Harris promises tax cuts and funding for US manufacturers.

In the course of elaborating on her economic strategy to strengthen the middle class in the United States, Vice President Kamala Harris announced on Wednesday that she would provide tax credits to local manufacturers and invest in industries that will “define the next century.”

During her speech at the Economic Club of Pittsburgh, which is located in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, the Democratic candidate for president in the election that will take place on November 5 stated that she would provide tax credits to manufacturers in the United States for retooling or rebuilding existing factories, as well as expanding “good union jobs,” and she would further increase the number of registered apprenticeships during her first term in office.

New investments in fields such as bio-manufacturing, aerospace, artificial intelligence, and clean energy were also made a pledge by Harris.

With a duration of little less than forty minutes, Harris’s speech did not provide any specifics regarding the implementation of these proposals. In contrast to former President Donald Trump, who was the wealthy son of a New York real estate mogul, she emphasised that she was raised by a single mother instead of a family unit.

“I have pledged that building a strong middle class will be the defining goal of my presidency,” Harris said, adding that she sees the election as a time of choice between two “fundamentally different” visions of the United States economy held by her and her Republican opponent, Trump. “I have pledged that I will make this the defining goal of my presidency.”

Reuters/Ipsos polling indicates that the economy is the primary worry of voters, and as the election draws near, both the vice president and Trump are concentrating their campaign messaging on the economic.

In recent decades, there has been a widening of the gap between the wealthy and the impoverished. According to Pew Research, the percentage of homes in the United States that are considered to be part of the middle class has decreased from approximately 62% in 1970 to 51% in 2023. The middle class is defined as households that have an income that is two-thirds to double that of the median household income. When compared to those in the top tier, the income of these households has not increased at the same rate.

As part of her commitment to assisting in the expansion of the middle class, Harris stated that she would collaborate with the private sector and business owners. In front of the audience, she informed them that she is “a capitalist” who is a supporter of “free and fair markets,” and she characterised her policies as being more pragmatic than ideologically based.

Trump’s edge on the economy has been diminished in recent months, according to a poll conducted by Reuters and Ipsos and published on Tuesday. The poll showed that the Republican nominee had a slight advantage of two percentage points on “the economy, unemployment, and jobs,” which is a significant decrease from the 11-point lead he had in late July.

In North Carolina on Wednesday, Trump addressed his economic strategy and stated that Harris’ status as vice president provided her the opportunity to better the economic record of the Biden administration. Trump’s remarks were made during the time when Harris was in North Carolina.

“Families are not doing well at this time. Therefore, if she has a strategy, she need to let go of her grandstanding and actually carry it out,” he stated. Harris is concentrating on creating incentives for businesses to continue their operations in the United States, in contrast to Trump’s proposal to impose tariffs on all goods created in other countries, which is a proposal that is supported by a small majority of Americans.

Along with bringing back jobs that have been sent elsewhere over the past few decades, one of Biden’s primary objectives is to increase the amount of manufacturing that takes place in the United States, particularly in fields such as semiconductors. There are a variety of subsidies and tax incentives that are funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, all of which were passed in 2021 and 2022. These acts encourage businesses to locate their projects in areas that are economically disadvantaged.