The Center Square) – Democratic officials and Vice President Kamala Harris’ top campaign spokesman avoided answering policy questions Wednesday morning before a third night of speeches at the Democratic National Convention.
Asked about policy issues, Harris campaign communications director Michael Tyler said he had no details to share.
“I don’t have anything further to readout insofar as policy previews,” he said in response to the question. “I think what you’ve seen since the launch of this new ticket beginning on July 21 … is the Vice President begin to lay out her vision for how she wants to move this country forward.”
Tyler said Harris has put forward the first planks of her economic agenda. The vice president was focused on lowering Americans’ costs, including groceries, housing, and a tax cut for the middle class, Tyler said.
The Center Square asked if Harris and the Democrats planned to address the nation’s growing debt and spending deficits and if Harris would support a bipartisan debt commission. Again, Tyler said he wouldn’t discuss policy.
“I’m not going to get ahead of further policy rollouts that we’ll have, but the American people have plenty of time to see more details as we roll them out,” Tyler said.
Harris has proposed ending tip taxation as well as vague plans to reduce housing costs, a plan to help first-time home buyers, and has called for Congress to raise the corporate tax rate to 28%. Experts said her plans would raise deficits by $1.7 trillion over the next 10 years.
Harris’ plan to get rid of taxes on tips would raise deficits by $100 to $200 billion over the next decade before accounting for changes in tipping behavior, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Former President Donald Trump proposed a similar end to taxes on tip earlier this year.
Last week, Harris unveiled her Agenda to Lower Costs for American Families, which outlines a number of proposals she would aim to enact if elected President. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated that Harris’ policies would increase deficits by $1.7 trillion over a decade. That figure would grow to $2 trillion if temporary housing policies were made permanent.
“The Harris campaign has said this would be paid for through taxes on corporations and high earners and that they support the revenue raisers in the President’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget, but has not put forward specific offsets as part of their Agenda to Lower Costs for American Families,” according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said Harris’ plan to raise the corporate tax rate to 28% would reduce the deficit by $1 trillion over a decade.
Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act set the corporate income tax rate at 21%, down from 35% before that.
On net, the plans Harris has laid out so far “would add $1.7 trillion to deficits as written (before interest),” according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
