Where Donald Trump and Kamala Harris stand on economic issues before their first debate

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are set to face off at 9 p.m. EDT in Philadelphia for the first presidential debate between the two candidates.

Although many debates tend to focus less on policy and more on getting one over on political rivals, voters are likely looking for cues on where the candidates stand on key issues. According to a Pew Research Center poll in February, Americans’ top priority is how the next president aims to strengthen the national economy.

Here’s a cheat sheet to help guide you through the debate (assuming you can still watch it).

On housing

Harris’s plan:

• Order the construction of 3 million new housing units over the course of a four-year term
• Introduce $25,000 down-payment support for first-time homebuyers who have paid their rent on time for two years. First-generation homeowners would receive “more generous support.”
• Introduce a tax incentive for homebuilders who sell starter homes to first-time homebuyers, expand existing tax incentives for rental home builders, and propose a new $40 billion innovation fund to spur homebuilding
• Call on Congress to pass the “Stop Predatory Investing Act,” which ends tax benefits for large investors that acquire swaths of single-family rental homes

Trump’s plan:

• “[F]ree up appropriate portions of federal land for housing,” according to Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt
• Deport undocumented immigrants, many of whom live in “mixed status” households
• Lower mortgage rates (which are expected to come down slightly in 2025 and 2026, regardless of who is president)

On taxes

Harris’s plan:

• Create a new $6,000 tax credit for low-income or middle-income families within a newborn child’s first year
• Restore the expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC) to allow for families with children to receive between $3,000 and $3,600
• Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit to slash taxes by up to $1,500 for low-income individuals and couples who don’t have children and cut taxes to help Americans afford health insurance
• End taxes on tips, a plan initially proposed and touted by Trump. Harris’ plan differs in that she also wants to end subminimum wages
• Put a 28% tax on long-term capital gains for those earning a million dollars a year or more
• Roll back Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 for wealthy Americans and corporations (which are set to expire next year), enact a billionaire minimum tax, quadruple the tax on stock buybacks, and raise corporate taxes to 28% from 21%

  
  

Trump’s plan:

• Proposes slashing the corporate tax rate to 15% for companies that make products with American workers
• Trump has previously advocated for lowering corporate taxes to 20%, building on his 2017 tax cuts that slashed the rate to 21% from 35%. He has vowed to make those tax cuts, which are set to expire in 2025, permanent.
• Trump has not yet announced any plans to change the capital gains tax from its current maximum of 20%
• Trump has also floated the idea of replacing personal income taxes with tariffs on foreign countries, especially China
• Those tariffs could include a 10% duty on all products imported into the U.S., which Trump says would protect American jobs and raise revenue to offset extending the 2017 tax cuts
• Tariffs on Chinese imports could be raised by as much as 50% under Trump’s proposals, which would make those goods considerably pricier for consumers.
• Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, Trump’s running mate, had floated expanding the Child Tax Credit to $5,000 before Harris announced her plans to expand it. He also hinted that he would like to see an expanded CTC without income thresholds; currently, single filers who make more than $200,000 or married couples with combined income of more than $400,000 are not eligible.

On energy and the environment

Harris’ plan:

• Backs global efforts to curb planet-warming pollution and the threat of climate change.
• Harris’ campaign website touts her wins against oil companies as California’s attorney general and her support of President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. She also pledges to hold polluters “accountable.”
• Harris’ support for the IRA likely extends to its benefits for electric vehicles and sources of clean energy, such as wind or solar energy. The bill helped push companies to invest $124.7 billion in clean energy projects since it was passed in August 2022, including some $77.6 billion in EV projects, according to Manufacturing Dive.
• No longer supports a ban on fracking, a technology used to open up shale rock and release oil, natural gas, and other fluids. In 2019, Harris ran for president on the promise to enact a national ban on the practice.
• Harris has said it is “important to build consensus” on how the U.S. can move toward a clean energy economy without banning fracking, according to E&E News.

Trump’s plan:

• Trump has famously promised to “drill, baby, drill” for more oil.
• In a meeting with oil and gas executives earlier this year, Trump proposed auctioning off more leases for oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and reverse restrictions on drilling in the Alaskan Arctic.
• Floated doing away with an Inflation Education Act program that provides funding for electric charging infrastructure and freezing the bill’s grants and subsidies.
• Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, has submitted legislation to remove an existing electric vehicle tax credit and replace it with a similar credit for gas-powered cars.
• Proposed axing the Environmental Protection Agency’s rules on tailpipe emissions, which promotes EVs. Trump has, incorrectly, called the rules an “EV mandate.”
• Trump is a long-time critic of wind energy and has pledged to scrap offshore wind projects on “day one” of his presidency.
• .Claimed he will make the U.S. “energy independent,” repeating a common rallying cry for every president since the 1970s, according to Politico.
• Recently told a crowd in Michigan that “Your heating and air conditioning, electricity, gasoline — all can be cut down in half,” and said he would declare a “national emergency” to boost fossil fuel supply and lower prices.

What experts are saying about the economy

Goldman Sachs

• The best outcome of the 2024 presidential election, at least for the economy, would be a Harris win and a Democratic sweep of Congress. The worst scenarios occur when Trump gets back into office and implements tougher controls on immigration and high tariffs on imported goods, the analysts said.
• Under a president Harris, job growth would be 10,000 jobs a month higher than if Trump wins with a divided government and 30,000 jobs higher than a Republican takeover of Congress and the White House, according to Goldman.
• “We estimate that if Trump wins in a sweep or with divided government, the hit to growth from tariffs and tighter immigration policy would outweigh the positive fiscal impulse,” Goldman analysts wrote.
• A Trump victory would drag gross domestic product by 0.5% in the second half of 2025 before fading in 2026
• Harris’ 28% tax rate on companies would tank S&P 500 (SPGI) companies’ earnings by 5%, while Trump’s tax cuts would boost their earnings by 4%

The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School

• Trump’s economic proposals would increase the federal deficit by $5.8 trillion over the next decade, almost five times more than Harris’ proposals, which would add $1.2 trillion, according to recent studies from The University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Wharton Budget Model
• By 2054, the effects of Harris’ campaign policy proposals would lower GDP by 3.9%, lower capital stock by 7.8%, lower average wages by 3.3%, lower consumption by 2.1%, and raise publicly-held debt by 7.7%.
• By 2054, the effects of Trump’s campaign policy proposals would lower GDP by 2.1%, lower capital stock by 4%, lower average wages by 1.7%, lower consumption by 3.2%, and raise publicly-held debt by 12.7%.