The candidates for the White House, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, bring very different agendas in their economic policies on taxes and tariffs, although both agree on their interest in reducing inflation and avoid formulating specific proposals to reduce the swollen national debt.
These are some keys to the economic program that each candidate presents:
1. Taxation
Donald Trump proposes reducing the corporate tax from 21% to 15% for those companies that manufacture their products in the United States.
The Republican candidate also proposes eliminating taxes on monthly Social Security benefits, since according to current law, beneficiaries of these services must pay taxes on 50 to 85% of their benefits.
In contrast, Harris has expressed her idea of increasing the corporate tax rate from 21 to 28%, while she has promised not to increase taxes on American households earning $400,000 or less per year.
The Democrat also proposes increasing the long-term capital gains tax rate to 28% for Americans earning $1 million or more and has advocated for a multimillion-dollar minimum tax on those whose net worth is greater than $100 million.
One of the candidates’ main objectives is to combat inflation: to do so, Harris plans to ban abusive prices in the country while Trump promises to reduce the prices of gasoline, groceries and other items.
2. Tariffs
One of Trump’s most controversial economic proposals is to increase tariffs on US imports from 10% to 20%, a figure that would rise considerably in the case of products from China (60%) and in imports from companies from USA that move their production to Mexico (200%).
This has been criticized by analysts who claim that it could increase the large public debt of the United States, and many have even questioned its legality, since the country’s Constitution grants the power to impose tariffs to Congress, not the president.
For her part, Harris has not gone into details on this matter, although Joe Biden’s government has maintained most of the tariffs of the last Trump presidency in these four years.
Harris has focused her economic speeches on her desire to boost new small businesses, for which she promises a tax deduction of $50,000 (ten times more than the current $5,000 reduction).
Additionally, the Democrat has set a goal of generating 25 million new small business applications in the first two years of her presidency.
On the other hand, Harris proposes giving families a tax credit of $6,000 for each newborn child during their first year of life and reintroducing another tax credit of $3,600 per child for middle and lower class families.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump is proposing to temporarily limit credit card interest rates to about 10% and eliminate tax deductions for interest on auto loans in order to help middle-class Americans.
4. Housing
On the issue of housing, Harris offers to give 25,000 to first-time homebuyers while suggesting creating 3 million new housing units over the next four years.
Meanwhile, Trump proposes tax incentives for home buyers and pledges to reduce inflation and end illegal immigration to reduce the high costs of the real estate market.
5. Health
In terms of health, Kamala Harris wants to expand subsidies from the Affordable Care Act – known as “Obamacare” -, which helps low- and middle-income people get health coverage.
Harris proposes that the Medicare senior health program cover the costs of home caregivers, as well as expanding the $35 limit for insulin costs beyond clients of this plan.
For his part, Trump has not given details about his health program (when asked about it in the presidential debate, he said he has “a concept of a plan2 that he has not yet developed).
6. The great unknown: the US debt
Some analysts have criticized the economic plans of both candidates for their lack of details on how Trump and Harris would reduce the US public debt (which in 2023 was more than 35 trillion dollars, which represents 118.73% of the country’s GDP). .
According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Harris’ plan would increase the debt by $3.5 trillion over the next decade, while Trump’s would increase it by $7.5 trillion.
With information from EFE
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