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Kamala Harris unveils populist policy agenda, with $6,000 credit for newborns (and more)
(www.washingtonpost.com)
the long and short of this agenda (courtesy of a ResetERA post:
GROCERIES AND FOOD
- First-ever federal ban on corporate price gouging on food and groceries
- Set clear rules so that corporations can't unfairly exploit consumers with pricing to run up excessive corporate profits
- Empower the FTC and state attorney generals to investigate corporations for violating the rules
- Aggressively regulate mergers and proposed consolidation among food producers and grocers
HEALTHCARE
- Expand the $35 insulin cap for Medicare to all Americans, not just the elderly ones
- Cap all Americans annual out of pocket prescription drug spending at $2,000/year
- Ramp up Medicare negotiations with drug companies over their most expensive drugs
- Regulate pharmaceutical companies that block competitive and abusive practices by middlemen
- Cancel medical debt for millions of Americans
TAX CUTS
- Extend Inflation Reduction Act subsidies and lower premiums for ACA
- Expand Earned Income Tax Credit by up to $1,500
- Restore the $3,000 per child tax credit from the Inflation Reduction Act
- Expand the Child Tax Credit so that even the poorest of families receive it (currently families need to make a high enough annual income to receive it)
- Increase the Child Tax Credit to $6,000 per child for first year newborns
HOUSING
- $25,000 down payment assistance for first time homebuyers who have paid rent on time for at least two years
- Tax credit incentives for home builders who build starter homes sold to first time homebuyers
- Build 3 million homes
- $40B to local state governments for building housing
- Pass the Stop Predatory Investing Act, legislation that would prohibit investors who acquire 50 or more new single-family rental homes from deducting interest or depreciation on the properties.
- Pass the Preventing the Algorithmic Facilitation of Rental Housing Cartels Act, legislation that cracks down on companies that allow landlords to collude to set high housing prices via software and price-setting algorithms.
A whole lot of small but meaningful improvements... that nonetheless depress me on account of the fact that this is apparently the most we're allowed to vote for. And they're not even guaranteed in the least.
Still, I can at least keep going by remembering that this is a presidential race, and is thus among the least democratic aspects of the country, short of things like the Supreme Court. There are better, more impactful things for me to focus on.