Harris to Lay Out Economic Message Focused on High Cost of Living

Vice President Kamala Harris will unveil the central planks of her economic agenda on Friday in Raleigh, N.C., during her first major policy speech, focusing on how she plans to fight big corporations and bring down costs on necessities like food, housing and raising children.

Ms. Harris’s proposals for her first 100 days in the White House include efforts to combat price gouging at the grocery store, jump-start the construction of more affordable housing, restore an expanded tax credit for parents and lower the cost of prescription drugs, according to a briefing document released by her campaign. She will call for a tax incentive to build starter homes, seek to cap the cost of insulin at $35 for all Americans and attempt to reduce the cost of health insurance through the Affordable Care Act.

Taken together, her plan represents more of a reboot of President Biden’s economic policy than a radically fresh start — a new sales pitch focused on its most popular aspects, not a new vision. Many of the policies reiterate or build on proposals in Mr. Biden’s most recent presidential budget. Harris campaign officials released scattered details, leaving key questions unanswered — like the income cutoff for families to qualify for a new $6,000 child tax credit for newborns, or what exactly would qualify as grocery-store “price gouging” under a federal ban.

Campaign officials did not detail how Ms. Harris would pay for her spending and tax-cut proposals in their release ahead of the speech. But they said her overall plan would reduce projected federal deficits, like Mr. Biden’s latest budget proposed to do, largely by “asking the wealthiest Americans and largest corporations to pay their fair share.”

In terms of emphasis, her speech is expected to shift away from Mr. Biden’s focus on job creation, particularly in manufacturing, and more toward reining in the cost of living.

And she will also try to paint a strong contrast against former President Donald J. Trump, describing him as a friend to billionaires and chief executives who will not help the middle class. Ms. Harris has been attacking Mr. Trump’s proposal to impose new tariffs of up to 20 percent on all imported goods, saying it would amount to a tax increase on working families.