Democrats on the defensive after Kamala Harris’ economic plan is poorly received
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Democrats were quick to defend Kamala Harris’ newly unveiled economic plans on Sunday, amid criticism that they are a gimmick that fails to address inflation.
Democracy president The candidate outlined his economic vision at an event in North Carolina on Friday, pledging to ban price increases and provide new tax breaks for families and homebuyers. But some measures have met with a cool response from economists and familiar Democratic allies, complicating the vice president’s efforts to win over voters on economic and cost-of-living issues.
An ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll conducted last week and released Sunday found Harris leading former President Donald Trump by six points. But it put Trump ahead by nine points when it came to who voters trust on the economy and inflation. That’s in contrast to FT Michigan Ross Poll conducted earlier this month, showed that many Americans trust Harris to handle the economy.
Key Harris allies took to Sunday morning television to defend the policies, with Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear telling CBS the policies were intended to “make sure that capitalism remains within the framework.”
“The purpose is not to try to fix prices, but to make sure the economy works the way it needs to,” he said.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker appeared on CNN and said that “you’ve heard corporations talk about raising prices even higher than inflation… so I think that’s not unreasonable for [Harris] to say that the federal government should do what many states have done, which is focus on raising prices.”
Asked by NBC if Harris’ policies were smart, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer replied: “People are overthinking what’s being put forward.”
In an editorial, the Washington Post — which has supported Democrats for decades for president — said that Harris “instead of coming up with a serious plan, he wasted time on populist tricks.”
Jason Furman, who chairs Barack Obama’s White House Council of Economic Advisers, told the New York Times that unreasonable price increases are “ill-advised policy” and could affect supply.
“I think the biggest hope is that it will be just talk and not reality. There are no positives here, and there are some negatives,” he said.
Harvard economics professor Kenneth Rogoff told CNN he doesn’t think the business price hikes “have much to do” with inflation. “I hope she backs down, she has some good ideas, some mixed ideas. This is a terrible idea,” he said.
Trump criticized Harris’ economic policies on Saturday at a rally in Pennsylvania, a key swing state, saying she was advocating “communist-style price controls” that would lead to “food shortages, rationing, famine, massive inflation.”
However, the former president also faced criticism from within his own party for failing to stay on message. New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu told CNN that “almost any other Republican candidate would have won this race by 10 points… if you talked about these economic issues.”
