Kamala Harris reveals economic policies | The Excerpt

On Saturday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: USA TODAY Money and Personal Finance Reporter Medora Lee takes a look at Vice President Kamala Harris' economic priorities revealed Friday. Kamala Harris is doing well with Black voters in key battleground states, while gaps remain. Migrant crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border plunge. Could Alex Murdaugh get a new trial?

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it.  This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

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Taylor Wilson:

Good morning, I'm Taylor Wilson and today is Saturday, August 17, 2024. This is The Excerpt. Today, Kamala Harris has outlined parts of her economic agenda. What did the experts say? Plus we take a look at new polling around Black voters in key battleground states. And why are migrant crossings dropping at the southern border?

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Vice President Kamala Harris revealed her economic priorities yesterday. I spoke with USA Today money and personal finance reporter Medora Lee for a closer look. Hello, Medora.

Medora Lee:

Hi.

Taylor Wilson:

So Medora, Kamala Harris has revealed some big economic plans. One thing we've been hearing about was the possibility of a federal ban on price gouging on groceries. What would this involve and what do the experts say about this move?

Medora Lee:

So there are a couple things with the groceries. She wants to do this first ever federal ban on price gouging on food and groceries. She wants to make the rules clear that big corporations can't unfairly and excessively drive up their prices to just be more profitable and give out dividends and stop buybacks to shareholders. And so she's also going to give the FTC more authority to impose restrictions and penalties on companies that break those rules. And she also wants to keep an eye on large companies that want to merge and maybe control parts of the market and then be able to raise prices.

A lot of progressives like this because nobody wants to pay a lot of money for food, but I think that economists think that this is not such a great idea because they think it sounds like price controls, which they say never works. And the reason why they think this doesn't work is because it can disincentivize people to get into the business and then it creates less competition and just drive up shortages. Who wants to go into that business if I can't make any money? And plus, they also say they don't believe that prices are high because of price gouging. They believe it's because of inflation, because the government's put out too much money out there for people to spend, which created more demand. So that's where the economists pretty much stands. No economist I talked to actually likes this idea.

Taylor Wilson:

And separately, what did Harris announce here surrounding the child tax credit?

Medora Lee:

She is proposing to raise the child tax credit to $3,600, which was what it was during COVID for a year, the special expansion for one year. That's also up from where it is now at $2,000. And then it scales down a little bit depending on the age of your children. The big surprise was she also wanted to give new parents with newborns an extra $6,000 during the first year of that child's life. A lot of people like the child tax credit. The scope of it and the rules around it are what's going to be up for grabs. When we had that special expanded child tax credit in 2021, child poverty about dropped in half. So that's pretty compelling to people. And I just want to mention that J.D. Vance also floated a $6,000 child tax credit and hinted at maybe no income thresholds. So it's a policy battle here. I don't know who's going to win, but it's good all around because that means that everybody on both sides of the aisle are interested in a better child tax credit.

Taylor Wilson:

Yeah, absolutely. So Medora, housing, of course, is a huge issue nationwide in this election year as well. Did Harris offer up any solutions on this front?

Medora Lee:

She did. She wants to give builders tax incentives to build more homes and especially starter homes. And she's also going to block data firms from hiking rental rates. A lot of these companies use these data firms to determine their rents. There've been some problems with some of that, people say. So she wants to block that and she also wants to keep Wall Street investors from buying up homes in bulk to resell them at premiums to other people.

And here's a good one. She wants to provide a $25,000 down payment support for first time homeowners. So those are all good things because the housing market is really unaffordable for a lot of people right now. But I did have one expert, a former congressman, tell me that he thought these were great things to help homeowners, but the devil, like everything else, is always in the details. And they were light on the details. And so he's just hoping that that subsidy for first time home buyers will have some limitations because probably wealthy people don't need that.

Taylor Wilson:

So Medora, what wasn't discussed?

Medora Lee:

So the biggest one that everybody was looking for was Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. She did not mention whether she would support this or change it in any way. And this Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is going to expire at the end of 2025. This is very important for everybody because it touches almost every single American in this country. It will raise tax rates on almost everybody, narrow income tax brackets, and cut the standard deduction in half among very many other things. But that just alone will require more people to itemize probably, so collect those receipts. And then it will also affect your paychecks starting January 2026 if this expires because of the higher tax rates in the narrow income tax brackets, every paycheck could lose $50 to $100 because of higher withholding.

Taylor Wilson:

All right, Medora Lee with a great breakdown for us here, covers money and personal finance for USA Today. Thank you, Medora.

Medora Lee:

Thank you.

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Taylor Wilson:

Support for Kamala Harris's presidential run among Black voters in the key battleground states of Michigan and Pennsylvania is soaring, but the presumptive democratic nominee has to do more to ease concerns of young low-income and undecided Black voters about rising grocery bills and housing costs, according to an exclusive new USA Today Suffolk University poll. The survey of 500 Black voters in each of those states conducted last weekend shows they favor Harris over former President Donald Trump by a seven-to-one margin in Michigan and by nearly that much in Pennsylvania. And enthusiasm is on the rise for Harris compared with that for President Joe Biden. But the poll also pointed to significant concerns among groups hardest hit by years of inflation. In Pennsylvania in June, for example, 34% of Black residents with the lowest incomes said their personal financial situation had gotten worse over the last four years. And about the same percentage said it had improved.

