The campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris plans to move the economic message this week from depth to depth, stating some of the policies that can be expected from the Harris administration. We have already previewed: Stops in Philadelphia and Detroit not only introduced Gov. Tim Walz is his running mate but also reiterated Harris’ commitment to the progressive favorite red meat such as paid family leave.
Now it’s time to explain some details such as how the administration will get his plan through Congress and how his policies will be paid for.
Opinion columnist
LZ Granderson
LZ Granderson writes about culture, politics, sports and navigating life in America.
Running the country is not cheap. That’s why it’s been nearly a century since a president actually lowered the national debt — Calvin Coolidge. Saving the middle class will be more expensive than the same. History shows that: Pushing through the New Deal, Franklin D. Roosevelt increased the national debt by more than 1,000%.
Even preventing disasters can be expensive, much less directing progress. While former President Trump and President Biden tried to navigate the country through the pandemic and the historic global inflation that took place, the last quarter of 2021 saw the US with a debt-to-GDP ratio of almost 140%. But we also remain the strongest economy in the world.
Here’s one certainty: The next Democratic President will have an ambitious and expensive plan.
Here’s another: No matter what Harris says, conservatives will find fault with it.
Not surprising, of course, considering they like austerity for those who need it and abundance for the rich. While the affluent enjoy record profits and fly into space, the poor are left to scramble for jobs or picket lines.
It’s no wonder that the central economic message of Harris’s campaign so far – to get ahead rather than just get by – has been well received. But the honeymoon phase will end soon.
The job of selling the ideas of the Harris administration will succeed or fail depending on what the vice president says about the economy. They need a message that does not reject the current administration, and they also need to present a vision for the future that is different from Biden’s, a vision that Walz will represent.
Senators such as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have long talked about making people and companies the richest. The problem is that without a significant majority in Congress to vote, it’s just talk.
For accomplishments such as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Biden can rely on the relationships and expertise he built during his 36 years in the Senate. After only four years in the chamber, Harris clearly doesn’t have the same resources. In fact, in the moments after Biden announced he would not seek re-election, some Democrats in Congress lobbied for an open convention to nominate a candidate. The push was brief but highlighted that Harris’s relationship with his body is more complicated than Biden’s.
Some members of Harris’s party may be slow to use their political capital to push controversial policies. Biden has experienced this himself, though his colleagues have been around for decades. Some of his most progressive policies — such as investing in people as part of an infrastructure bill — were dismissed by Democrats from more moderate parts of the country.
Congress can block the president from fulfilling key campaign promises. The infrastructure bill has crossed the finish line, but the John Lewis Voting Rights Act has not. Harris knows very well how hard it can be to get senators to line up behind the administration – think Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. As the vice president, he was obliged 33 times the vote in the Senatemore often than any other vice president in history.
Harris has spent the past three weeks throwing chunks of red meat into bases in need of sustenance. He has money. And he has his full attention on his opponent, who was so shaken this weekend that he claimed AI had produced an image of 15,000 people who turned out to support Harris in Detroit.
The picture is not fooled.
The passion is real.
I was there, as were several union members who roared whenever Harris talked about helping the middle class. Cost-effective initiatives such as affordable childcare are very popular. They always are. Get votes, get paid…that’s the reason it hasn’t happened yet.
Can Harris get the congressional support he needs to enact his promised progressive policies? The answer to that question begins and ends with how they intend to cover the cost.
