Last night’s debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump likely won’t be remembered for fiscal policy points as much as, say, discussion about abortion, immigration and the eating of pets. Still, the candidates did have some notable exchanges on economic plans, taxes, healthcare and other issues. In case you missed it, here’s a recap.
Taxes: In the first question of the debate, Harris was asked whether she believes Americans are better off than they were four years ago. She dodged, responding instead about her plans to boost the middle class and create an “opportunity economy,” including proposals to offer a $50,000 tax deduction to start-up small businesses and to expand the Child Tax Credit to provide up to $6,000. She also criticized Trump’s promise to extend his 2017 tax cuts, warning that the plan would increase deficits by $5 trillion — the Congressional Budget Office has estimated the cost at $4.6 trillion over 10 years — and that the benefits would flow to “billionaires and big corporations.”
She also warned of a “Trump sales tax” — a reference to the former president’s call for tariffs of 10% to 20% on foreign imports (and at least 60% on imports from China), which she called “a 20% tax on everyday goods” that would cost middle-class families about $4,000 a year. The left-leaning Center for American Progress Action Fund estimated that Trump’s proposals would amount to tax hike of about $3,900 a year for a middle-income family.
Harris later cited independent analyses that have favored her plans: “What Goldman Sachs has said is that Donald Trump's plan would make the economy worse. Mine would strengthen the economy. What the Wharton School has said is Donald Trump's plan would actually explode the deficit. Sixteen Nobel laureates have described his economic plan as something that would increase inflation and by the middle of next year would invite a recession.”
Trump didn’t get into details of his plan. “Everybody knows what I'm going to do. Cut taxes very substantially. And create a great economy like I did before,” he said. He claimed that Wharton professors think his plan is “brilliant.”
“It's going to make people want to be able to go and work and create jobs and create a lot of good, solid money for our country,” he said.
He also disputed the idea that he is proposing a sales tax. He and Sen. JD Vance, his running mate, have been falsely describing how tariffs work, insisting that foreign countries pay the costs. But Trump also noted that the Biden-Harris administration didn’t reverse tariffs he imposed in his first term before veering off to criticize the vice president over inflation and immigration.
Healthcare: Trump has said he’d keep the Affordable Care Act unless he can “do something much better.” He was asked last night if he has a plan to replace the healthcare law. “What we will do is we're looking at different plans,” he said. “If we can come up with a plan that's going to cost our people, our population less money and be better health care than Obamacare, then I would absolutely do it. But until then I'd run it as good as it can be run.”
Pressed for an answer as to whether he has a plan, he said: “I have concepts of a plan. I'm not president right now. But if we come up with something I would only change it if we come up with something better and less expensive. And there are concepts and options we have to do that. And you'll be hearing about it in the not-too-distant future.”
Harris, asked about her past support for a government-run health care system, said she support private healthcare options and would seek to strengthen the Affordable Care Act. She also touted the Biden administration law allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices for the first time, capping the cost of insulin at $35 a month and limiting out-of-pocket prescription drugs costs for seniors at $2,000 a year.
