WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris promoted insurance policies that goal to make housing extra inexpensive Friday afternoon, whereas additionally introducing a slate of proposals that assist what she dubbed the “alternative economic system.”
“Collectively, we are going to construct what I name a chance economic system — an economic system the place everybody can compete and have an actual likelihood to succeed,” she stated. “Everybody, no matter who they’re or the place they begin, has a chance to construct wealth for themselves and their youngsters, and the place we take away the obstacles to alternative.”
Harris’ remarks in North Carolina complemented a flurry of coverage planks launched forward of the speech, which collectively signify the clearest define of her views on the economic system since changing President Joe Biden because the presidential candidate for the Democratic occasion almost a month in the past.
Total, the insurance policies deepen many initiatives already put ahead by the Biden administration, together with a concentrate on antitrust and pro-labor positions. The financial insurance policies spanned a variety of markets, from a “first ever” ban on worth gouging for meals, a cap on prescription drug costs and a baby tax credit score that might give $6,000 per baby for households with newborns.
She additionally launched a populist-centric raft of concepts round housing, together with a $25,000 subsidy for first-time house consumers.
In her remarks, she referenced her historical past as lawyer common in California, and the work she did there following the 2008 monetary disaster.
“As state lawyer common, I drafted and helped move a home-owner invoice of rights, one of many first in America,” she stated. “And through the foreclosures disaster, I took on the massive banks for predatory lending with lots of my colleagues, together with [North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper] and received $20 billion for California households once I was lawyer common.”
She additionally took goal at Wall Road corporations that purchase single-family properties to market as rental properties.
“Some company landlords, a few of them purchase dozens, if not a whole lot, of homes and flats, then they flip them round and hire them out at extraordinarily excessive costs,” she stated. “And it may well make it unimaginable, then, for normal individuals to have the ability to purchase, and even hire a house.”
She additionally referred to as on Congress to move the Cease Predatory Investing Act, a invoice launched by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and different Democratic lawmakers. The invoice would forestall an investor who acquires 50 or extra single-family rental properties from deducting curiosity or depreciation on these properties.
Harris additionally referred to as on Congress to move the Stopping the Algorithmic Facilitation of Rental Housing Cartels Act, a invoice from Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Peter Welch, D-Vt., that might make it unlawful for rental property homeowners to make use of corporations that coordinate rental housing costs.
“Some company landlords collude to set artificially excessive rental costs, typically utilizing algorithms in price-fixing software program to do it,” she stated. “It is anticompetitive, and it drives up prices.”