Harris offers to cut food, housing costs in bid to blunt Trump's attacks

US Vice President Kamala Harris has announced a sweeping set of economic proposals meant to cut taxes and lower the cost of groceries, housing and other essentials for many Americans, a day after her Republican rival Donald Trump displayed grocery items and slammed her for inflation in America.

"Look, the bills add up," she declared on Friday, trying to address the financial concerns that are at the top of voters' minds and that Trump is attempting to blame on her.

During a speech in the battleground state of North Carolina, Harris said that "building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency" as she promoted her plan for a federal ban on price gouging by food producers and grocers.

She also proposed $25,000 in down payment assistance for certain first-time homebuyers and tax incentives for builders of starter homes.

"Every day across our nation, families talk about their plans for the future, their ambitions, their aspirations for themselves, for their children. And they talk about how they’re going to be able to actually achieve them financially, because, look, the bills add up," Harris said.

"Food, rent, gas, back to school clothes, prescription medications. After all that, for many families, there’s not much left at the end of the month."

She stressed tax breaks for families, as well as middle- and lower-income people, promising to expand the child tax credit to up to $3,600 — and $6,000 for children in their first year of life.

The vice president also wants to enlarge the earned income tax credit to cover people in lower-income jobs without children — which the campaign estimates would cut their effective tax rate by $1,500 — and lower health insurance premiums through the Affordable Care Act.

Congressional approval not assured

Overall, the plans represent a continuation of many Biden administration priorities. Harris isn't looking for any radical departures from President Joe Biden, who stepped down from the race last month and endorsed her.

Still, the vice president has embraced a dash of economic populism, shifting away from Biden's emphasis on job creation and infrastructure to matters more closely tied to easing the cost of living — food prices, housing costs and tax breaks for families.

Much of what she's proposing would require congressional approval, which is far from assured in the current political environment, though, and Harris' campaign has offered scant details on how to pay for the ideas.

The vice president is seeking to blunt Trump's attacks on her as "a radical California liberal who broke the economy," as he put in during a speech on Thursday, during which he displayed popular grocery store items meant to represent the high cost of food.

Some of Trump’s economic advisers offered further rebuttals to Harris' plans before she spoke on Friday, with Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the former president's campaign, calling them representative of a "socialist and authoritarian model."

Kevin Hassett, a former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers during the Trump administration, called it "completely preposterous" for the government to play a role in setting food prices, a reference to Harris' proposed federal ban on "corporate price-gouging" on food.