Harris signals friendlier-than-Biden business stance – Washington Examiner

Republicans have attacked Harris’s record since Biden stepped aside as the Democratic nominee, causing the vice president to start presenting herself as more centrist on economic issues than she had in the past as a senator from California and then later in 2020, when she ran to the left of Biden in the presidential election.

On Wednesday, Harris said she would increase the capital gains tax at a significantly lower rate than what Biden had proposed at a rally in New Hampshire. She would tax investment income at a rate of 28%, compared to Biden’s proposal of taxing capital gains at 39.6% for people who make more than $1 million a year. This stance is a reversal from her support for the tax increases proposed in the White House’s budget earlier this year.

She also said she wants a tenfold expansion of the small business tax deduction for startup expenses from $5,000 to $50,000. She also set a goal of 25 million new small business applications in her first four years in office.

Her move away from the White House’s budget is a signal she is working to appeal to middle-class voters as Republicans work to tie her to Biden’s economic legacy. In several rallies and statements, Harris has sought to portray herself as the champion of the average voter while branding former President Donald Trump as the crony of the billionaire class.

Harris’s campaign has reversed course on several other policies since July, including that she no longer supports a federal job guarantee, something many proponents of a Green New Deal have pushed for. She has also changed her tune on eliminating private healthcare plans as part of a Medicare for All plan and banning fracking.

“My plan will make our tax code more fair while also prioritizing investment and innovation. So let us be clear: Billionaires and big corporations must pay their fair share in taxes,” Harris told the New Hampshire crowd on Wednesday.

Earlier this week, Harris’s campaign released an ad slamming Trump for corporate price gouging that has led to high grocery and gas prices for average families while blaming the former president for giving the same corporations tax cuts. It was the fourth ad focusing on the economy since the Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago.

Trump’s campaign has blamed the lingering effects of inflation in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Biden-Harris administration. The former president has also said he wants to extend his 2017 tax cut legislation, which would lower the corporate income tax rate if he is reelected.

“This country will end up in a depression if she becomes president. Like 1929, this will be a 1929 depression. She has no idea what the hell she’s doing,” Trump said Wednesday during a Fox News town hall with Sean Hannity.

“I gave you the biggest tax cuts in the history of our country. … If you let the Trump tax cuts expire, which she wants to do, she wants to terminate them, if you do that, you will suffer the biggest tax increase in history,” Trump said of Harris.

Republicans and Trump have worked to frame Harris’s plan to ban price gouging as a communist agenda.

“Under Comrade Kamala Harris, all Americans are suffering during this Holiday weekend — High Gas Prices, Transportation Costs are up, and Grocery Prices are through the roof. We can’t keep living under this weak and failed ‘Leadership,’” Trump posted to Truth Social over the Labor Day weekend.

An ABC News-Washington Post-Ipsos poll released in mid-August before the DNC showed Trump leading Harris by 9 percentage points in terms of voters’ trust to handle the economy.

Harris’s economic flip-flops will be on full display on Sept. 10, when the vice president and Trump will have their first debate hosted by ABC News. The debate will be the first test for Harris to see whether she can convey her campaign platform and hold her stance against Trump.

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Many Republican and Democratic strategists have said the energy surrounding Harris’s campaign will “reset” after Labor Day and after the debate, as it will be the first time both Harris and Trump will meet face-to-face for unscripted conversations.

The last presidential debate in June was the catalyst for Biden’s withdrawal from the race after his lackluster performance, meaning all eyes will be on Harris to see whether she can keep a hold on the boost in excitement that came with her entry into the race.