• Vice President Kamala Harris will unveil a new package of economic policy proposals that she will prioritize during her first 100 days in office.
• The measures include a ban on “corporate price gouging” to reduce the cost of food and prescription drugs, and aim to increase affordable housing and reduce taxes for the middle class.
• Harris’ speech in North Carolina is her first politically focused address since running as a Democratic presidential candidate.

Vice President Kamala Harris On Friday, she will unveil a series of new economic proposals that she will prioritize in her first 100 days in office. The measures aim to lower the cost of food and prescription drugs, create affordable housing and cut taxes for the middle class.

The Democratic presidential candidate will visit the swing state of North Carolina to deliver her first political speech since taking office. Joe Biden withdrew from the race at the end of July, which catapulted her to the top of the candidate list.

“These bold actions will address some of the biggest problems facing American families and strengthen their financial security,” the Harris campaign said in a fact sheet on the plans on Friday.

Food and foodstuffs

To address stubbornly high food prices, Harris will work with Congress to pass the first federal ban on “corporate price gouging” on food and grocery products.

This would include establishing clear “rules of the road” to ensure that food retailers “cannot unfairly exploit consumers in order to generate excessive corporate profits,” the factsheet says.

Harris would give the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general the authority to investigate and prosecute alleged violations.

A Harris administration would also take an aggressive regulatory approach to planned mergers and consolidations among the largest food producers.

Affordable housing and rent

Harris’ plan would help cash-strapped renters by preventing data firms from raising rents and Wall Street investors from buying up large quantities of homes to resell at a premium.

Harris will also call for the U.S. to build three million new housing units over the next four years. To make this possible, she will call for new tax incentives for developers who build “starter homes.”

Any change to tax law requires approval from Congress and depends heavily on which party controls the House of Representatives and the Senate.

As the supply of entry-level homes has grown, the Harris plan would provide “up to $25,000 in down payment assistance to working families who have paid their rent on time for two years and are purchasing their first home, with even more generous assistance for first-generation homeowners,” the fact sheet says.

Health costs

Harris would seek to expand the Biden administration’s $35 price cap on insulin for Medicare beneficiaries to cover insulin costs for all Americans, not just the elderly.

Similar to her cost-cutting plans for the food industry, Harris’ health care policy is based in part on stricter regulations and strict antitrust enforcement.

According to the Harris campaign, the plan calls for a “tough crackdown on pharmaceutical companies that hinder competition and engage in abusive practices by pharmaceutical middlemen.”

Tax cuts

Restoring the expanded child tax credit, first introduced during the Covid pandemic, is a long-standing goal of the Biden administration and one that Harris will take up if she is elected president.

She even wants to go a step further and propose an expanded tax credit of up to $6,000 for families with newborns.

The Harris campaign calls this a “year when many families’ expenses are at their highest – for cribs, diapers, car seats and more.” It also points out that many parents who are not eligible for paid leave must choose between spending time with their baby or working enough hours to make ends meet.

The missions

After just three weeks of campaigning, Harris has taken the former president’s lead in polls Donald Trump about Biden.

But the vice president has largely steered clear of making concrete political statements, preferring instead to draw distinctions from Trump.

Her speech in the Tar Heel State will give her the opportunity to articulate a vision for the economy that builds on – and possibly moves away from – parts of the Biden administration’s economic record.

On Thursday, Harris and Biden appeared together in Maryland to promote an agreement with pharmaceutical companies to reduce the cost of the 10 most expensive prescription drugs under Medicare.

The landmark negotiations – made possible by Biden’s signature spending bill, the Inflation Reduction Act – will result in net Medicare savings of about $6 billion when they officially take effect in 2026, according to the administration.

The vice president’s speech comes just two days after Trump delivered his own economic speech in North Carolina.

In his speech in Asheville, Trump attacked Harris personally while blaming her for the high consumer prices that Biden has worked to reduce during much of his presidency.

Recent polls suggest the state, which Trump won in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, is now within reach for Harris in 2024.

A new round of swing state poll results released Wednesday by the Cook Political Report showed Harris leading Trump in North Carolina by one percentage point (48 to 47), well within the poll’s margin of error.