Kamala Harris' pragmatic economic pitch to voters
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Vice President Kamala Harris on the campaign trail. Photo: Alex Wroblewski/Bloomberg via Getty Images
On Wednesday afternoon, Vice President Kamala Harris will seek to put some meat on the bones of her economic agenda, intending to convey that pragmatism will be her guiding economic principle.
The big picture: Her speech in Pittsburgh is aimed at assuring voters that she is no wild-eyed radical on economic issues, but rather a leader who embraces the strengths of capitalism while wanting to rein in its excesses.
- Business leaders have viewed the Biden administration as consistently hostile across a wide range of policy areas, including antitrust enforcement, securities regulation, consumer protection and energy permitting.
- In tone, at least, Wednesday's address is an attempt to signal that a Harris administration will be different — although how that would translate to policy detail if she wins in November is less clear.
What they're saying: Harris plans to say that "as a capitalist she understands the limitations of government and has always sought to take good ideas from wherever they come and harness the power of innovation," per a senior campaign official granted anonymity to discuss a speech not yet finalized.
- "She will describe her economic philosophy as 'pragmatic' — stressing that she will pursue practical, realistic solutions, instead of being 'bound by ideology,'" according to the official.
State of play: Economic policy has not been at the core of Harris' political identity, given her rise as a prosecutor and state attorney general. As a senator, she served on the Judiciary and Intelligence committees, not Finance or Banking.
- Some of the specific economic policies she has already embraced on the campaign trail are tailored to emphasize entrepreneurship, particularly a proposed $50,000 tax credit for small business startup costs.
- While she has largely hewed to Biden's proposed fiscal policies, she has broken with him on a few issues. She proposes raising the top capital gains tax rate to 28%, not the 39.6% found in the Biden budget. (It's currently 20%, not including a 3.8% surcharge on high earners).
- She has also signaled a willingness to work with industry on the regulation of cryptocurrency, in contrast to the current all-out regulatory clampdown.
Yes, but: In many of the areas where business interests have the deepest beef with the Biden administration, it is unknown what she would do as president.
- She has been quiet, for example, on whether she would keep in place officials viewed as business-unfriendly, like FTC chair Lina Khan, SEC chair Gary Gensler or Rohit Chopra, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
- On macroeconomic policy, there's not much basis to judge how her appointees to the Treasury, Federal Reserve and White House economic posts would differ from Biden's or former President Obama's.
- If Republicans win the Senate, it would constrain her ability to appoint officials viewed as hostile to business.
The bottom line: The Harris campaign sees an advantage in contrasting their economic approach to former President Trump's, and recent polling has pointed to some improvement in public opinion for Democrats on the economy.
- But the rhetoric only goes so far in predicting how she would govern.
