middle-class and lower-income tax relief

Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday unveiled a populist economic agenda, proposing a new plan to cut taxes for more than 100 million middle-class and lower-income Americans as she builds out the details of her governing agenda weeks after locking down the Democratic presidential nomination.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday unveiled a populist economic agenda, proposing a new plan to cut taxes for more than 100 million middle-class and lower-income Americans as she builds out the details of her governing agenda weeks after locking down the Democratic presidential nomination. The vice president proposed her economic platform — which include measures aimed at making housing, groceries, health care and raising children more affordable — in a speech in battleground North Carolina. It comes as her Republican rival, former President Donald Trump, seeks to pin blame on Harris for inflation since she and President Joe Biden took office. Harris’ proposals largely build on Biden’s economic platform, reviving or extending temporary measures that congressional Democrats enacted in major packages when the party controlled Congress during the first two years of Biden’s term. Before his departure from the 2024 race last month, Biden struggled to articulate and defend his economic record. Harris is seeking to sell an amped-up series of progressive proposals with a more forward-looking message — one that pledges to strengthen the middle class and take on big businesses that she says bear the blame for rising costs. The Democratic nominee’s release of her economic agenda comes days before Democrats gather in Chicago for the party’s convention, where they will seek to draw contrasts between Harris’ vision and Trump’s economic record. Harris’ new proposals would require congressional approval – and she has not specified how she’d pay for her costly wish list at a time when the federal debt is swiftly rising.