Policies, What Policies? Kamala Harris Sets Out ‘Issues’ Ahead of Trump Debate

Kamala Harris may have left it a little late, but she is seeking to head off accusations that her campaign is flimsy on concrete policies ahead of Tuesday night’s TV showdown with Donald Trump.

The vice president has always insisted she has a strong presidential plan and now she has it down in writing on her own campaign cheat sheet.

On Sunday, the Harrison-Walz campaign added an “Issues” page to their website in a bid to silence the doubters and, more pressingly, to spike the guns of Trump’s advisors prepping the GOP candidate to keep up his attack on his Democratic Party rival’s reticence to provide more details of her key policies in the presidential debate.

Titled A New Way Forward, the Spark Notes-style “Issues” page on the campaign website insists Harris and running mate Tim Walz are running on a platform that “protects our fundamental freedoms, strengthens our democracy, and ensures every person has the opportunity to not just get by, but to get ahead.”

If that still sounds rather vague, the campaign offers an overarching focus, saying Harris “has made clear that building up the middle class will be a defining goal of her presidency.”

It continues: “As President, she will fight to cut taxes for more than 100 million working and middle-class Americans while lowering the costs of everyday needs like health care, housing, and groceries.”

While not drilling down into fine detail, the campaign offers snapshots of policies the vice president will no doubt be hoping to push on Tuesday, beginning with a pledge to restore the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit and a commitment to ensure nobody earning less than $400,000-a-year will pay more taxes. Harris also wants to roll back Trump’s tax cuts for the rich and enact a billionaire minimum tax and she reiterates her 28 percent tax rate on long-term capital gains outlined in a speech last week.

Her next “Issue” is making houses more affordable by offering $25,000 to first-time home buyers and building three million more rental units.

Her agenda also includes helping businesses and entrepreneurs by offering incentives to minority-owned companies, expanding start-up tax deductions, a crackdown on price gouging, strengthening and bringing down the cost of health care, and protecting social security and Medicare by “making millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share in taxes.”

Her social issues include restoring and protecting reproductive freedoms and civil and voting rights.

The page also makes clear Harris’s stand on foreign policy, tackling the opioid crisis, fighting gun crime, and ensuring that nobody, not even former presidents, are above the law.

Immigration—one of the issues she has faced most criticism about during her tenure as vice president—is buried further down the page and only warrants a single paragraph, with the campaign saying that Harris “knows that our immigration system is broken and needs comprehensive reform that includes strong border security and an earned pathway to citizenship.”

Just in case anyone thinks the debate and the remainder of the 2024 presidential election campaign will be restricted to a civilized discussion about policy, the “Issues” page allows itself a few digs about Trump. Here are a couple:

“Donald Trump is a convicted criminal who only cares about himself. He’s proven that time and time again – from caving to the gun lobby and doing nothing to address gun violence to killing the bipartisan border security deal that would secure our border and keep America safe, just to help himself politically.”

“Someone as dangerous as Donald Trump should never again be allowed to serve as commander-in-chief. In office, he cozied up to dictators and turned his back on allies.”

It might be too long to write on the back of her hand, but the new page will help Harris concentrate her thoughts before her biggest TV test in front of a prime-time audience.