On Friday, Democratic presidential candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris presented a series of economic policy proposals for her election campaign to several hundred supporters at a campaign event at Wake Tech Community College in Raleigh, North Carolina.
In the language of Wall Street, Harris promised that if elected, she would “build what I call an ‘opportunity economy.'”
Carrying banners reading “Opportunity Economy – Lower Your Costs” and “A New Way Forward,” Harris pushed virtually the same corporatist and nationalist agenda that President Joe Biden had recently championed during the campaign trail – albeit with even more overt appeals to Wall Street.
Harris began her remarks by speaking in the past tense of the Covid-19 pandemic that continues to ravage the planet. She admitted: “A loaf of bread costs 50 percent more today than it did before the pandemic. Ground beef has become almost 50 percent more expensive. Many of the major food companies are posting their highest profits in two decades.”
While the working class struggles to survive a deadly pandemic amid rising food, health and housing costs, the super-rich have never fared better under Biden-Harris. Data from Forbes Statistics compiled by inequality.org show that the number of billionaires in the United States increased from 614 to 737 between March 2020 and March 2024. The wealth controlled by these billionaires has almost doubled in four years, from $2.947 trillion to $5.529 trillion – an increase of almost 88 percent.
Harris promised to build on this “foundation” of “progress” and create “opportunities for the middle class that strengthen their economic security, stability and dignity.” She made no mention of how she would finance the proposals, nor did she raise the possibility of raising taxes on the super-rich or corporations.
Instead, Harris stated, “I will focus on cutting unnecessary red tape and bureaucratic red tape” while “promoting innovative technologies… and creating a stable business environment.” As part of creating a “stable business environment,” she promised to “work with workers and businesses to strengthen the American economy.”
In addition to promising to cut regulations and red tape for businesses, she laid out a series of limited proposals to address exorbitant housing costs, health care, food prices and inflation that stand no chance in a divided Congress. Her proposals, doomed from the start, include an increased $6,000 child tax credit for middle- and low-income families in the first year they have a child and a $25,000 tax incentive for first-time home buyers.
These proposals are merely a diversion from the real policy of the Harris-Waltz government: its goal is to suppress class struggle through the union apparatus in order to secure profits for big business and national supply chains in the run-up to World War III.
Like Biden, Harris is mobilizing the union apparatus to implement the ruling class’s agenda and enforce US global hegemony: “As president, I will bring together workers, small businesses and large companies to invest in America, create good jobs, deliver broad-based growth, and ensure that America continues to shape the future and lead the world.”
In her comments, Harris used her past as a prosecutor to absurdly sell herself as a “fighter” for the “middle class” against the big corporations that own both the Democratic and Republican parties.
“As Attorney General, I went after companies that artificially inflated prices,” Harris said. “Donald Trump fights for billionaires and big corporations… We – I will fight to get working- and middle-class Americans their money back.”
The fact is that the Harris administration – like its continued support for the genocide in Gaza and the war against Russia in Ukraine – will not represent a break with Biden’s pro-Wall Street, pro-war policies. It and the Democratic Party are agents of the ruling class. That is why the ruling class has showered her campaign with hundreds of millions of dollars.
Not only will Harris carry on many of the same policy views as Biden, she will do so with many of the same faces. On Monday, MSNBC reported that Harris’ economic team “draws on Biden’s former White House colleagues Brian Deese and Mike Pyle.”
Deese, MSNBC reported, has been “a key adviser and sounding board for Harris.” Pyle, the former “chief global investment strategist at BlackRock,” “also works” with Harris.
As Biden’s director of the National Economic Council, Deese oversaw the reopening of schools as soon as the Biden-Harris administration took office. In the midst of one of the deadliest waves of the pandemic, the former BlackRock investment banker made clear the politics of the financial oligarchy: Schools must reopen so children can go back and get infected while their parents go to work and generate profits for corporations.
MSNBC also reported that Deanne Millision, currently a lobbyist for Ford Motor Co., is “back in the fold” after stepping down as Harris’ top economic adviser last year. Gene Sperling, a longtime Democratic operative who served as director of the National Economic Council under Presidents Clinton and Obama, is also “advising” Harris on policy issues, the network reported.
Last year, Sperling was appointed by the Biden White House to oversee negotiations between the Big Three auto companies and the UAW, which ended in massive wage negotiations that resulted in thousands of layoffs.
The economic program of Harris and her Wall Street advisers is neither progressive nor “worker-friendly.” Behind the scenes, Harris works closely with bankers, CEOs, investors and union bureaucrats to suppress class struggle and growing worker demands for higher wages and lower housing, health care and food costs.
The fight for good-paying jobs, housing and health insurance for all – not just for “opportunities” that can be exploited by corporations and duplicitous politicians – requires a break with all capitalist parties and the nationalist unions and a turn to the methods of class struggle.
