See what Kamala Harris’ management could mean for your wallet

With trillions in tax relief expiring after 2025, taxes and the federal budget deficit will be key issues Harris will have to address as part of her platform, experts say.

Without action from Congress, dozens of provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, or TCJA, will expire, including lower federal income brackets, a larger standard deduction and a more generous child tax credit, among other changes. This could mean higher taxes for more than 60% of filers, according to the Tax Foundation.

In general, it appears Harris would be “largely on board” with most, if not all, of what Biden and his administration have been pushing, “especially in the big picture,” said Garrett Watson, a senior policy analyst and director of models at the Tax Foundation.

Biden has called for higher taxes on wealthy Americans and corporations.

A big question is whether Harris will follow through on Biden’s pledge not to raise taxes on those making less than $400,000, Watson said.

Last week, Harris also advertised for management extending the child tax credit during the pandemic at a political event in North Carolina, which has been a priority for Biden and Democrats.

However, Harris did express some criticism of Biden before he became vice president, Watson noted.

During her 2020 presidential campaign, Harris called for a repeal of the TCJA’s corporate tax rate, which lowered the top tax from 35% to 21%. Its abolition would have brought the maximum rate back to 35%. By comparison, Biden has called for the corporate rate to rise to 28 percent in 2024.

— Kate Dorr

During Harris’ 2020 presidential bid, she supported a “Medicare for All” plans to expand access to health care and lower consumer costs. He described health care as a “right,” not a “privilege.”

Under this proposal, all Americans would switch to a Medicare health plan — either public or offered by a private insurance company — for a period of 10 years.

If selected as a candidate, Harris is unlikely to advance that plan in the current presidential contest, said Drew Altman, president and CEO of KFF, a nonprofit health policy research organization. That’s because Democrats seem to have rallied around Biden’s “kitchen table” proposals to lower health care costs, he said.

For example, in 2022, Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, which extended the Affordable Care Act’s enhanced subsidies, making ACA health plans more affordable for millions of the households? these subsidies last until 2025. Also covered insulin co-pays at $35 per month for Medicare beneficiaries.

Harris will likely seek to expand health coverage under the ACA and Medicaid, Altman said. He will likely try to expand prescription drug price negotiations, which currently only apply to Medicare beneficiaries and some medicineshe said.

Additionally, abortion is likely to be “the defining issue” of the 2024 election, according to Fatima Goss Graves, president of the National Women’s Law Center Action Fund. Harris is one of Democrats’ “strongest, most effective voices” in protecting abortion access, he said.

Abortion is an economic issue, Altman said.

Women generally have to weigh affordability and career advancement when choosing to have children, she said. Women in states that have enacted abortion bans — after the Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 to overturn Roe v. Wade — have lost their jobs and paid to travel out of state for the procedure.

— Greg Iacurci

Harris has helped promote Biden’s historic policies of forgiving the debt of student loan borrowers, and likely continue the efforts of the presidentsaid the experts.

However, as a candidate in the 2020 race, Harris proposed a debt relief program that was criticized as overly complicated and narrow. To be eligible, borrowers had to receive a Pell grant and open a business in a disadvantaged community, among other requirements.

Instead, Biden has favored broader debt relief, promoting plans that would reduce or eliminate the balances of tens of millions of Americans.

A White House spokesman recently told CNBC that Harris is proud of her and Biden’s work to forgive $167 billion in student debt for nearly 5 million Americans so far. The vice president plans to bring more relief to borrowers, he said.

Current US Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona wrote that he was “All in!” for Harris in a Position on X Sunday afternoon.

Harris has also taken on predatory schools and fought for relief for borrowers.

As California attorney general, Harris investigated and sued Corinthian Colleges and obtained a $1.1 billion judgment against the now-defunct for-profit conglomerate. The US Department of Education ended up looking at the schools and in 2022 forgave $5.8 billion in student debt for 560,000 former Corinthian students.

— Annie Nova

Before he became vice president, one of Harris’ signature proposals — known as the Lift the Middle Class Act — would have provided an annual tax credit of up to $6,000 for lower- and middle-income workers, on top of the benefits they already receive. to help close the wealth gap. Harris proposed repealing the Trump tax cuts to pay for it.

Since then, the cost of living has only skyrocketed, hitting working-class Americans particularly hard, said Laura Veldkamp, ​​a professor of economics and finance at Columbia University Business School.

Against that background, “there’s a good case” for raising the tax credit again for those below a certain income threshold, Veldkamp said.

— Jessica Dickler

Harris has been an advocate for affordable housing policies during both her time as vice president and senator.

“Every American deserves affordable housing,” Harris said was posted at X on July 16, referring to the Biden administration call the rent cap increases by 5% to landlords with 50 or more rental units or risk losing federal tax breaks.

More recently, Harris was announced the recipients of an $85 million grant under the Pathways to Removing Obstacles for Housing, a first-of-its-kind project aimed at reducing housing and rental costs for families.

Thanks in May also stated a $5.5 billion budget to strengthen affordable housing, invest in economic development, build wealth, and address homelessness in the U.S. through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD. The funds will be allocated to six different HUD programs.

— Ana Teresa Solá

Harris has targeted the gender pay gap with a plan to crack down on discriminatory pay practices and penalize companies that don’t comply.

According to a plan she revealed in 2019, companies with 100 or more employees must report pay and total compensation for men and women, as well as the percentage of women in leadership positions, to obtain “Equal Pay Certification.” Businesses without this certification will be fined 1% of their average daily profits during the last financial year.

Women earn just 84 cents for every dollar men earn, according to one analysis of US Census Bureau data from the National Women’s Law Center, though the pay gap worsens significantly for black and Latina women.

Rethinking the effort to require companies to disclose pay data could help, said Columbia University’s Veldkamp.

“Various forces drive inequalities, and forcing them to run with the numbers may bring to light problems they may want to fix,” he said.

— Jessica Dickler