Vice President Kamala Harris conceded Americans are struggling in the current economy and vowed to improve things after President Biden boasted his policies were “working” just a day earlier.
Harris made the remarks during a campaign stop in North Carolina, where she unveiled part of her economic platform for the 2024 election.
“We’ve made historic investments in infrastructure, in [semiconductor chips], manufacturing, in clean energy. And new numbers this week alone show that inflation is down under 3%. And as president of the United States, it will be my intention to build on the foundation of this progress,” Harris said.
“Still, we know that many Americans don’t yet feel that progress in their daily lives. Costs are still too high and on a deeper level, for too many people, no matter how much they work, it feels so hard to just be able to get ahead.”
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Harris also pledged if she wins to “take on the high costs that matter most to most Americans.”
“Like the cost of food. We all know that prices went up during the pandemic when the supply chains shut down and failed, but our supply chains have now improved, and prices are still too high,” Harris said.
Critics hammered Biden in the first half of his administration over pervasive supply chain issues that left grocery store shelves bare while other goods like automobiles had monthslong production delays.
Inflation and supply chain problems were worldwide issues as most countries struggled to rebound after the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. fared better than most in terms of inflation rates, but many Americans still felt a disconnect between Biden’s early insistence the economy was in good shape and their own financial struggles, a gap that showed in Biden’s low economic approval numbers.
Economists, including some who formerly worked with the Obama-Biden administration, also blamed Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan for over-stimulating the economy and sparking the inflation surge of 2021.
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Harris’ remarks come a day after year-over-year inflation was announced to have reached its lowest level in over three years, with consumer prices only going up 0.2% between June and July.
Biden told reporters Thursday, “I told you they’re going to have a soft landing – we’re going to have a soft landing. My policies are working. Start writing that way.”
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Earlier that morning, Axios reported Harris wanted to distance herself from Biden on the economy, with her advisers urging her to break from him on issues like high prices.
Asked whether Harris would ditch his unpopular “Bidenomics” label, the president told reporters, “The economy is going to continue with all the legislation we passed … working.”
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