Vice President Kamala Harris has put forth a range of policy positions about the economy, safety, crime and national security amidst columnist critiques of being ‘thin’ and ‘vague’ on the policies she proposed since her run as presidential candidate.
These policies were released on her official website less than 48 hours before the presidential debate on Tuesday, Sept. 10.
Though the release came more than two weeks ago, Harris’ proposals are widely discussed in political discourse. A recent NBC News poll indicated that she is gaining momentum, leading Trump 49% to 44% within the margin of error, although Trump still holds the advantages on issues like the economy, inflation and border security.
Under the theme of “A New Way Forward,” the plans cover a wide range of issues, organized asl goals for the Harris-Walz administration to build an “opportunity economy” and lower costs for families, safeguard our fundamental freedoms, ensure safety and justice for all, and keep America safe, secure and prosperous.
As building up the middle class is the defining goal of her presidency, Harris has promised an “opportunity economy” making it a top priority to bring down costs and increase economic security for all Americans, according to her website.
She has plans to implement economic proposals such as tax cuts for the middle class by “restoring two tax cuts designed to help middle class and working Americans”, as well as plans to make rent more affordable and home ownership more attainable by providing “first-time homebuyers with up to $25,000 to help with down their payments” according to her website.
Ashton Brown, a junior honors economics major and Spanish minor at Howard from Houston shared his thoughts on the proposition.
Brown took his stance as a “strong fan of this proposal,” as he assessed the housing market in Washington, D.C.
“Buying prices have risen to the point that buying a house in D.C. is considerably less likely as a college graduate today than as an alumni 20 or even 10 years ago,” he said.
He believes that a program like this would give students and other young people the opportunity to “charter their path to wealth creation and combat the housing crisis our country faces.”
Brown went further to compare Harris’ approach to Donald Trump’s more deregulated market scheme, which includes a reduction in the number of federal regulations imposed on businesses.
He noted that deregulation tactics would be “destructive” because that comes with “lowering the budget of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and obstructing its regulation of restrictive zoning laws.”
Brown also made it clear that in light of Trump’s comments that Harris has no economic plan, he believes her proposals for tax reform and infrastructure development eclipse Trump’s economic initiatives.
“Donald Trump is running a campaign based on rhetoric, and I do not see a structured or cohesive plan from his camp,” he said.
When it comes to political reforms, Harris’ proposals emphasize several freedoms that are at risk, including the right to make personal decisions about one’s body without government interference and the right to vote.
With a focus on voting rights, expanding access to the ballot and increasing protections against voter suppression, Harris is keen on building on her commitment to civil rights and democracy. She has been vocal about expanding the reach of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, as well as the Freedom to Vote Acts, protecting elections from foreign interference.
Her devotion to this cause was embodied in one of her statement releases in 2021 where Harris stated, “the Senate must pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act so it can become the law of the land and protect voters across the country.”
Keneshia Grant, associate professor of American politics at Howard, said there is a “likelihood” that these plans will turn out “useful”.
“First of all the president doesn’t make policy, the legislature does,” she said. “So Harris might signal or suggest or say that she will sign a bill if the bill comes to her desk, as the president has the ability to do, but Harris herself cannot pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.”
Grant, who authored “The Great Migration and the Democratic Party: Black Voters and the Realignment of American Politics in the 20th Century,” noted that the reason the John Lewis Voting Rights Act was not passed was because Congress was divided.
“What Harris needs and what it seems like she’s been working on is not only getting elected herself but also getting enough people in Congress elected so that she can fulfill these promises that she doesn’t have the ability to fulfill as the president,” she said.
She expressed that the other reason is that sometimes policy and people are not in line with each other, drawing on historical examples.
“There are attempts at school desegregation that failed, not because school desegregation is bad, but because there are people who just don’t want to be desegregated in school, ” she said.
When you’re thinking about the effectiveness of the political agendas, Grant asserted that you have to consider both “what the president has the constitutional authority to do and what the people are likely to do in response.”
Grant digressed, however, to give a holistic assessment of Harris’ propositions.
“It seems to be the case that her plans have a little bit more detail than Trump’s as by his own accounting he has a concept of a plan, rather than a plan,” she said.
She also acknowledged that the plans adhered to Harris’ goal of building up the middle class.
“I think the probability that her policies could be helpful to the working and middle-class people is higher than the probability of Trump’s will because she is focused on a system where the money and the benefit accrues directly to them,” Grant said.
Another prominent aspect of Harris’ platform is her commitment to healthcare reform.
Her plan proposes extending Medicare coverage to include more Americans, ensuring access to affordable prescription drugs and expanding mental health services.
Through measures like an expansion of the Affordable Care Act and making the Biden-Harris tax credit enhancements permanent, in her plan she vows to ensure that affordable healthcare is a right and not a privilege.
Her plans also include a continuation of the Biden-Harris administration’s endeavors in bringing down the cost of lifesaving prescription drugs for Medicare beneficiaries by extending the $35 cap on insulin and $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket spending for seniors to all Americans.
Khalil Winzer-Wilks, junior honors history and international affairs double major at Howard from Oakland, California is in full support of this endeavor.
“The U.S. currently spends more than any other developed country in the world for prescription drugs, but in the past three or four years since being in office, Biden and Harris have done a lot of good work when it comes to reducing costs, particularly with insulin,” he said.
According to the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation “in 2022, U.S. prices across all drugs (brands and generics) were nearly three times as high as prices in the comparison countries.”
“If you look north,” Winzer-Wilks said. “In Canada, they pay a tenth of what we pay for many drugs, and insulin was one of them until Biden and Harris introduced a cap on insulin to $35 as compared to hundreds of dollars Americans were forced to pay before.”
This aligned with a study from the non-profit Health Care Cost Institute, which revealed the “insulin costs per patient nearly doubled from 2012 to 2016” which caused Americans to ‘run’ to Canada to secure insulin for a tenth of the price that they would pay in the U.S., according to the Washington Post.
Winzer-Wilks reflected on his younger brother receiving his Type 1 diagnosis under the Trump administration.
He said that it was clear that Trump “didn’t care and he still doesn’t care,” lamenting the hundreds of dollars his parents had to pay for a single vial of insulin.
Winzer-Wilks pondered the strain that expenses like these put on the average American who may not have favorable insurance plans.
“It’s crazy, and when you sell out the American working class, the backbone of the US economy, you’re selling out America,” he said.
Winzer-Wilks is confident that Harris is a more than qualified candidate.
Some, however, question whether Harris is introducing fresh ideas to this ongoing presidential race, as was evident when Corrine Green, an user on X suggested that Harris’ policy platform is closely aligned with Biden’s, rather than advancing any new direction.
Green, who is a queer policy artist according to her X bio, and others delved into metadata that suggests Harris’ policy platform bears striking similarities to Biden’s, leading to speculations about her level of independence as a policymaker.
Winzer-Wilks challenged this assumption.
“Do people honestly think that an 80-year-old man has single-handedly run the government for the past four years? He’s done well and proved many wrong about his age until recently, but Kamala has had her hands all over what many claim to be his own policies,” he said.
Brown seemingly concurs with the idea that Harris has her own unique vision, sharing that Harris’ plan seems to be “updated to the inflation, labor and interest rate environment we see now.”
At the same time, he believes that “it is important for the Democratic ticket to be unified,” and finds no issue in Harris extending Biden’s policies.
“The American government turns like a cruise ship more than a sailboat when there is a transition,” he said. “And it seems to me more strategic to align herself with Biden’s initiatives in order to make impactful work.”
Copy edited by Camiryn Stepteau
