Galloping inflation, rising prices, difficulties in purchasing real estate… Purchasing power is at the heart of the concerns of American voters during this presidential campaign. Prices increased by 20% on average in the United States during Joe Biden’s mandate. His detractors do not fail to remind him of this, despite his good economic record.
While inflation is gradually decreasing and is now around 2%, what is Kamala Harris and Donald Trump’s program to restore purchasing power to Americans? Here are some of their proposals.
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What proposals for purchasing power?
The prices on the shelves have become one of the major topics for Americans. And this is why Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are partly expected by voters.
In her program, the Democratic candidate who claims to fight “to give money back to middle and working class families” promises to tackle companies that “inflate” prices abusively, particularly for food.
Faced with this proposal, Donald Trump quickly reacted: “Comrade Harris is all about communism!” “, he declared immediately, even publishing a photomontage on X.
“There have been multiple attempts in history to cap prices and they have failed because they have always led to queues in front of stores, shortages and an explosion of inequalities,” estimates the 78-year-old billionaire.
Promises him a rapid drop in prices thanks to “the elimination of all costly and burdensome regulations”, without giving further details.
When it comes to food industries, Kamala Harris wants “investing in resilient food supply chains” and wishes to revitalize competition in the sector.
For his part, Donald Trump proposes to “unleash American energy”, that is to say to lift “restrictions on US energy production by ending the socialist Green New Deal.” In other words, the Republican wants to encourage the increase in American oil and gas production, which would have a direct impact on prices and therefore the purchasing power of Americans, according to him.
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What proposals for housing?
Democratic candidate Kamala Harris is proposing to facilitate access to real estate purchases for first-time buyers by providing them with $25,000 in aid to finance their down payment. It also provides for the construction of three million additional rental housing units at affordable prices. “to end the housing crisis”. The current vice-president promises to facilitate administrative formalities so that these housing units are built more quickly.
Kamala Harris also plans to introduce a law to cap the price of rents imposed by private owners and wants to remove tax advantages for buyers who have more than 50 rental properties.
For his part, Donald Trump proposes opening up plots of federal land to construction and abandoning any regulations considered unnecessary. “and which increases the price” housing. The Republican candidate also wishes “support first-time buyers” without giving further details.
What proposals on household taxation?
Since the start of her campaign, Kamala Harris has put the “middle class” at the heart of its program. Thus, it proposes two tax credits: one of 3,600 dollars at the birth of a child which could go up to 6,000 dollars during the child’s first year, the other of 1,500 dollars for low-income workers without children.
Furthermore, the vice-president promises not to increase taxes on people earning less than $400,000 per year. In her program, Kamala Harris emphasizes taxing the richest and also plans “to cancel the tax cuts” put in place by Donald Trump concerning them, the establishment of a minimum tax for billionaires, the quadrupling of the tax on share buybacks, among others.
Donald Trump wants to renew his “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” put in place when he arrived at the White House in 2017 and which runs until 2025. The former President of the United States also wants to eliminate taxes on benefits paid by Social Security for seniors.
Donald Trump also makes the elimination of taxes on tips, which affect millions of American workers in the hotel and restaurant industry, his hobby horse. For once, Kamala Harris supported this idea from Donald Trump, who then accused her of “plagiarize” his program. The 59-year-old vice-president even made it a campaign promise during a meeting in Las Vegas on August 10.
This proposal, if it is emulated in the United States, could nevertheless have a limited impact, according to economist Ernie Tedeschi, economic director of the Budget Lab at Yale University. According to him, only 60% of the 4 million workers potentially affected by this measure would benefit, the others having incomes that are too low, he explains in a blog note.
What about corporate taxes?
On this point, the two candidates make opposing proposals. Kamala Harris wants the federal tax on corporations earning more than $1 million a year to increase to 28%, from the current 21%. Where Donald Trump proposes to reduce it to 15%.
But the Republican candidate threatened to tax imports from American companies established abroad, without giving a very precise rate. He mentioned the rate of « 200 % » on September 24 in Pennsylvania, then « 100 % » in Savannah, Georgia, a few hours later. Conversely, he promises tax cuts to companies setting up in the United States. In his program, he also targets Chinese products and threatens an increase in customs duties, or even import bans for certain products, such as cars.
Kamala Harris, for her part, wants to increase tenfold the aid allocated to Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) when they set up, and therefore to increase it from 5,000 to 50,000 dollars. Objective: 25 million account opening requests by the end of her first term as president.
