PITTSBURGH (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris pledged Wednesday to build an economy that is both pro-business and helps the middle class as she sparred with Republican nominee Donald Trump She claims to defend “communist” ideas.
The Democratic nominee said in a speech to the Economic Club of Pittsburgh in battleground Pennsylvania that she would “take good ideas from wherever they come,” while promising to double the number of people trained in registered apprenticeships and emphasizing her support for greater homeownership.
“As president, I will remain true to my core values of fairness, dignity and opportunity,” Harris said. “And I promise you that I will be pragmatic in my approach.”
Just over an hour before his speech, Trump laid out his own vision for the economy during a visit to a furniture manufacturer in Mint Hill, North Carolina. He pushed his idea of a low tax rate for American manufacturers and pledged to impose tariffs high enough to cause an “exodus” of auto plant jobs from Japan, Germany and South Korea.
“I’m imposing tariffs on your foreign competition, on all those foreign countries that ripped us off, that stole all your businesses and all your jobs years ago,” Trump said.
The two candidates’ conflicting rhetoric reflects how they are honing their economic messages to voters in key states. Both are trying to counter critics while making their best pitches to an audience that remains concerned about the health of the economy. Trump focuses on the idea of U.S. dominance over foreign competitors, while Harris emphasizes the importance of supporting the middle class and entrepreneurs.
Harris’ remarks focused on her broader philosophy and what she is trying to accomplish for the economy, while Trump’s speech was more freewheeling, including innuendos about the two assassination attempts against him.
If elected, Trump has said the corporate tax rate for companies that manufacture their products in the United States would drop from 21% to 15%. The Republican candidate has suggested that his support for tariffs of up to 20% makes him an international target.
“That’s why people in some countries want to kill me,” he said. “They are not happy with me.”
The candidates are all emphasizing the economy at a time when polls show it is one of the most important issues for voters when deciding who to support. recent AP-NORC poll found that neither candidate has a decisive advantage with public opinion on this issue.
Both countries say their approach will do more to ensure that the U.S. economy, not China’s, is the world’s leader this century. Both are eager to adopt an image of tax-cutting and accuse each other of supporting massive tax hikes on the middle class. It’s a significant shift in messaging, as inflation fears have eased somewhat after the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate last week.
Harris refuted Trump by saying she was a capitalist who believed in an “active partnership between government and the private sector.” She said Trump had “no intention of growing our middle class — he’s only interested in improving his life and the lives of people like him.”
The Democratic candidate plans to provide $100 billion in tax breaks and other incentives to expand U.S. manufacturing and emerging technologies, according to a person familiar with her plans who spoke on condition of anonymity. She has a booklet coming out soon laying out her vision for the economy.
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Elsewhere, billionaire Mark Cuban said business leaders like him are supporting Harris because she has taken thoughtful positions that businesses can understand even when they have a different perspective.
“I want a president who, on business, gets into the details and has a policy team that understands all the ramifications of what’s been proposed,” Cuban said on a call Tuesday with reporters hosted by the Harris campaign.
Harris campaign’s efforts to show business support overlapped with Trump’s offering a multitude of populist ideasIn addition to not wanting to tax tips, Social Security or overtime, Trump wants to cap credit card interest rates at 10% and create low-tax zones on federal lands to attract employers. Trump also wants to scrap the cap on state and local tax deductions that he introduced into the tax code in 2017 while he was president.
Both candidates see this as an opportunity to destroy each other’s tax ideas. Trump recently dubbed Harris the “tax queen.” She wants to raise the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21% and tax unrealized capital gains on people with wealth over $100 million. She would use the proceeds from this and other measures to maintain middle-class tax cuts that are set to expire after 2025 and to provide new tax breaks for parents and entrepreneurs. Many of her policies build on ideas first proposed by President Joe Biden.
Trump claims his tax hikes will ultimately benefit the middle class.
“She’s coming for your money,” he told an audience Monday. “She’s coming for your pensions and your savings.”
Harris showed that two people can play this game. She called her call for tariffs a “national sales tax” because it could raise the price of coffee, clothing, electronics, cars and almost anything else that is imported or depends on imported parts.
His campaign likes to cite an analysis by Brendan Duke of the Center for American Progress, which estimates that a 20 percent universal rate would cost the average family nearly $4,000 a year. For middle-income taxpayers, that sum would effectively increase their total federal taxes by 50 percent, according to calculations based on Treasury Department Data.
Trump has long presented himself as someone who would cut regulations, but Harris said Wednesday she would do the same because “whether it’s a new housing development, a new factory or a new bridge, projects take too long to go from concept to reality.”
“China is not moving slowly,” Harris said. She added that she would reform the permit system and cut red tape because “patience may be a virtue, but not when it comes to job creation or America’s competitiveness.”
