Vice President Kamala Harris revealed on Friday her economic priorities for her first 100 days in office in the event that she gets elected as the next president of the United States.
A CNBC report highlighted three main areas that the vice president wishes to address -- to lower the prices of groceries and prescription drugs; to expand affordable housing; and to cut taxes for the middle class. On Friday, Harris is scheduled to deliver her first economic policy speech since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.
Addressing the first concern on high prices, Harris plans to work with Congress to institute a federal ban on "corporate price-gouging" on groceries and food, NPR reported. This is the practice of increasing the prices of products whenever the demand is high and the supplies are limited.
The goal is to avoid the exploitation of consumers by corporations and also to penalize violators. Aside from these, she is also looking at imposing an aggressive regulatory approach to mergers and consolidations of giant food manufacturers.
Harris also plans to help those renters who often do not have enough to meet the growing expense. She aims to block data firms from increasing lease rates but preventing investors in Wall Street from flipping homes at a much higher price. She would also like to build 3 million new housing units in the next four years.
As for tax cuts, Harris wishes to expand the child tax credits, which were introduced during the pandemic. This has also been the goal of the administration of Biden. Aside from this, Harris would like to expand tax relief up to $6,000 for families who have a newborn.
