Harris signals more business-friendly stance than Biden

Republicans have criticized Harris since Biden dropped out as the Democratic nominee, which has led the vice president to cast herself as more centrist on economic issues than she did when she was a senator from California and again in 2020 when she ran to the left of Biden for president.

Harris said Wednesday she would raise the capital gains tax by a much lower rate than Biden proposed at a rally in New Hampshire. She would tax investment income at 28%, compared with Biden’s proposal to tax capital gains at 39.6% for people earning more than $1 million a year. The stance is a reversal of her support for tax increases proposed in the White House budget earlier this year.

She also said she wants to increase the small business tax credit for start-up expenses tenfold from $5,000 to $50,000. She also set a goal of 25 million new small business applications in her first four years in office.

Her departure from the White House budget is a signal that she is trying to appeal to middle-class voters, even as Republicans seek to link her to Biden’s economic legacy. In several rallies and statements, Harris has sought to portray herself as a champion of the average voter while calling former President Donald Trump a crony of the billionaire class.

Harris’ campaign has changed course on several other issues since July, including no longer supporting a federal jobs guarantee, as many Green New Deal advocates have called for, eliminating private health plans as part of Medicare for All and banning fracking.

“My plan will make our tax code more fair while prioritizing investment and innovation. Let’s be clear: billionaires and large corporations need to pay their fair share of taxes,” Harris told a crowd in New Hampshire on Wednesday.

Earlier this week, Harris’ campaign released an ad criticizing Trump for corporate price gouging that has led to high grocery and gas prices for average families, while blaming the former president for giving those same corporations tax cuts. It was the fourth ad focusing on the economy since the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

The Trump campaign has blamed the Biden-Harris administration for the lingering effects of inflation in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The former president has also said he wants to extend his 2017 tax cut legislation, which would have lowered the corporate tax rate, if he is reelected.

“This country will end up in a depression if she becomes president. Just like 1929, it will be the depression of 1929. She has no idea what the hell she’s doing,” Trump said Wednesday during a Fox News appearance with Sean Hannity.

“I gave you the biggest tax cuts in the history of our country. … If you let the Trump tax cuts expire, which she wants, she wants to end them, if you do that, you will have the biggest tax increase in history,” Trump said of Harris.

Republicans and Trump have sought to portray Harris’ plan to ban price gouging as a communist agenda.

“Under Comrade Kamala Harris’ leadership, all Americans are suffering this holiday weekend — high gas prices, rising transportation costs, and skyrocketing grocery prices. We cannot continue to live under this weak and failed ‘leadership,’” Trump wrote on Truth Social over Labor Day weekend.

ABC News-Washington Post– An Ipsos poll released in mid-August before the Democratic National Committee showed Trump leading Harris by 9 percentage points on voters’ confidence in his management of the economy.

Harris’ economic woes will be on full display on Sept. 10 when the vice president and Trump have their first debate hosted by ABC News. The debate will be Harris’ first test of whether she can deliver her campaign agenda and maintain her position on Trump.

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Multiple Republican and Democratic strategists have said the energy surrounding Harris’ campaign will “reset” after Labor Day and the debate, as it will be the first time Harris and Trump have met face-to-face for impromptu talks.

The last presidential debate in June was the catalyst for Biden withdrawing from the race after his poor performance, meaning all eyes will be on Harris to see if she can sustain the surge in excitement that came with her entry into the race.