Harris to Propose Tax Cuts for Newborns in Economic Agenda

By Niels Lesniewski
CQ-Roll Call
(TNS)

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, is set to unveil a set of economic policy proposals Friday, highlighted by a new child tax credit.

The proposal, according to Harris-Walz campaign officials, would provide a $6,000 child tax credit within a newborn child’s first year. It also would bring back a child tax credit from the 2021 reconciliation law and expand earned-income tax credits for many taxpayers without children.

“It will provide up to $3,600 per child tax credit for middle-class and the most hard-pressed working families with children,” officials said.

The tax portion of the proposal also includes expended premium assistance tax credits. Harris is expected to detail the economic messaging and policy proposals as part of a campaign speech Friday afternoon in Raleigh, N.C.

She is also expected to announce proposals on housing and lowering costs, which the campaign previewed earlier this week.

The Harris proposal for assistance for first-time homebuyers goes beyond what President Joe Biden has proposed.

“The Biden-Harris administration initially proposed providing $25,000 in downpayment assistance only for 400,000 first-generation home buyers — or homebuyers whose parents don’t own a home—and a $10,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers,” a campaign fact sheet said. “Vice President Harris’s plan will simplify and significantly expand that plan by providing on average $25,000 for all eligible first-time home buyers, while ensuring full participation by first-generation home buyers.”

The campaign said Harris also wants to “accelerate” the process under which the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are negotiating the cost of prescription drugs. CMS announced the price list for the first 10 drugs, with the reduced sticker prices due to take effect on Jan. 1, 2026.

Biden and Harris appeared together Thursday in Prince George’s County, Md., to highlight the news.

Friday’s announcement of key Harris agenda items coincides with the second anniversary of the reconciliation law that provided for the Medicare price negotiations. The White House highlighted the vice president’s role in breaking the tie vote in the Senate, which cleared the way for the law’s enactment.

“While Republicans in Congress try to repeal this law—which would increase prescription drug costs and take good-paying jobs away from their constituents, all to give massive tax cuts to big corporations—Vice President Harris and I will keep fighting to move our country forward by investing in America and giving families more breathing room,” Biden said in a statement Friday.

Republicans, too, have highlighted the role of the vice president in breaking ties in support of the Biden administration’s agenda (for which she holds the record). Though GOP lawmakers like Sen. Joni Enst, R- Iowa, have a far different take on the implication of those votes.

“Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote on a pair of trillion-dollar tax and spend bills that created a 20% inflation surge,” Ernst posted on X earlier this week.

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