By Gabriella Duarte
In the 2024 U.S. presidential election, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are running for president. Both candidates offer contrasting approaches to the key issues facing the United States.
Kamala Harris
Vice President Harris, the Democratic candidate, grew up in a middle-class family raised by her working mother. She attended Howard University, earning her undergraduate degree. Before becoming Vice President, Kamala worked as a prosecutor specializing in cases of child sexual abuse. In 2003, she was elected District Attorney of San Francisco, addressing issues such as domestic violence and gun violence. In 2010, she became California’s Attorney General, tackling transnational criminal organizations involved in trafficking drugs and migrants across the border. Later, Kamala became a U.S. senator advocating for reforms in the justice system and other pressing issues.
Donald Trump
Former president Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, is looking to return to the presidency after serving in 2017 to 2021. A graduate of the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania, Trump built a real estate and business empire, following in his father’s footsteps. Since the 1980s Trump would often talk about running for president, but most ignored this statement. In 1999, he changed his political party from the Reform Party and started to dive into running for president in 2000. However, he decided not to run that year and rather wrote a book expressing his political views. Trump later rejoined the Republican Party and stayed in the public eye in 2012. It wasn’t until 2016 that he officially ran, using the slogan “Make America Great Again.” During his presidency, Trump focused on tax reform, immigration, and trade polices.
Issues
Economy and Taxes
Both candidates are addressing issues that are important to the growth of the United States; however, their approaches are significantly different.
Harris prioritizes cutting taxes for middle-class families, ensuring that Americans earning under $400,000 a year do not face tax increases. She plans to make the richest Americans and big companies play by the same rules as the middle class and pay their fair share. This will strengthen the middle class and lower the government’s debt. Kamala and Waltz also want to raise the tax on long term investments for people earning a million dollars a year or more to 28%. Vice President Harris and Governor Walz, her running mate, believe that this will lead to economic growth and create jobs.
Vice President Harris wants to make rent more affordable and home ownership more attainable. She plans to build three million affordable homes and rental units, reducing the cost and making homeownership affordable and accessible. Kamala Harris also aims to cut down red tape and make sure that companies do not hoard homes to inflate prices. Additionally, she also plans to give first-time homeowners $25,000 in assistance.
Vice President Harris and Governor Walz know that small businesses are crucial to the economy. As president, Kamala Harris plans to continue to help small businesses by increasing access to funding and bringing investment to areas that have been overlooked. Her plan aims to create 25 million new business applications by the end of her first term. This will offer more support in increasing startup tax deduction and reducing red tape. Harris also wants to focus on ensuring small businesses receive more federal contracts and increase the support for entrepreneurs across the country including in rural areas.
As the Attorney General of California, Kamala Harris fought big banks to help homeowners, helped veterans and students who were swindled by for-profit schools, and protected workers and seniors from fraud. As president, she aims to crack down on big corporations that raise their prices unfairly, ensuring healthy competition and keeping prices low for consumers. She will also plan to lower drug prices by taking on pharmaceutical companies. This includes capping insulin costs for all Americans and targeting pharmacy middlemen who raise prices for company profit.
President Donald J. Trump implemented significant tax relief for the middle class, increased the child tax credit, and reduced regulations. This increased wages—income reached an all time high—and poverty levels dropped. Trump also made nearly 9,000 Opportunity Zones to improved neglected communities. Trump’s plan for the economy is focusing on lower taxes, higher wages, and more jobs for American workers. For more specific information on former President Trump's economic outcomes, click on this link: https://www.factcheck.org/2021/10/trumps-final-numbers/
Immigration and Broader Security
Before becoming President, Donald J. Trump knew that free trade is accessible if some countries take advantage of trade at the expense of others. During his presidency in 2016 he changed trade polices to create fair agreements that planned to bring jobs and manufacturing back to America. President Trump continues to propose a 4-year plan to bring manufacturing back to the U.S and reduce America's dependency on China for goods. He also seeks to ban Chinese ownership of critical infrastructure in the U.S.
President J. Trump is focused on making the U.S. border security stronger by ending the catch and release policy, fighting against human trafficking, deporting illegal gang members, and constructing 450 miles of a new border wall. Trump has promised to address these issues by restoring the Remain in Mexico policy and tackling asylum fraud. He also wishes to continue to work with the National Guard and local law enforcement to remove illegal gang members and crimes and deliver merit-based immigration system that he believes will support American workers and values.
In contrast, Harris supports immigration reform that includes a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, particularly Dreamers (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors). She emphasizes protecting the rights of immigrants while ensuring strong border security. She also advocates for reuniting separated families. In the presidential debate, she stated that she “did not kill the bipartisan bill," but rather that Donald Trump did by encouraging his supporters in congress to stop it.
Drug Policy
President Donald J. Trump used government resources to fight the flow of dangerous drugs like opioids and fentanyl into the U.S., leading to a decline in drug overdose deaths for the first time in nearly 30 years. He plans to work with neighboring governments to end cartel operations and expose any corruption that supports them. Additionally, he will push Congress to impose the death penalty for drug traffickers, vowing to make it difficult for drug kingpins to work freely.
Kamala Harris aims to continue to lower drug prices by taking on pharmaceutical companies and capping the cost of essential medications like insulin. (She and president Biden took a step towards these goals in September by passing a law that lowered prices for some Medicare enrollees.) Harris also plans to expand access to treatment.
Both candidates offer distinct approaches to these critical issues.
Sources
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