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Trump and Harris Have Vastly Different Policy Stances in 15 Areas. Here's Where

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Investing with moomoo wrote a column · Oct 1 03:38
By comparing the policies of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, it is evident that the two presidential candidates share similar views in some areas: support for Israel, competition with China, support for infrastructure investment, support for the reshoring of manufacturing, combating anti-Semitism, and combating drug abuse. However, there are significant differences in several other areas.
1. Economics and Technology:
1) China-U.S. Trade: Trump seeks to impose at least a 10% benchmark tariff on imported goods, revoke China's most-favored-nation status, and impose a 60% tariff on China (proposed only in speeches, not included in the party platform). Harris is likely to maintain Biden-era trade policies toward China, retaining Trump's tariffs on China and imposing new tariffs on approximately $18 billion worth of Chinese imports.
2) Energy: Trump supports fossil fuels and is less enthusiastic about “green” energy, aiming to lift restrictions on U.S. traditional-energy production. Harris seeks to develop green-energy sources aggressively, eliminating subsidies for oil and gas, and expanding the clean energy workforce.
3) Infrastructure: Both Trump and Harris support infrastructure investment.
4) Taxation: Trump plans to make the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent when it comes up for renewal in 20-24. He has also said he will eliminate taxation on tips for restaurant and hotel workers. Harris advocates not raising taxes on households earning less than $400,000 per year; combating tax evasion by the wealthy, imposing a 25% minimum tax on the wealthiest 0.01% (including taxing their unrealized capital gains); raising the corporate tax rate to 28%, imposing a 15% minimum corporate tax; and restoring and making permanent child tax credits and earned income tax credits. Harris hopes to further propose raising the tax credit for children in their first year to $6,000 and expanding income tax relief for low-income groups.
5) Minimum Wage: Harris advocates raising the federal minimum wage to $15/hour. Trump opposed raising the minimum wage during his 2020 campaign, suggesting it would harm small businesses, but has made no recent statements.
6) Manufacturing: Both Trump and Harris advocate for the so-called “reshoring” of manufacturing that has left the United States over the years.
7) Digital Currency: Trump fully supports digital currencies and seeks to eliminate government regulation of digital currency transactions. Biden had aimed to more tightly regulate digital currencies, focusing on risks related to consumer protection, financial stability, and the potential for money laundering. Harris has not yet taken a clear stance on cryptocurrencies, but her campaign team has been in contact with the cryptocurrency community.
8) Artificial Intelligence: Trump supports the development of AI, plans to abolish Biden's AI executive order, and supports maintaining a technological advantage over China. Harris advocates establishing a balanced regulatory framework to address potential biases, privacy issues, and social impacts, ensuring that technology benefits all levels of society.
9) Monetary Policy Independence: Trump believes the U.S. president should have a say in the Federal Reserve's decisions. Harris supports the independence of the Federal Reserve.
2. Reducing Living Costs:
10) Daily Costs: Trump advocates reducing energy costs and promoting lower prices for everyday goods and services. Harris wants to prohibit alleged "price gouging" for groceries, combat unfair acquisitions by large food companies, ban companies from charging “unnecessary” fees and pursue corporate price fraud.
11) Housing: Trump aims to reduce mortgage rates by cutting inflation, opening federal land for new housing construction, and increasing homeownership through tax incentives and support for first-time homebuyers. Harris advocates through tax incentives for entry-level housing construction, expanding existing tax credits to support affordable housing construction, investing $40 billion in an innovation fund to further support affordable housing construction, building 3 million new homes over the next four years, and providing $25,000 in down payment support for first-time homebuyers.
12) Rent Costs: Trump has released no relevant proposals to date. Harris advocates preventing Wall Street investors and corporate landlords from“predatory” mass purchasing of rental housing. She also wants to ban data companies from selling rental-pricing data to landlords, which Harris claims amounts to collusion among landlords to raise rents.
13) Health Insurance: Trump advocates for expanding health insurance choices by promoting competition and sought to repeal the Affordable Care Act (known as “Obamacare”) during his first term. Harris advocates strengthening federal subsidies for the Affordable Care Act and expanding health insurance coverage. Building on Biden's foundation, she also proposes collaborating with states to eliminate medical debts owed by many Americans.
14) Drug Prices: Trump advocates for expanding prescription drug choices by promoting competition. Biden authorized Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to reduce drug costs, aiming to negotiate prices for at least 50 drugs each year to lower drug prices, and expanding the cap on out-of-pocket costs for insulin and prescription drugs from seniors and Medicare beneficiaries to all Americans. Building on Biden's efforts, Harris calls for increasing industry competition and transparency, combating pharmaceutical companies and middlemen that she claims hinder competition.
3. Social issues:
15) Abortion: Trump advocates for states' autonomy on abortion but opposes late-term abortion. Harris calls for the restoration of Roe v. Wade, supports FDA-approved medication abortions, and promotes abortion freedom.
16) Gun Control: Trump plans to eliminate gun restrictions from the Biden era and protect gun rights. Harris advocates for universal background checks, safe storage requirements, and the banning of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines to address gun violence.
17) Drugs: Both Trump and Harris advocate combating drug trafficking, but both also support the legalization of marijuana.
18) Law Enforcement: Trump advocates for bolstering police forces, strengthening the police system, protecting officers from frivolous lawsuits, and adopting more aggressive and stringent policing strategies in high-crime communities. Harris advocates for supplementing police forces, reforming the police system, advancing accountability, and strictly enforcing laws.
Now, the polls show that Harris is slightly ahead of Trump. However, it is not easy for the current vice president to become president successfully.Since the founding of the United States, there have been 49 vice presidents, 15 of whom later became president, but only four were serving vice presidents who ran and won the presidential election (an 8% probability).
▶ The congressional election is even closer compared to the presidential election
Polls as of October 1stsuggest that the Democratic Party may lose its majority in the Senate, while the House election is equally close between the two parties. If Harris wins but the Democrats lose the Senate, even if they win the House (which can initiate legislation related to taxes and revenue), they will not be able to pass the proposed spending and tax bills; conversely, if Trump wins but the Republicans lose the House, even if they win the Senate, they will be unlikely to make Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent or repeal the Affordable Care Act.
▶ What is the impact of Trump and Harris's economic proposals?
On Aug. 16, Harris unveiled her economic agenda, proposing the concept of an "Opportunity Economy" centered on "building and protecting the middle class." However, the agenda is not comprehensive, limited to reducing household living costs, with more detailed plans to be elaborated in the coming weeks. Harris chose to focus on reducing living costs as the entry point for her economic plan, possibly to avoid transferring the negative impression of high inflation during Biden's tenure to herself, which could affect her electoral prospects.
The "fiscal cost" of Harris's living cost reduction:a deficit increase of 1.7-2 trillion USD over 10 years. According to the non-profit Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, from fiscal year 2026 to 2035, this agenda will cumulatively add 1.7 trillion USD to the deficit (excluding interest). If housing policies are made permanent, the deficit increase will rise to 2 trillion.
The political stances Trump also indicate a strong fiscal stance.Neither Trump nor Harris outlined policies to reduce the deficit in their previous debate.On the one hand, Trump also supports infrastructure investment and the reshoring of manufacturing. On the other hand, in terms of fiscal receipts and expenditure, Trump advocates tax cuts, which also leads to increase of deficit.
According to the 10-year budget forecast released by the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) in June, it is expected that non-net interest fiscal budget expenditures will continue to grow over the next decade, with a growth slope higher than before the pandemic.
Disclaimer: Moomoo Technologies Inc. is providing this content for information and educational use only. Read more
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