https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2024/08/politics/kamala-harris-key-issues-dg/
After Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race on July 21, he endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him. Harris was officially selected as the democratic candidate on Aug 5, and she chose Minnesota Governor, Tim Walz, as her running mate.
“I have to look out for myself and my friends, and Kamala Harris’s values align a lot more with mine than Trump’s do,” Ashton Sickler said. “I am already registered to vote and I am very excited. I’m voting blue all the way.”
Harris has not spoken about her stance on immigration much, but she has said that she hopes to enact the bipartisan immigration reform bill that collapsed in October 2023. During her term as V.P., she has created the Partnership with Central America, where reasons people were leaving Central America for the U.S. were discussed. Since this discussion, Harris has made efforts to improve the standard of living for citizens of Central America as a way of combating illegal immigration into the US.
“In May 2021, she issued a “call to action” to tackle the root causes of migration from northern Central America,” Executive Director & CEO Partnership for Central America Jonathan Fantini-Porter said to the Washington Post. “She met with a dozen CEOs at the White House to encourage investment in the region to create jobs and improve supply chains by moving overseas operations closer to the United States.”
Harris met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in July to discuss the Israli hostages and a possible ceasefire deal. While she and President Biden have supported Isreal, and she plans to continue supporting them if elected, she has expressed empathy for the suffering Palestinians. She also plans to continue financially supporting Ukraine against Russia. Just last month, she and Biden sent $1.5 billion to Ukraine for energy assistance, humanitarian needs and other aid.
“The images of dead children and desperate hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time,” Harris said to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in July. We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering and I will not be silent.”
Harris describes her vision as an opportunity economy. It focuses on strengthening the middle class by providing tax credits and lowering prescription drug costs while also punishing ‘bad actors’ who try to unfairly raise prices on all goods. She plans to enact the first ban on price gouging on food and groceries. She would also create a new tasks for the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys generals by giving them the authority to investigate and punish companies who practice price gouging.
“On day one, I will take on price gouging and bring down costs,” Harris said in an interview with CNN. “We will ban more of those hidden fees and surprise late charges that banks and other companies use to pad their profits.”
Adding to Harris’s goals of equal opportunity and strengthening the middle class, she wants to decrease medical and student debts. The Inflation Reduction Act was passed Aug. 16, 2022 and under it, the cost of insulin has lowered and an annual limit of $2000 for perscription drugs was put in place for people with medicare benefits. Harris wants to increase the speed of drug price negotiations and expand the annual limit to all citizens rather than just those with Medicare. According to her campaign, with the American Rescue plan funds she hopes to cancel $7 billion of medical debt for up to three million Americans. She plans to continue her and Biden’s work to forgive student loans. They have already forgiven more than $168 billion for nearly 4.8 million borrowers. By forgiving debt and lowering prices, Harris believes people will have better credit and more people will be able to afford cars and houses.
“She is running for president with real plans to lower costs even more,” formor president Barack Obama said at the Democratic National Convention. “In other words Kamala Harris won’t be focused on her problems. She’ll be focused on yours.”
Harris has consistently supported reproductive rights throughout her career. In the past she has co-sponsored legislation that would ban states from restricting abortions and she voted against a bill that would ban abortions past 20 weeks of pregnancy. She has commended the overturn of Roe v. Wade and earlier this year she visited a Planned Parenthood Clinic in Minnesota. She is believed to be the first VP to have visited an abortion provider. This was just one stop on her reprodictive freedoms tour around the country.
“I think that having reproductive rights and the option to get an abortion is really improtant for all women because ther are an infinite number of reasons a woman could need one,” Scarlet Kuyn said. “The availability of abortions makes being a woman less scary especially since complications with a pregnancy are so scary today.”
Under the Biden Administration, America rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement which former President Donald Trump removed. When the agreement was first signed under the Obama administration, the U.S. promised to cut carbon emissions significantly by 2025. Since Trump removed the U.S., those goals will not be reached in that time frame. Harris plans to lower climate pollution by 2035 though it is unknown by how much. When she was the attorney general for California she sued big oil companies for their roles in climate change and she wants to continue this work.
“She will fight every day for all Americans to have access to clean air, clean water, and a healthy environment,” Biden’s first national climate adviser Gina McCarthy said to CNN.
