Although Vice President Harris has not yet locked in the Democratic presidential nominee, this does not seem to prevent people from scrutinizing her potential economic policy agenda. Many industry insiders have concluded that the highest-ranking female elected official in American history may ultimately have a more progressive economic agenda than "Bidenomics," and will also be more incompatible with "Trumpnomics"!

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In 2019 presidential debates, Harris, who was then a California senator, harshly criticized 'Trumponomics'. The future US Vice President severely criticized Trump's tax policy as a gift to the wealthy and believed that the robust stock market made a large number of middle-class people fall behind. She also warned that Trump's reckless trade agenda was hurting farmers in the middle of the United States.

Now, as Harris is preparing to replace Biden and become the potential Democratic Party's presidential nominee, her challenge will be how to explain her vision more clearly to more reasonably guide the US economy, which is still struggling with inflation, and draw a clear line with Trump, who promises more tax cuts and tariffs.

During Biden's presidency, Harris, as his deputy, has been an active defender of the White House's economic agenda and has been promoting the benefits of legislature such as the 'American Rescue Plan' and the 'Lower Inflation Bill' enacted in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

However, during her time as Attorney General and senator, Harris was sometimes more 'progressive' than the President in pushing for universal healthcare, calling for more generous tax benefits for American working-class, and paying for these benefits by increasing corporate taxes. Therefore, some analysts believe that although Harris is expected to follow Biden's style in many areas, the two may have some differences in some areas.

Terry Haines, founder of Pangaea Policy, believes that compared to Biden, Harris is closer to the Democratic Party's progressive faction, and her future proposals may be 'more positive' in supporting welfare and housing projects. She may also do more work in bank regulation or consumer-oriented regulation.

In the past few weeks, Harris has begun her 'opportunity tour', constantly promoting a series of economic achievements made by the US government in the past four years, including: wage growth that has exceeded the inflation rate, increasing employment in the manufacturing industry, and Democrats' efforts to exempt student loan debts. At an event held in San Francisco earlier this month, Harris said, 'As Democrats, we are sometimes said to be useless, but we actually solved long-standing problems that hindered the creation of wealth.'

Here are some positions that Harris has held on some economic issues since she entered politics.

Taxation

As a presidential candidate, Harris proposed to provide monthly tax refunds worth up to $500 for people with an income below 0.1 million USD, replacing the tax cuts implemented by Trump in 2017.

The legislative proposal raised by Harris was called the LIFT the Middle Class Act, published in 2018, which aimed to help middle-class families and working families pay daily expenses by providing funds through tax credits. She described it as a way to narrow the wealth gap in the United States.

In 2019, Harris also proposed to increase the estate tax on the rich to pay for a 300 billion USD teacher pay raise plan. The plan, known as the largest federal investment in teacher salaries in American history, will increase the average salary of American teachers by $13,500.

It is worth mentioning that during the last time Biden and Harris competed for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, there were still some differences in the tax rate that should be imposed on businesses. Harris hoped to increase the corporate tax rate from 21% to 35%, which was much higher than Biden's proposed 28%. Trump currently hopes to further reduce the corporate tax rate to 20%.

Housing problem

Last week, the Biden administration proposed a plan to force corporate landlords to limit rent increases to 5% and called on Congress to support more investment in affordable housing.

During her tenure as a senator and running for president last time, Harris has always made affordable housing a priority, but she has taken a different approach. She proposed the 'Rent Relief Act,' which would provide refundable tax credits for renters with an income of less than 0.1 million USD to compensate for housing costs that exceed 30% of their income.

To help the poorest groups, Harris also called for emergency assistance funding for the homeless, and invested $100 billion in communities that have historically been unable to obtain housing loans due to discrimination.

Trade

In a Democratic primary debate at the end of 2019, Harris strongly criticized Trump for his "capricious" trade policy and said his tariff war had hurt soybean farmers in Iowa who faced foreign retaliation.

Harris has said she would focus on promoting US exports and declared, "I am not a Democratic protectionist."

Last week, Harris reiterated her criticism of him when discussing Trump's plan to impose a 10% tariff on all goods imported into the United States. She said such a policy would raise the cost of gasoline, groceries and clothing.

"His tariffs will increase the cost of daily family expenses," Harris said at an event in North Carolina.

Regulation

Ms. Harris served as California attorney-general from 2011 to 2017 and was an ardent consumer protection advocate. In 2016, she threatened Uber with legal action if the company did not remove its self-driving cars from California's roads.

After the 2008 financial crisis, she pulled California out of a nationwide settlement agreement with major mortgage lenders and used her power to seize more funds from the primary mortgage providers. She later announced that California homeowners would receive $12 billion in mortgage relief as a result.

However, Harris was criticized in her political career for failing to prosecute OneWest Bank and its then CEO Steven T. Mnuchin because the California Department of Justice found "widespread misconduct" in the bank's practice of canceling mortgage redemption rights. Mnuchin later became Treasury Secretary during Trump's previous term.

Climate and Energy

Harris' stance on climate and energy is similar to Biden's. But throughout her career, she has made it clear that clean energy and environmental justice are priorities.

When Biden announced Harris as his 2020 campaign partner, he emphasized her tough stance on oil giants during her time in California and noted that she had brought litigation against them both during her tenure as San Francisco district attorney from 2004 to 2011 and as California attorney general until she became a US senator in January 2017.

Last year, Harris attended international climate negotiations for the first time, announcing a $3 billion injection of funds into the Green Climate Fund and making her first major international speech on climate. As vice president, Harris has also been involved in the Environmental Protection Agency's efforts to address long-standing environmental problems, such as the nationwide plan to replace lead pipes and lead paint that will cost billions of dollars.

AI

As Vice President, Harris has been particularly outspoken on issues related to artificial intelligence. In a speech in November 2023, she warned of the "existential" threat posed by AI, saying it could "endanger human survival."

In a meeting with technology company executives such as Satya Nadella of Microsoft, Sam Altman of OpenAI, and Sundar Pichai of Google, Harris also warned that they have a "moral" obligation to guard against the potential dangers of artificial intelligence.

She supports Biden's executive order on AI, which aims to provide stronger protections for consumers, specifically citing the impact of AI-generated fraud calls and unmarked AI-generated content.

Editor/ping