My colleague David Dayen has deeply and thoroughly unpacked Kamala Harris’ economic platform, laying it out in a speech in Pittsburgh, a fact sheet, and an 82-page booklet yesterday. The paradox here, as David pointed out, is that the red meat of progressive populism is more evident in the fact sheets and pamphlets than in the speeches themselves.
Some of those progressive things, David said, include expanding tax credits not just for domestic manufacturing, but also for manufacturing in Rust Belt mill towns and manufacturing that actually empowers workers. However, it includes “worker-centered industrial policy.” Her proposed tax credits would be “related to the treatment of workers, the right to organize, and the support of long-standing investments in manufacturing, energy, and agricultural communities.” With the future of U.S. Steel’s aging mill in Mon Valley (as well as the future of aging mills everywhere) in great doubt, Harris’s booklet includes the following information about her proposed tax credits: It is stated as follows.
This will provide even greater benefits to long-standing investments in the manufacturing, agriculture, and energy communities, especially those that are renovating or rebuilding existing facilities. These new tax credits will be available to companies that work with industry, workers, unions, and communities to protect jobs, including by increasing automation and hiring existing workers at comparable wages. Companies that develop plans will also be rewarded. Particular emphasis will be placed on rewarding reinvestment, retrofitting, and rehiring in long-standing steel and steelmaking communities like Mon Valley, Pennsylvania.
It would be revolutionary to combine support for industrial revitalization with support for workers’ right to join unions. In a less obvious form, the link was initially included as part of President Biden’s anti-inflation legislation, but it failed to pass discussions with Joe Manchin. If Ms. Harris not only wins, but also has a Democratic Congress without Mr. Manchin (and Kyrsten Sinema), there is a good chance that such a tax credit standard could be enacted in a reconciliation bill. (As long as we’re talking about a pro-worker tax system, my personal preference has always been to tie the corporate tax rate to the ratio of the CEO’s salary to the median employee salary. The higher the ratio, the lower the tax )
When you combine Harris’ industrial policy with her pledge to provide tax credits to build new affordable housing and fund expanded apprenticeship and retraining programs, she has what I previously characterized as a kind of “masculine” politics that complements her. Family policies such as larger child tax credits, affordable child care programs, and paid family leave probably have greater appeal among women (especially young single men) than men.
As David pointed out, Harris’ speech was at least as much about affirming her pro-business and pro-capitalist beliefs as it was about making seriously pro-worker proposals. Given the extent to which she is still undefined for millions of voters, and given the Trump campaign’s efforts to define her as a committed communist and malign Marxist, It is natural to affirm economic normality.
But her messages on the stumps, on the airwaves and on social media may be enough to highlight the more overtly pro-labor aspects of her platform. If she’s going to shoulder the trio of blue walls, her preference for location-based investing and decent-wage jobs with benefits should resonate as much as her child tax credit. And if she is elected and able to enact the key elements of her platform, she will not be remembered for being primarily a capitalist. Because there’s nothing noteworthy about it. Because every president in our country’s history has been a capitalist. She will be remembered for implementing social democratic reforms to capitalism that created a more vibrant and egalitarian America.
September 26, 2024
3pm
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