Vice President Kamala Harris, the new Democratic presidential candidate, unveiled an aggressively populist economic program in a speech in North Carolina on Friday, with a focus on “lowering the cost of living.”

In her speech, Harris went into real detail for the first time about her vision for the government – and in doing so, she clearly sought to distance herself in her policies from President Biden, the man she recently replaced at the top of the electoral list.

“Today, our economy is the strongest in the world by almost any measure,” Harris said. “Yet we know that many Americans have not yet felt that progress in their lives. The costs are still too high and it seems too difficult to move forward.”

A quick guide to Harris’ proposals and the reasons behind them.

What was at stake for Harris on Friday?

Before an election, voters almost always say the economy is their biggest concern – and that’s especially true today, after pandemic-era disruptions triggered a painful rise in inflation.

But Biden, 81, has struggled to make a connection on the issue. That was partly because he was president when prices were soaring. Partly because when inflation began to fall again, many Americans no longer saw him as competent or confident enough to deserve much credit. And partly because he instead focused much on the rosier aspects of his economic record, such as low unemployment, robust growth and efforts to revive American manufacturing.

The switch from Biden to Harris last month appears to have given Democrats a real chance to start over. Earlier this week, a Financial Times poll found that about as many Americans now trust Harris on economic issues (42%) as former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee (41%). Other polls have found that “Harris has reduced Biden’s previous deficit with Trump on economic issues by six to nine points,” according to the Washington Post.

Do these numbers mean that Harris will suddenly dominate Trump on economic issues? No. But they suggest that voters at least open for her, they weren’t open to Biden. And on Friday, she used that openness as an opportunity to say that her economic focus as president would be a little different than Biden’s — and a little more in line with what voters say they want.

“The bills add up,” Harris said. “Groceries, rent, gas, school uniforms, prescription drugs. That doesn’t leave much left at the end of the month for many families.”

“As president,” she continued, “I will address the high costs that matter most to most Americans.”

What measures did Harris propose?

The Vice President and her campaign team unveiled more than a dozen economic policy measures on Friday. These include:

• Combating “price gouging” on food and grocery items by empowering the Federal Trade Commission to impose large fines on grocery stores that impose “excessive” price increases on their customers.

• Eliminate medical debt for millions of Americans, possibly by using federal funds to buy up and forgive outstanding debts from health care providers.

• The out-of-pocket cost of insulin will be capped at $35 per month for all Americans.

• Limiting Americans’ annual out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs to $2,000.

• Providing up to $25,000 down payment to more than 1 million first-time home buyers.

• The construction of three million new housing units is called for in the next four years.

• Expanding existing tax incentives for developers who build affordable rental housing.

• Eliminate tax benefits for Wall Street investors who buy large quantities of single-family homes to rent.

• Prevent commercial landlords from using algorithmic pricing tools to drastically increase rents.

• Passed a child tax credit that would provide families with $6,000 per child during a baby’s first year.

• Increase the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income earners by up to $1,500.

Note that every single one of Harris’ proposals is aimed at lowering the cost of living – be it food, medicine, housing, or child care. And almost all of her plans are also “populist” and involve government intervention against corporate interests in the interest of consumers.

“I know most companies are following the rules and creating jobs,” Harris said Friday. “But some aren’t, and when that’s the case, we need to take action.”

Harris cited her work as California’s attorney general in the fight against price-fixing between companies and vowed that she would “take action against the perpetrators” if elected in November.

Progressives have applauded. “Harris has made a series of policy decisions in recent weeks that make clear that the Democratic Party is committed to an agenda that benefits working families,” Felicia Wong, president of the left-leaning think tank Roosevelt Forward, told the Washington Post. “The days of ‘what’s good for the free market is good for America’ are over.”

Are Harris’ measures new?

Many of Harris’ proposals build on the work of the Biden administration; some go a step further. For example, caps on insulin costs and annual prescription drug copayments currently apply to Medicare recipients; Harris would extend them to all Americans. Biden has called for building two million housing units over the next four years; Harris calls for three million units. Harris’s $6,000 tax credit for newborns is new—but she also wants to revive Biden’s $3,600 child tax credit for low-income and middle-class families, which expired during the pandemic.

Would Harris’ policies work?

Harris’ plans to strengthen the social safety net and expand housing supply are widely seen as sensible. But mainstream economists have doubts about the effectiveness of a price-gouging ban — and they are skeptical that Harris can avoid widening the deficit without raising taxes on Americans earning less than $400,000 a year (which she has promised not to do). And then there’s Congress to contend with. If Harris doesn’t win with large Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, how many of these measures could she actually implement?

What did Harris say about Trump?

Protectionist tariffs are the cornerstone of Trump’s economic agenda. To give American manufacturers an advantage, the former president repeatedly called for a general 10 percent tax on all foreign imports – and a 60 percent tax on Chinese goods.

Together, these tariffs could cost a typical middle-income U.S. household an additional $1,700 per year, according to an estimate released in May by the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Trump “effectively wants to impose a national sales tax on everyday products and basic necessities,” Harris said Friday. “That will mean higher prices on almost all everyday necessities. A Trump tax on gasoline. A Trump tax on groceries. A Trump tax on clothing. A Trump tax on over-the-counter drugs. … At this moment when everyday prices are too high, he will raise them even higher.”

Harris also criticized Trump’s plans to extend the 2017 tax cuts to top earners and to further reduce the corporate tax rate from 21% to 15%.

“If you want to know who cares about someone, look at who they’re fighting for,” Harris said. “Donald Trump is fighting for billionaires and big corporations. I’m going to fight to give working Americans their money back.”

How did Trump react?

The former president had previously claimed that Harris’ economic plans were dangerously liberal.

“She’s banking on the Maduro plan,” Trump said Thursday at a press conference in Bedminster, New Jersey, referring to Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s autocratic left-wing president. “We call it the Maduro plan. Like something that comes straight out of Venezuela or the Soviet Union.”

But according to a recent poll by US magazine Data for Progress, 77 percent of Americans – including 87 percent of Democrats, 80 percent of independents and 65 percent of Republicans – agree that the US “should do more to crack down on companies that unfairly and illegally raise prices on consumers.”