Millions of Americans are struggling to make ends meet, said Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential candidate outlined the economic program she hopes to push through in the White House.

While the vice president acknowledged that the cost of living in America is “still simply too high,” she argued that this was the case “long before” the Covid-19 pandemic devastated the global economy and that she took office alongside President Joe Biden.

Harris promised to put the middle class at the center of the U.S. economy – and claimed that Donald Trump would only be interested in helping “himself and people like him” if he became president again.

Speaking to the Economic Club in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Harris sought to draw a stark contrast to Trump’s agenda by outlining policies to support families, small businesses and manufacturers.

“I believe we have an extraordinary opportunity to make our middle class the engine of American prosperity, to build a stronger economy where everyone, everywhere has the opportunity to achieve their dreams and aspirations, and to ensure that the United States of America continues to be more innovative and competitive than the rest of the world,” Harris said.

“I remember my mother sitting at that yellow Formica table late at night with a cup of tea in her hand and a stack of bills in front of her, just trying to pay her bills by the end of the month, like so many Americans who are trying to juggle it all every day,” she continued. “Millions of Americans are sitting at their own kitchen tables facing their own financial pressures.

“Because over the past few decades, things have gotten better and better for those at the top of our economy – and things have gotten increasingly harder for those trying to achieve, build and maintain a middle-class life.”

Harris has been laying out her position as her campaign tries to challenge Trump on the economy. While some polls have Harris ahead on the issue, which is consistently ranked among the most important to voters, Trump has maintained his lead in others.

In her speech on Wednesday, Harris announced her proposals to give families a $6,000 tax credit in the first year of a child’s life, introduce a $3,600 tax credit per child for working families and forgo tax increases for households with annual incomes of less than $400,000.

She also pointed to previously announced economic proposals from her campaign, including a $25,000 tax credit and other incentives for first-time home buyers, expanding tax breaks for small business startups, taxing long-term capital gains for wealthy individuals at 28 percent, universal child care and paid family leave, and passing a nationwide ban on corporate price gouging.

Harris tried to contrast such plans with Trump’s political program, which includes cutting corporate taxes and introducing tariffs to protect American companies from foreign competition.

“I intend to forge a new path forward and grow America’s middle class,” Harris said. “Donald Trump intends to take America back to the failed policies of the past. He has no intention of growing our middle class. He only cares about making life better for himself and for people like him, the wealthiest Americans. That is clear in his economic agenda.”

“I call my vision the opportunity economy and it’s about making sure everyone can get a job and more. Because frankly, having a job should be a prerequisite and we should strive and have the ambition and the plan to do more. I want Americans and families to not just make ends meet, but to be able to get ahead and succeed.”

Harris set a goal of reaching 25 million new small business applications in the U.S. by the end of her first term as president and a goal of doubling the number of registered apprenticeships by the end of her first term. “At the same time that Donald Trump was giving tax breaks to big corporations and billionaires, he was trying to cut programs for small businesses and increase the cost of borrowing for them,” she said. “Instead of making it easier for them, he actually made it harder for them to get capital.”

She also reiterated her support for the United States to lead in future industries, not China, because it takes too long to build infrastructure – from homes to factories. “We will invest in biomanufacturing and aerospace, maintain our dominance in AI and quantum computing, blockchain and other new technologies, and extend our lead in clean energy innovation and manufacturing. No one growing up in America’s largest industrial or agricultural centers should be left behind.”

Harris was introduced by Andréa Stanford, regional manager of the Bank of New York Mellon in Pittsburgh.

“We’ve seen what Donald Trump has done as president,” Stanford said. “He’s increased the national debt, given tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires at the expense of working people, and created incentives to move jobs overseas.”