https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/09/08/kamala-harris-economic-vision/

By Jennifer Rubin - September 8, 2024 at 7:45 a.m. EDT

Vice President Kamala Harris, contrary to jibes from Republicans desperate to justify voting against her, is no socialist. To the contrary, although she has rolled out an economic agenda reliant on an activist government to level the playing field and boost the middle class, she is to a larger degree than President Joe Biden attuned to the need for pro-growth policies to support entrepreneurialism. Put it differently, she is a daughter of Silicon Valley, not Scranton. Sign up for Shifts, an illustrated newsletter series about the future of work

For starters, she has defined her economic philosophy by what she is not proposing. She fully supports the Affordable Care Act, eschewing more progressive plans for Medicare-for-all. (Her stint in the vice presidency informed her belief that the latter was unnecessary; expansive and affordable coverage, if properly administered, is more than sufficient to move toward universal coverage.)

Likewise, huge investments and incentives in green energy make a fracking ban unnecessary. “My values have not changed,” she explained in a recent CNN interview, pointing to the achievements in the Inflation Reduction Act. “What we’ve already done creating over 300,000 new clean energy jobs. That tells me from my experience as vice president we can do it without banning fracking.”

In addition, her plans to lower food and housing costs do not include extreme measures such as price controls. To the disappointment of critics ready to pounce on her for potentially disastrous efforts to micromanage pricing, she shied away from such measures. Rather, she is determined to prevent anti-competitive prices that distort the market to the detriment of ordinary Americans.

Moreover, Harris promised in the housing market to cut red tape that slows development and to give tax breaks. CNN reported: “To spur construction, Harris would provide a first-ever tax incentive for builders who build starter homes sold to first-time buyers. She also would expand an existing tax incentive for building affordable rental housing and create a $40 billion fund for innovative housing construction.”

On tax policy, her proposal for capital gains tax increases would be a much more modest step than Biden’s, who pushed for equalizing the rate between capital gains and ordinary income. The Wall Street Journal reported, “The all-in top rate would be 33%, which would include a new 28% capital rate cited by Harris on Wednesday as well as Biden’s proposal to raise a 3.8% investment income tax to 5%, people familiar with the plan said.” Biden, by contrast, sought “a near-doubling of today’s 23.8% top rate to 44.6%, taxing capital gains at roughly the same rate as ordinary income.”

Harris’s rationale comes straight from the pro-growth handbook. “We will tax capital gains at a rate that rewards investment in America’s innovators, founders and small businesses,” she said in New Hampshire on Wednesday. In other words, Harris wants to reward investors who put capital at risk to spur start-ups.

Harris has also rolled out a plan to boost small businesses. “Speaking to a crowd of several hundred people, Harris announced plans for a $50,000 tax benefit for small businesses, expanding the current $5,000 deduction for start-up firms by tenfold, according to a campaign official,” The Post reported Wednesday. “Campaign aides say the proposal — part of a suite of new initiatives to boost entrepreneurship — would help draw a contrast with Trump, who has proposed tax cuts for corporations.”

Harris has not shied away from using government to promote policies that help ordinary families. She has put out proposals for a child tax credit, a special $6,000 credit for newborns in their first year and $25,000 in down payment assistance to first-time home buyers. She does want to end the Trump tax cuts for the super-rich and for corporations. In short, she is not so naive as to believe that trickle down economics or the unfettered operation of the marketplace will suffice.

However, by introducing a panoply of pro-growth, pro-business measures, she defies critics who predict an economic calamity if she is elected. “U.S. economic growth would likely get the biggest boost in the coming two years from the Democrats, headed by Kamala Harris, winning the White House and Congress in this November’s elections, according to Goldman Sachs,” Reuters reported Wednesday. “Under a Republican sweep, or even with a divided government led by Donald Trump, economic output would take a hit next year, mostly from increased tariffs on imports and tighter immigration policies, Goldman said in a note late on Tuesday.” Specifically, “Under Harris, job growth would be 10,000 a month higher than if Trump wins with a divided government, and 30,000 higher than with a Republican sweep, Goldman estimates.”

On Friday, Harris’s efforts drew the endorsement of more than 90 CEOs, based on her ability to deliver “fair and predictable policies that support the rule of law, stability, and a sound business environment.”

To the surprise of some Trump apologists, Republicans, in their race toward nationalism and isolationism, have ceded traditional conservative advantages (e.g., international leadership, pro-growth economic policies) to Harris. “From the beginning of this short presidential run, the vice president has made opportunity the centerpiece of her economic vision,” Gabe Horwitz of the center-left think tank Third Way tells me. “That means the private sector — entrepreneurs, small and large businesses — are the keys to growth and prosperity. That is pretty much the opposite of socialism.”

Harris, not Trump, is appealing to those who want a strong international order and vibrant democracy. To the amazement of critics who underestimated her, Harris has managed to be both more progressive and more conservative than Biden. If she succeeds, she may rewrite the economic and political future of the country.