In NC, Harris presents an economic plan while Trump offers gloom and empty promises | Opinion
Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris each campaigned in North Carolina this week, but they talked about two different economies.
Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, came into Raleigh on Friday buoyed by her rise in the polls and positive economic news as inflation has dipped under 3% and unemployment remains near a historic low. But the overall economic numbers have not moved people who are struggling with household costs, especially the stubbornly high price of food.
“Today, by virtually every measure, our economy is the strongest in the world,” Harris said in a speech at Wake Tech Community College’s North Campus. “Still, we know that many Americans don’t yet feel that progress in their daily lives. Costs are still too high.”
Harris took direct aim at those costs on Friday. She proposed restoring the lapsed child tax credit, providing a $25,000 subsidy for first-time home buyers, setting a cap on prescription drug costs and passing federal measures to discourage price gouging by the food industry.
Trump spoke in Asheville on Wednesday about what he called a nation ravaged by inflation.
“Under Kamala Harris and ‘Crooked’ Joe Biden, the American Dream is dead. You don’t hear about the American Dream anymore, it’s dead,” he said. “Radical liberal policies have caused horrific inflation, decimated the middle class and gutted the finances of millions and millions of American families.”
Trump said the economic policies supported by Biden and Harris have turned the United States into “literally a Third World nation.” He said, “They’ve destroyed this country.”
Harris and Trump can’t both be right about the economy. It’s increasingly clear that Trump is wrong.
The U.S. economy has had the strongest recovery of any major nation and may gain more strength if the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates in September. But while Trump is wrong about the overall economy, his focusing on high prices hits at a real concern among consumers.
Harris is trying to acknowledge that pain. She said much of the blame for high food costs now belongs on food companies, whose profits have soared even as their costs – and sometimes their products – have shrunk since the pandemic eased and supply chains returned to normal.
Harris said some companies are exploiting a past inflationary environment to pad their profits today. She’s proposing that the government take a harder line to prevent it. “Many businesses are playing by the rules, but some are not,” she said. “As president, I will go after the bad actors.”
Trump dismisses Harris’ plan as communist-style price controls that won’t work, but her approach is more likely to be limited to discouraging industry consolidation and using public shaming to discourage exorbitant profits.
Meanwhile, Trump has not offered a plan for reducing inflation or improving the economy in general. He said Harris “is waiting for me to produce it so she can copy it.”
What Trump does offer are promises that are themselves wildly inflated. He told his audience in Asheville, “From the day I take the oath of office, we will rapidly drive prices down and make America affordable again.”
Trump claims that the key to lowering prices will be to lower the cost of energy. As president, he said, “We’re going to drill, baby, drill” and extracting more oil and gas will serve his goal of “slashing energy and electricity prices by half.”
But the U.S. is already producing more oil and gas than ever.
“Vote Trump and your incomes will soar, your savings will grow, young people will be able to afford a home and we will bring back the American Dream bigger, better and stronger than ever before,” he said.
That fact-free pitch doesn’t sound like the restoration of the American Dream. It sounds like what it is – Trump dreaming. Harris, meanwhile, is offering real proposals to help middle- and low-income Americans.
Associate opinion editor Ned Barnett can be reached at 919-404-7583, or nbarnett@newsobserver.com