And a third-party candidate among Black voters could still put a massive wrinkle in what remains a tight national race. In Pennsylvania, 8% of respondents said they intended to vote for one of four third-party candidates. In Michigan, that number was 11%. You can read the poll's full findings with a link in today's show notes.

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After record-breaking years, migrant crossings have plunged at the US-Mexico Border. US Customs and Border Protection data shows some 56,000 migrant encounters between ports of entry in July. That's down 57% from the same month a year ago. I spoke with USA Today national immigration reporter, Lauren Villagran, to learn more. Lauren, thanks for hopping on.

Lauren Villagran:

Thanks, Taylor.

Taylor Wilson:

So Lauren, migrant border crossings have dropped. What do the numbers say here?

Lauren Villagran:

It's been an issue that's been really intractable for the Biden administration, but this year is the first year that the administration has managed to register decline in migrant crossings at the border. We've now seen five consecutive months of declining crossings, even during a time when normally seasonally you would see unlawful crossings at the border rise.

Taylor Wilson:

Yes, as you say, this goes against some of the seasonal trends. Why are we seeing this drop in crossings now?

Lauren Villagran:

Well, there's a number of things going on, Taylor. There's a combination of policies that the administration has put in place, as well as partners throughout the region, including Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, and Colombia, all doing more to enforce their borders. It's not that the conditions in the countries that people are fleeing have changed dramatically, it's more that it's harder and taking longer for people to reach the US border. And once they do with some new policies that the Biden administration has put into place, it's harder to get in. So for example, in June, the Biden administration issued an executive order out of the White House tightening restrictions on access to the asylum system. And so that has made it harder for migrants to cross between a port of entry where you see the long lines of people at the border fence or the border wall. It's made it harder for them to do that and seek asylum, for example.

Taylor Wilson:

How are the policies of other countries in the region really making an impact here as well? I know you and I have talked a lot about Mexico's role over the years. What are they doing and what's happening in other places like Panama and Colombia?

Lauren Villagran:

Well, the thing that's been surprising to everyone that watches this stuff on a regular basis is how long Mexico's crackdown has lasted. In years past, Mexico would often crack down on its southern border to please the United States in some cases, but it would never last more than a few weeks or at most, a couple of months. We are now fully eight months into a very significant crackdown in Mexico. You also saw Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, get a deal with Panama under which the United States will provide aid to Panama to deport foreign nationals from its territory back to their countries of origin. And remember the Darién Gap, that very dangerous jungle isthmus between Central and South America is where so many people are crossing on the migrant trail. So that deal is significant as well.

Taylor Wilson:

We know this is a major political issue in a big election year. Have we heard from political leaders after this news, Lauren? And what's next for this conversation politically going forward?

Lauren Villagran:

Certainly Republicans say too little too late. Why did it take three and a half years? The Biden administration has its reasons. There were the negotiations in Congress last fall and earlier this year. It seems pretty clear that the Biden administration did want a congressional solution. Executive orders and executive action at the end of the day almost always face legal challenges, which softens their bite and their duration. So really, all watchers, both Republicans and Democrats, will always still point to Congress as where immigration and border security reform has to take place.

Taylor Wilson:

All right, Lauren Villagran covers the border and immigration for USA Today. Thank you, Lauren.

Lauren Villagran:

Thanks, Taylor.

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Taylor Wilson:

More than a year after Alex Murdaugh's historic double murder trial, the disbarred lawyer serving two life sentences for killing his wife and son has a chance at getting a new trial. Last year, Murdaugh was convicted of the killings and pleaded guilty to state and federal charges related to a financial fraud crime spree that involved a range of victims in multiple South Carolina counties. Murdaugh continues to deny he killed his family. His request for a new trial accusing a court official of jury tampering was initially denied.

Then this week, the South Carolina Supreme Court granted Murdaugh's request saying they'd hear his appeal, which means he can skip the lengthy appeals court process. At the heart of the appeal and review is not Murdaugh's guilt or innocence, but whether he was fairly denied a new murder trial earlier this year. The Supreme Court could reverse or overturn that ruling and could order the court to give him a new trial.

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That there are healthcare inequities in America that disproportionately affect marginalized communities isn't news. But why do these disparities persist? Tune in tomorrow on this feed when Dr. Ala Stanford, author of Take Care of Them Like My Own: Faith, Fortitude, and a Surgeon's Fight for Health Justice joins my colleague Dana Taylor to discuss the current state of access to care in the US.

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And thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your pods. And if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson and I'll be back Monday with more of The Excerpt from USA Today.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kamala Harris reveals economic policies | The Excerpt