JD Vance has said Kamala Harris should test out her economic policies now, while she is currently in power as vice president.
The Democratic nominee for president unveiled parts of her economic agenda last month, when she outlined her proposals—namely on how to lower the cost of living.
These included tax policies that would raise the level of tax levied on corporations, banning price gouging on groceries, helping with down payments for first-time buyers and providing a $6,000 tax credit for families with newborns.
But Harris was set to propose another set of new economic policies in an economic speech in New Hampshire on Wednesday, CNN reported, quoting a Harris campaign official.
Vance was discussing this with Fox News host Laura Ingraham on her show The Ingraham Angle, when he said Harris is in a position to implement her policies already.
He said: “Let’s laugh at the fact that Kamala Harris is promising to do something if the American people give her a promotion, that she hasn’t been doing the last three-and-a-half years as vice president.
“This is the lie at the heart of Kamala Harris’ campaign, that if you elect her, she’s somehow going to be different than she already has been.”
The Republican vice-presidential candidate went on: “If Kamala Harris thinks these policies are going to do a load of good—and of course they’re nonsensical—but if she thinks they’re going to do a load of good, she should try them out now because she’s currently in power, not promise to do something when she’s in office in the future, that she’s not doing when she’s in office, in the present.”
Newsweek contacted the Harris campaign via email, outside of normal working hours, for a response, and also contacted Vance’s team for further comment.
Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign event at Northwestern High School in Detroit, on September 2. Vance has criticized Harris’ economic policies.
AP
Harris will call for an expansion to tax deductions for people starting businesses and removing hurdles, such as operational licenses, for some businesses, in her announcement on Wednesday, according to the CNN report.
The campaign official reportedly said Harris wants to increase the existing $5,000 deduction for expenses related to starting a business to $50,000.
Polls have long shown that the economy is the most important issue for voters in the U.S. While inflation has slowed, food prices are still 21 percent higher than they were three years ago.
When Harris had her first unscripted with the media last week, with CNN‘s Dana Bash, she was asked: “What (do) you say to voters who do want to go back when it comes to the economy specifically because their groceries were less expensive, housing was more affordable when Donald Trump was president?”
Harris answered: “When Joe Biden and I came in office during the height of a pandemic, we saw over 10 million jobs were lost.
“People, I mean, literally, we were all tracking the numbers. Hundreds of people a day were dying because of Covid. The economy had crashed.
“In large part, all of that because of mismanagement by Donald Trump of that crisis. When we came in, our highest priority was to do what we could to rescue America. And today, we know that we have inflation at under 3 percent.
“A lot of our policies have led to the reality that America recovered faster than any wealthy nation around the world. But you are right. Prices, in particular for groceries, are still too high.
“The American people know it. I know it. Which is why my agenda includes what we need to do to bring down the price of groceries.”
Newsweek contacted Trump’s team for a response to these comments.
