Weeks into her campaign, Kamala Harris puts forward an economic agenda

WASHINGTON — Under pressure to put forward plans of her own, Vice President Kamala Harris will begin to detail her economic agenda at the first policy-focused event of her campaign on Friday in North Carolina.

Harris will propose a federal ban on price gouging of food and groceries and offer up ways to lower the costs of prescription drugs. And in a preview of her agenda, Harris' campaign shared new details Thursday evening on her plans to bring down housing costs.

The plan includes up to $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers. That's more than the $10,000 tax credit for first-time purchasers the Biden administration previously laid out. Her campaign projects the initiative will help more than 4 million first-time buyers purchase homes.

Costs of living:Housing costs continue to drive inflation even as food price hikes slow

Harris will also seek to provide homebuilders a tax incentive to construct and sell starter homes and establish a $40 billion fund to help local governments with housing shortages.

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Since taking over the Democratic ticket in late July, Harris has stressed that lowering costs for middle-class families would be the centerpiece of her administration. But in the weeks since she replaced Biden, the details had been sparse.

"Cost of living is still too high. Giant corporations driving up those costs every day. It’s why we’re taking on special interests, working to lower the cost of housing, of gas, of groceries, of everyday essentials," Harris said at a campaign rally last week in Nevada.

The lack of information provided an opening for her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, to fill in the blanks. He claimed at a rally on Wednesday, without evidence, that Harris would bring about a "1929-style Depression" and that if she becomes president, Americans' "finances will never recover," even as new consumer price index data showed inflation rates had slowed.

Inflation increased at a rate of 2.9 percent in July, which was the slowest pace since early 2021.

Harris' campaign said Friday morning that she's in favor of permanently expanding the Child Tax Credit to up to $3,600 per child and cutting taxes for lower-income workers without children by $1,500. Families with newborns would be eligible for a $6,000 tax credit under the Harris plan.

She'll also push for caps on prescription drugs — including $35 a month for insulin and annual out-of-pocket costs of $2,000. The proposal is expansion of a program for seniors in the healthcare and economic law that Harris cast the deciding vote on in 2021.

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A former attorney general of California, Harris is drawing her legal background to round out her agenda.

Her campaign says she will enforce the proposed new price-gouging rules by giving state attorneys general and the Federal Trade Commission more power to investigate and fine businesses. She will also encourage the government to intervene to stop mergers that would lead to higher grocery costs, it said.

Harris has also come out against new tariffs, which could lead the price of household goods to jump, and tax cuts for rich Americans. She appeared alongside President Joe Biden at a Thursday event in Maryland, where he announced that Medicare had negotiated with private companies to reduce the costs of drugs that are used to treat cancer, heart disease, diabetes and blood clots.