Should Kamala Harris fight fire with fire in the battle over economic policy?
The IndependentMuch as many would, understandably, like it to be otherwise, the presidential election is not yet over, it is not yet in the bag for Kamala Harris, and there remains a near even chance that Donald J Trump will be sworn in as president of the United States on 25 January 2025. For instance, waving two packs of Tic Tacs around – surely a presidential first – Trump sought to make the point about “shrinkflation”, though most shoppers understand the phenomenon only too well. To get energy prices down and thus push inflation lower, Trump also has his familiar cry, “Drill, baby, drill!”, now allied to a new target of reducing energy bills by “more than half”. She wants to fight the big corporations’ oligopolies; legislate against “price-gouging” – exploiting inflation to sneakily push prices up; negotiate once again lower prices for prescription drugs, as Biden did successfully; build more homes to reduce their cost; increase tax credits for parents; and generally be on the side of consumers. In terms of attacking Trump, her best line is probably the fact that his protectionist tariffs – 10 per cent for all imports and even higher ones on Chinese goods – would increase the price of pretty much everything and make every American household poorer within a matter of months.