What VP Harris said at Raleigh event
VP Kamala Harris spoke to a curated crowd on one of the Wake Tech Community College campuses
Democratic presidential candidate and current Vice President Kamala Harris came to Raleigh to lay out how she plans to handle inflation and economic challenges facing Americans that have grown to record levels under the Biden-Harris administration.
The rally was allegedly held at WTCC's Scott Northern Campus, but no event space matching the photos is listed on the website for that location, or any other. It's possible this space was a gym of some kind not listed on any of the WTCC event spaces.
Harris spoke to what appears to be a curated crowd. The location was not disclosed until the day of the event, implying the audience was by invitation only and was not open to the general public.
The audience was only around 250 people, per the Harris campaign, but the Associated press photos make the number of attendees look far smaller when not including a massive media presence. Other estimates ranged from 100 attendees to 225.
The 225 number came from freelance reporter Bryan Anderson who said that was a rough number included "elected officials." Anderson doesn't name the officials, but NC Gov. Roy Cooper and NC AG Josh Stein both spoke prior to Harris taking the stage.
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So what did Harris say? Here are some of the key lines. The quotes used here are directly from the transcript, which itself corrects some lines where Harris misspoke.
Harris started out touting creation of 16 million new jobs and said “new numbers this week alone show that inflation is down under 3 percent."
Both of these claims lack context.
Between 15 and 16 million jobs have been added since Biden-Harris took over, however, businesses created them in the wake of the pandemic rebound, not the administration. As of the end of July 2024, 15.7 million jobs had been added. Job numbers last month stalled out, coming in well short of the 175,000 estimate. While unemployment is down right now to about 4.1%; that's nothing to crow over as Americans' average weekly earnings when adjusting for inflation have dropped 2.3%.
Inflation being down under 3% is misleading since the average year-over-year inflation rate under Biden-Harris has been 5.7% and hit a 40-year high in 2022 at 9.1%. When Former President Donald Trump left office, the rate was 1.9%.
With no real details offered, Harris said she would build an “opportunity economy.”
"Together, we will build what I call an 'opportunity economy' — an economy where everyone can compete and have a real chance to succeed; everyone, regardless of who they are or where they start, has an opportunity to build wealth for themselves and their children,” said Harris.
Harris said that building up the middle class “will be a defining goal of my presidency, because I strongly believe when the middle class is strong, America is strong."
She also said she will make it a “top priority” to bring down costs for Americans and go after “bad actors” when it comes to food prices.
"As president, I will go after the bad actors,” Harris said. “And I will work to pass the first-ever federal ban on prou- — price gauging [gouging] on food."
The problem here is there is no food price gouging going on. The costs have risen because energy costs have risen, and as a result, production, distribution and labor prices have all risen to some of the highest levels since Jimmy Carter was in office.
The reaction to the “federal ban” language used by Harris resulted in social media posts calling it “Kamunism,” a play on Communism.
Sky News Australia picked up the “Kamunism” trend and ran with it:
The NY Post was fairly brutal with it’s cover of Harris and “Kamunism,” citing her plan would cost $1.7 trillon.
Harris also made promises when addressing housing affordability.
"As president, I will work in partnership with industry to build the housing we need, both to rent and to buy,” said Harris. “We will take down barriers and cut red tape, including at the state and local levels."
Harris went on to say she will give first-time homebuyers $25,000 “to help with the down payment on a new home.” What she didn’t say was where that money would come from or that her campaign said she was going to dump $40 billion into local governments for increasing the supply of housing.
Overall housing costs (materials, land, labor) are up nearly 50% under Biden-Harris and throwing $40 billion at what Harris claims is a lack of supply isn't going to bring those costs down.
The cost of homeownership has hit a three-decade high and Harris made no mention in her speech of where housing interest rates sit right now and that those rates have risen 133% under her watch.
As of Aug. 2024, that rate is sitting at a whopping 6.49% for a 30-year mortgage. The rate was 2.77% in Jan. 2021 when Biden-Harris took over. Also, there’s been nearly an additional $1,000 a month increase in the median house payment as reported by CNBC, Bloomberg, and other financial publications. So that $25,000 down payment isn’t going to help much when you can’t afford the rate for the rest of the mortgage payments.
This is the longest period of high inflation since the Carter years. Consumer Price Index (CPI) puts July inflation increasing by 2.9% year over year.
The average family is now shelling out an estimated extra $26,000 for the cost of living increases.
Travel cost increases: Airfare 22.6%, hotels/motels 51.2%, gasoline 50.5%, car insurance 54%
Cost of living increases: Groceries 21.6%, baby food 30.1%, eating out 23%, rent 22%, electricity 31.7%, fuel oil 49.1%
This kind of strain is going to break or already has broken most middle and lower income families.
Harris, who has stated multiple times she will let the Trump tax cuts expire, said she will give out her own tax cut — which is just the reinstatement of two previous tax credits.
"Under my plan, more than 100 million Americans will get a tax cut, and we will do this by restoring two tax cuts designed to help middle-class and working Americans: the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit,” said Harris.
It was interesting to hear Harris explain how she was going to fix economic issues created by her own administration and paint Trump as the problem.
"There's a choice in this election: Donald Trump's plans to devastate the middle class, punish working people, and make the cost of living go up for millions of Americans,” said Harris. “And, on the other hand, when I'm elected president, what we'll do to bring down costs, increase the security and stability financially of your family, and expand opportunity for working- and middle-class Americans."
The speech lasted approximately 28 minutes. The full transcript of her remarks are on the White House website under speeches and remarks.
Watch the full speech here: