As voters adjust to the news that Vice President Kamala Harris is the frontrunner to replace President Joe Biden as the Democratic candidate for president, they’ll want to know where she stands on key money issues.
It remains to be seen how much Harris’ platform might mirror Biden’s, and to what extent her candidacy refreshes the policies she advocated for during her first presidential bid in 2020 and as a senator.
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For example, unlike Biden, Harris supported a version of Medicare For All. She also pushed for different tax proposals than Biden, and a more narrow student loan forgiveness plan.
Harris’s office did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Here’s what we know on her policy positions that could impact household finances.
Taxes
With trillions in tax breaks expiring after 2025, taxes and the federal budget deficit will be key issues for Harris to address as part of her platform, experts say.
Without action from Congress, dozens of provisions from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, or TCJA, will sunset, including lower federal income brackets, a bigger standard deduction and a more generous child tax credit, among other changes. That could mean higher taxes for more than 60% of filers, according to the Tax Foundation.
Broadly speaking, it seems like Harris would be “largely on board” with most, if not all, of what Biden and his administration have been promoting, “especially in the big picture,” said Garrett Watson, senior policy analyst and modeling manager at the Tax Foundation.
Biden has called for higher taxes on wealthy Americans and corporations.
One big question is whether Harris will stick with Biden’s pledge not to raise taxes on those making less than $400,000, Watson said.
Last week, Harris also touted the administration’s child tax credit expansion during the pandemic at a political event in North Carolina, which has been a priority for Biden and Democrats.
However, Harris voiced some distinctions from Biden before becoming vice president, Watson noted.
During her 2020 presidential campaign, Harris called for a repeal of the TCJA’s corporate tax rate, which dropped the top levy from 35% to 21%. Her repeal would have reverted the top rate back to 35%. By comparison, Biden has called for raising the corporate rate to 28% in 2024.
— Kate Dore
Health care
During Harris’ 2020 presidential bid, she backed a “Medicare for All” plan to expand healthcare access and lower consumer costs. She described healthcare as a “right,” not a “privilege.”
Under that proposal, all Americans would transition to a Medicare health plan — either public or offered by a private insurer — over a 10-year period.
If chosen as the nominee, Harris is unlikely to push that plan in the current presidential contest, said Drew Altman, president and chief executive of KFF, a nonprofit health policy research organization. That’s because Democrats seem to have coalesced around Biden’s “kitchen table” proposals to reduce health costs, he said.
For example, in 2022, Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, which extended enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, making ACA health plans more affordable for millions of households; those subsidies last through 2025. The Act also capped insulin co-pays at $35 a month for Medicare beneficiaries.
Harris would likely seek expansions of health coverage under the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid, Altman said. She’d likely try to expand negotiations over prescription-drug prices, which currently apply only to Medicare beneficiaries and some medications, he said.
Additionally, abortion is likely to be “the defining issue” of the 2024 election, according to Fatima Goss Graves, president of the National Women’s Law Center Action Fund. Harris is among Democrats’ “strongest, most effective voices” relative to protecting abortion access, she said.
Abortion is an economic issue, Altman said.
Women must generally weigh affordability and career advancement when choosing to have children, he said. Women in states that have enacted abortion bans — following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade — have paid and missed work to travel out of state for the procedure.
— Greg Iacurci
Student loans
Harris has helped promote Biden’s historic policies to forgive the debt of student loan borrowers, and would likely continue his efforts, experts say.
However, as a presidential candidate in the 2020 race, Harris put forward a debt relief program that was criticized for being overly complicated and narrow. To be eligible, borrowers needed to receive a Pell Grant and open a business in a disadvantaged community, among other requirements.
President Joe Biden has instead favored more broad debt cancellation, advancing plans that would reduce or eliminate the balances of tens of millions of Americans.
A White House spokesperson recently told CNBC that Harris is proud of her and Biden’s work to forgive $167 billion in student debt for nearly 5 million Americans so far. The vice president plans to bring more relief to borrowers, they said.
Current U.S. Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona wrote that he was “All in!” for Harris in a post on X Sunday evening.
Harris has also taken on predatory schools and fought for relief for borrowers.
As the attorney general in California, Harris investigated and sued Corinthian Colleges, and obtained a $1.1 billion judgment against the now-defunct for-profit conglomerate. The U.S. Department of Educated ended up looking into the schools, and in 2022 forgave $5.8 billion in student debt for 560,000 former Corinthian students.
— Annie Nova
Income inequality
Before becoming vice president, one of Harris’ signature proposals — known as the Lift the Middle Class Act — would have provided an annual tax credit of up to $6,000 for lower- and middle-income workers, on top of the benefits they already receive, to help close the wealth gap. Harris proposed repealing the Trump tax cuts to pay for it.
Since then, the cost of living has only sky-rocketed, hitting working-class Americans especially hard, said Laura Veldkamp, a professor of finance and economics at Columbia University Business School.
In that context, “there’s a good rationale” for refloating a tax credit for those making under a certain income threshold, Veldkamp said.
— Jessica Dickler
Housing
Harris has been a proponent for affordable housing policies both during her tenure as vice president and as senator.
“Every American deserves affordable housing,” Harris posted on X on July 16, referring to the Biden administration’s call to cap rent increases by 5% on landlords with 50 or more rental units or risk losing federal tax breaks.
Most recently, Harris announced the recipients of a $85 million grant under the Pathways to Removing Obstacles for Housing, a first-of-its-kind project that aims to lower housing and rental costs for families.
Harris in May also declared a budget of $5.5 billion to boost affordable housing, invest in economic growth, build wealth and address homelessness in the U.S. through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD. The funds will be allocated to six different HUD programs.
— Ana Teresa Solá
Social Security
As senator, Harris co-sponsored the Social Security Expansion Act, which would increase benefits and the annual cost-of-living adjustments. It would also require wealthy Americans to pay more into the program as it faces a funding shortfall.
“President [Joe Biden] and I will protect Social Security. Donald Trump will not,” Harris posted on X in June. “The contrast is clear.”
— Annie Nova and Lorie Konish
Equal pay
Harris has taken aim at the gender pay gap with a plan to eliminate discriminatory pay practices and penalize companies that don’t comply.
Under a plan she unveiled in 2019, companies with 100 or more employees would be required to report pay and total compensation for men and women, as well as the percentage of women in leadership positions to obtain an “Equal Pay Certification.” Businesses without that certification would be fined at 1% of their average daily profits during the last fiscal year.
Women earn just 84 cents for every dollar earned by men, according to an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by the National Women’s Law Center, although the pay gap worsens significantly for Black and Latina women.
Revisiting the effort to require companies to disclose pay data could help, said Columbia University’s Veldkamp.
“Various forces lead to inequalities and making them run the numbers may bring to light problems they may want to remedy,” she said.
— Jessica Dickler