A resolutely centrist program – even if it means abandoning past positions – and still vague on several aspects: here are some proposals from Kamala Harris, vice-president of the United States and Democratic candidate for the White House.
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Birth tax credit
The California Democrat is running as a candidate for the middle class and wants to create an “economy of possibilities” (opportunity economy).
If elected, she promises a tax credit for births, assistance with home ownership and a boost for business creation. But also an offensive, still poorly defined, against abusive pricing practices by companies.
Kamala Harris has taken up some of Joe Biden’s commitments on taxing large fortunes, while softening them. She wants to tax long-term capital gains at 28% for households earning more than $1 million a year, a rate higher than currently, but which the president planned to set at 39.6%.
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Environmental about-face
Kamala Harris has not yet detailed her environmental program, only mentioning at the Democratic convention “the right to breathe clean air, drink clean water and live free from the pollution that fuels the climate crisis.”
She assured that she would not ban hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, a method of extracting hydrocarbons denounced by environmental defenders, and which she had opposed in the past.
According to the Axios website, she also reversed course on the ban on plastic straws, which she no longer supports, even though she had supported the idea.
As Vice President, she supported Joe Biden’s major energy transition plan, the “Inflation Reduction Act.”
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Migration hardening
It is one of the most sensitive issues of the campaign.
Kamala Harris has signaled that she will have a tough policy, saying there must be “consequences” for people who enter the United States illegally.
She supported a project of a clear tightening of migration policy put forward by Joe Biden, planning in particular to invest in physical barriers on the border with Mexico – the famous “wall” wanted by Donald Trump, which the 59-year-old candidate had strongly criticized in the past.
The text, which also restricted access to the right to asylum, never saw the light of day due to lack of consensus in Congress.
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Right to abortion
This is a topic on which Kamala Harris’ position leaves no room for doubt.
She was at the forefront of the Democratic mobilization after the Supreme Court, shaped by former Republican President Donald Trump, ended the constitutional guarantee of the right to abortion, a decision after which many Southern states banned or very severely restricted elective terminations of pregnancy.
Democrats are calling for the provisions of the famous Roe v. Wade case law, which the highest American court has blown up, to be taken up again and set in stone in a federal law, binding on all states.
Alongside Ukraine and Israel, the Democratic candidate promised that she would stand “firmly with Ukraine and (the) NATO allies” and would not make “friends with dictators” if she were elected in November.
In an interview with CNN on August 29, Kamala Harris reiterated her support for Israel’s right “to defend itself” and answered “no” to the question of whether, as president, she would suspend U.S. arms shipments to Israel as the war in Gaza continues.
In the same interview, she also said that “far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed.”
