Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday is expected to propose a new plan to cut taxes for middle-class and lower-income Americans as part of her economic policy rollout, according to Harris-Walz campaign officials. The plan would offer tax relief for more than 100 million Americans.
Much of the plan revives or extends temporary measures that President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats enacted in major packages when the party controlled Congress during the first two years of Biden’s term.
Harris’ proposal would restore the American Rescue Plan’s popular expansion of the child tax credit to as much as $3,600, up from $2,000, and call for it to be made permanent. The enhancement was only in effect in 2021. Biden and Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill have been unsuccessful in their efforts to partially revive it – in part because of its hefty price tag. A bipartisan bill that would have temporarily beefed up the child tax credit passed the House earlier this year but was blocked by Republicans in the Senate.
The proposal would also add a new child tax credit of up to $6,000 for middle-class and lower-income families with children in their first year of life. That’s when a family’s expenses, such as cribs, diapers and car seats, can be at their highest and when many parents have to take time off from their jobs, the campaign noted.
Harris’ economic policy would also expand the earned income tax credit, known as the EITC, to offer frontline workers without dependent children a tax reduction of up to $1,500. The American Rescue Plan enhanced the maximum credit, which is available to workers in lower-income jobs, to roughly that amount, but the enhancement to the EITC was only in effect for 2021.
The vice president’s package calls for extending the more generous Affordable Care Act premium subsidies that are set to expire at the end of 2025. The enhancement, which was made available through the American Rescue Plan and extended by the Inflation Reduction Act, has helped push sign-ups for Obamacare coverage to record levels.
Harris’ proposed plan does not specify how long these costly provisions would be in effect.
