What do you think Kamala Harris and Donald Trump think about the things that really mean to you? MarketWatch will show you what the two presidential candidates’ plans are.
The election is coming up quickly on Tuesday, and voters always say that the economy is one of their biggest worries. Here are some stories from MarketWatch reporters about important economic and money problems.
Tax cuts and rises
Trump and Harris have both proposed a wide range of tax cuts and raises. For example, Harris has suggested that tips should not be taxed.
Trump would keep all of the tax cuts that were put in place in 2017 until next year. Harris has said that she would only raise taxes on people who make more than $400,000 a year.
Costs of housing
Harris and Trump have come up with a number of ideas to lower the cost of homes. Offering upfront cash to people who want to buy homes is an example of a demand-side measure. On the other hand, encouraging builders to build more homes is an example of a supply-side measure.
Harris wants to give first-time home buyers a $10,000 tax break and up to $25,000 to help with the down payment. Trump has suggested a number of ideas to lower costs, one of which is to loosen rules on zoning.
There is oil and gas.
Analysts think that if Trump wins, there will be more drilling for oil CL.1 -0.23% and gas NG00 -0.53%. He says that letting energy output go wild would help fight inflation.
Since President Joe Biden took office, production of both goods has reached all-time highs. Bill Weatherburn of Capital Economics wrote in a recent note that it’s hard to see how a Democratic administration has really hurt the oil and gas business.
Tariffs and how much they cost
Trump’s plans include putting taxes on foreign goods that come into the U.S. The former president says that these fees will bring in money and restore factory jobs. Trump’s plans for tariffs have been criticized by Harris as a “sales tax,” but she hasn’t said she won’t use tariffs herself.
Barclays analysts think that if Trump’s government puts 10% tariffs on all imports and a 60% tax on goods coming from China, it would cut S&P 500 0.41% earnings per share by 3.2% in 2025. It would drop by another 1.5% when U.S. trading partners put in place their own tariffs in response.
For Social Security and Medicare
A lot of people always care about Medicare and Social Security. Trump told AARP in August that he would protect the Social Security Trust Fund with “growth” and that he didn’t want to raise the age at which people could get benefits. When asked how she would improve the program, Harris said she would “make billionaires and big corporations pay their fair share in taxes.”
Harris and Trump gave the same answers to AARP about Medicare as they did about Social Security. Trump said, “Growth is a very big part of everything I say.” Harris promised to protect Medicare by taxing the rich.
Loans for school
Harris has praised the Biden administration’s work to fix the student loan system and said she would keep up the work to “lower costs, make higher education more affordable, and relieve the burden of student debt.”
Trump hasn’t said much about how he would handle student loans as president, but he has been against Biden’s plans to forgive loans, and Republicans in Congress and the courts have tried to stop them.
Prices for groceries
Harris wants to make price gouging illegal at the government level. This would stop grocery stores, food suppliers, and other companies from allegedly raising prices for customers. Trump has said that the move would make prices go up, and he has attacked the Biden-Harris government many times for this reason.
The latest reading of the so-called “core rate” of inflation, which doesn’t include food and energy, was 2.7%, which is still well above the Federal Reserve’s goal. But the Fed’s preferred PCE measure rose at a slower 2.1% rate in the year ending in September, which was just above the bank’s 2% goal.
