On Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign announced an economic program that draws on populist ideas, including a promise to expand existing tax breaks for parents with children and to drastically cut taxes for the American middle class.

The Democratic presidential candidate’s plan calls for a new $6,000 tax credit for low- and middle-income families in the first year of a newborn’s life. It also aims to restore the expanded Child Tax Credit (CTC) and make its benefits permanent.

The CTC was created in the 1990s to help families with the costs of raising children and provides up to $2,000 per child annually. During the pandemic, Congress increased that grant to $3,000 to $3,600, but it expired in 2021. Senate Republicans blocked a Tax cut package worth $78 billion This would have expanded eligibility for the tax credit and adjusted payments for inflation for tax years 2024 and 2025.

Researchers at the University of Michigan have found that the temporary expansion of the CTC could allow 26 million children in the United States to now be eligible for or even improve their benefits. current studyIt also led to a ‘historic’ 46% reduction in child poverty in the country, from 9.7% to 5.2%. PBS News reported.

In a statement on Friday, the Harris team contrasted its proposals with those of former President Donald Trump, claiming that he “comes into office with a promise to build another Tax relief for billionaires to his super-rich friends.” The campaign team also criticized Trump’s running mate, Senator from Ohio, J.D. Vancebecause he missed the August 1 vote in which his colleagues opposed an expansion of the CTC.

Vance has floated Raising the CTC to $5,000, CBS News said (PARAGRAPH) that he would “love” it if it passed in Congress. He also indicated that he would like to see an expanded CTC with no income limits; currently, single people earning more than $200,000 or married couples with combined incomes of more than $400,000 are not eligible.

Although both candidates have supported expanding the CTC, without action under Trump’s Tax Cuts & Jobs Act, the CTC will drop to $1,000 per child by 2026. expires. On the other hand, any measure to expand the CTC could “easily” increase the national debt by $2 trillion to $3 trillion over the next decade, a senior policy director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget told CBS.

The Harris campaign also announced proposals to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit to cut taxes by up to $1,500 for low-income individuals and childless couples and help Americans afford health insurance. Harris will also target: high prices for prescription drugs, expensive food billsAnd The real estate buying frenzy on Wall Street.

The vice president is expected to unveil further details of her economic plan at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday afternoon.