With less than a month until Election Day, Vice President Kamala Harris is taking aim at one of former President Donald Trump’s most stubborn advantages. Most surveys still show that voters think the failed businessman would handle the economy better than she would. And so, as NBC News recently reported, in the closing stretch of the campaign, Harris’ focus is on eroding that unearned trust in Trump’s economic savvy.
In the closing stretch of the campaign, Harris’ focus is on eroding that unearned trust in Trump’s economic savvy.
Harris has cut into Trump’s lead on the economic front since becoming the nominee. The most recent New York Times-Siena College survey, released Tuesday, showed that the economy remains far and away the most important issue for voters as the election comes down to the wire. That same poll found Harris 2 points down against Trump on who voters trust to handle the issue they think is most important. She was 5 points behind in September.
As she is showcasing her economic vision, she is also providing a stark contrast to her opponent. If we were to put their differences in Econ 101 terms, we would start with the point that Trump is obsessed with the macroeconomics, big-picture, 10,000-foot view of the economy. His is the worldview of someone who has known only wealth and comfort. Harris, who stresses her middle-class roots, is taking the opposite approach by going all in on a microeconomic pitch to Americans. She’s highlighting the ways her presidency would touch people’s daily lives and ease the financial pressures that consume so many of us.
Harris has begun rolling out specific policies meant to help reduce some of the major structural costs that are draining people’s bank accounts. She announced the latest policy Wednesday during an appearance on ABC’s “The View.” There she proposed a Medicare expansion plan that would help the so-called sandwich generation who are charged with caring for both young children and their aging parents.
The expansion Harris is proposing would allow Medicare to cover at-home care, a service that is prohibitively expensive to many Americans, for the first time. As she’s done during other appearances, Harris connected the policy to her own experience providing care for her mother after she was diagnosed with cancer. “It’s about dignity for that individual,” Harris said. “It’s about independence for that individual.”
Like many of the policies she’s rolled out thus far, the Medicare idea is focused on reducing the burdens that have taken a great toll on everyday Americans’ budgets. More than just a play for the senior vote, it’s a proposal aimed directly at the members of Generation X and millennials who are being forced to figure out how to support their parents. Likewise, her proposals to increase the housing supply and provide support for first-time homeowners is designed to bring what was once a key part of the American Dream back into reach.
Trump, on the other hand, has made it clear on the trail how little he understands the problems that Harris is talking about. Many of his economic policies, including a bid to end taxes on overtime pay, are better understood as pandering. Ask him specifics about things like child care, another issue for which Harris has put forward a detailed plan, and he stumbles and falters. The few economic issues that Trump really cares about are much more high-level — and much more likely to cause serious economic harm. The few economic issues that Trump really cares about are much more high-level — and much more likely to cause serious economic harm. His absolutely favorite solution (a term I use loosely here) is to slap crippling tariffs on imports to the U.S. He’s floated the idea of doing away with the income tax in favor of said tariffs and falsely claimed that the revenue they would generate would go toward helping bring down costs. He’s further used the threat of tariffs as a cudgel against companies thinking of operating overseas. It’s about as far removed from the nitty-gritty of most Americans’ lives as you can get — or at least it would be removed until those tariffs’ costs were passed on to consumers, driving up prices and kick-starting a new round of inflation. It’s the same mental framework that led him to claim that increasing fossil fuel production in the U.S. is a silver bullet, despite the Biden administration’s boosting production above what it was during Trump’s time in office. It’s the same mindset that makes him believe the stock market is a measure of how everyday Americans are doing (it isn’t) and mystically linked to his business acumen (it really isn’t). Throw in the fact that Trump, as recently as Wednesday morning, said he’s against taxing the rich, and the distinction between him and Harris couldn’t be clearer. Harris, therefore, has a strong argument to make that she is the candidate who is running to represent kitchen table issues, versus Trump, who is only concerned with boardroom economics. Harris can also say she has thrived and built opportunities for others — unlike Trump, who has done nothing but fail while pretending to know how to make his fellow plutocrats like him.
Hayes Brown is a writer and editor for MS NOW. He focuses on politics and policymaking at the federal level, including Congress and the White House. 
