Kamala Harris, Donald Trump Plans for Housing, Child Care, Taxes Compared

As the upcoming presidential election heats up, voters have to choose between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump on a variety of issues.
For many voters, housing, child care and taxes are deal-breaker issues, and both candidates have been vocal in their different policy plans for these topics.
The housing market is in a state of crisis as many Americans are unable to afford a home.
“We know that we have a shortage of homes and housing, and the cost of housing is too expensive for far too many people,” Harris said during the last presidential debate.
If elected, Harris said she would build 3 million new housing units to increase the supply. She also said she would create $40 billion in funding to support local governments in constructing their own affordable housing.
And for first-time homebuyers specifically, Harris plans to offer $25,000 in down payment assistance.
Trump’s plans have also focused on increasing the supply on housing, and the former president said he would get rid of some regulations to increase new home building.
During his presidency, Trump passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, reducing the corporate tax rate and created opportunity zones where people could more easily invest in low-income neighborhoods and gain tax benefits.
Trump also said he would use federal land for housing projects and ban undocumented immigrants from getting mortgages.
“Regulation costs 30 percent of a new home, and we will open up portions of federal land for large-scale housing construction,” Trump said in a speech at the Economic Club of New York. “These zones will be ultra-low tax and ultra-low regulations—one of the great small business job creation programs.”
Child care costs are fueling another economic crisis for many Americans, causing some to delay or avoid having children at all. Others are forced to leave their jobs due to the surging costs of day care in cities across the country.
While the average family spends $700 a month on childcare, according to Bank of America, the costs can be far higher depending on where you live. In New York, costs have surged 46 percent since 2019 and now average around $20,000 a year, according to the think tank The Century Foundation.
Under a Harris presidency, voters could expect the president to push for a cap on child care costs at 7 percent of Americans’ incomes.
Harris has not been specific on how this would be achieved, but she also has pushed for a $6,000 child tax credit for newborn parents.
The vice president also said she would restore the pandemic-era child tax credit, which offered $3,600 for families with children under 6 and $3,000 to all other parents.
Trump has been relatively quiet on his plans to address child care costs, but his running mate J.D. Vance supports a $5,000 child tax credit.
“It’s something you have to have in this country,” Trump said of child care at the New York event.
Trump has been vocal in his plans of stripping taxes on Social Security for seniors, and a majority of Americans appear to approve of this policy.
Roughly 64 percent of Americans said they supported getting rid of taxes on Social Security payments, according to a recent Wall Street Journal poll. Another 19 percent said they somewhat favored the policy, and only 10 percent outright opposed the idea.
“Given the rise in expenses for many seniors, as well as more Americans qualifying for benefits in the coming years, it’s no surprise more are saying they would like to see restrictions on taxation of these benefits,” Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor for the University of Tennessee at Martin, previously told Newsweek.
While Trump’s policy might be popular among voters, it could potentially create further problems with the national debt.
“The overwhelming support for removing the tax on Social Security deserves further scrutiny,” Kevin Thompson, a finance expert and the founder and CEO of 9i Capital Group, previously told Newsweek.
“While many people are in favor of this, it’s important to realize that if such a policy were enacted, it would likely result in reduced benefits to offset the lost revenue. Essentially, it would be shifting the burden, potentially creating a more severe financial impact through other forms of taxation or budget cuts.”
Today, around 50 percent of Social Security beneficiaries have their payments taxed.
If your total income is above $25,000 for individuals, half of your benefits can be taxed. And if that income is beyond $34,000, up to 85 percent of benefits can be taxed.
Trump has also pledged to expand his 2017 tax cuts for nearly all Americans.
For Harris, tax cuts would likely arrive for middle-class and low-income Americans, but the rich and large corporations could see tax hikes under her administration.
Similar to President Joe Biden’s policy, Harris said she supports raising the corporate tax rate from 21 to 28 percent.
The richest households in America could also see a 25 percent minimum tax, with capital gains taxes increasing as well for people earning more than $1 million a year.
On the other hand, Trump’s tax cuts could reduce the corporate tax rate from 21 to 15 percent for companies that produce within the United States. And if extended, his 2017 tax cuts would continue to keep the rate down by 35 percent.
“Trump tax cuts will help corporations and support business, while likely making the USA more alluring for business,” Thompson said. “Yet, this does nothing to help offset the major government issues such as deficit spending. This will ultimately create a larger deficit due to bringing in less money.”