Democrats stifle doubts about Harris’s campaign proposals

CHICAGO — Democratic lawmakers are stifling whatever doubts they have about Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign proposals in hope of keeping a unified front as they head into the intense final two months of the 2024 election.  

Democratic senators had previously criticized a proposal to shield tipped income from taxes when former President Trump proposed the idea in June but are holding their tongues now that Harris has endorsed the idea.

Democratic lawmakers also have big questions about how to implement Harris’s proposal to crack down on price gouging, which has attracted sharp attacks from Republicans.

But Democratic lawmakers don’t want to pooh-pooh the idea at a time when Democratic officials and delegates have traveled to Chicago from around the country to celebrate Harris’s nomination to the presidency.

And they are keeping quiet about whatever doubts they have about how aggressively a President Harris would tackle climate change or how she would handle the war in Gaza, which has divided their party.

Democrats who gathered in Chicago to celebrate Harris’s nomination are focused on winning.

They have shoved aside any doubts about Harris as they seek to keep control of the White House and Senate, and win back the House majority.

One Democratic senator who had earlier dismissed Trump’s proposal to shield tips from taxes said it’s a more palatable idea coming from Harris.

The lawmaker said Trump’s top goal is to deliver tax breaks for the wealthy and giving restaurant servers and other tipped workers is an afterthought, while the source defended Kamala’s support for the proposal as part of a broader plan to help lower- and middle-income Americans.

Other Democratic senators say Harris’s proposal to eliminate taxes on tipped income will be evaluated in comparison with competing proposals when it comes time to debate the expiration of the Trump-era tax cuts next year.

“Once we get into taxes, we’re going to want to look at the whole package. I’m reluctant to seize on one particular thing,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee.

But Whitehouse added that he had “no objection to it,” arguing that “ordinarily people who are living on their tips are not the super high-wage earners we’re concerned about who are getting away with not paying taxes.”

A second Democratic senator who requested anonymity to discuss Harris’s “to tax on tips” plan said it would be considered next year along with other popular proposals, such as expanding the child tax credit, which would likely take priority over Harris’s campaign promise to voters in Nevada.

Democrats are also tip-toeing around Harris’s controversial proposal to crack down on price fixing, which Republicans are using as a cudgel to hammer Democratic candidates and which economic experts say would have little impact on high prices.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday praised Harris’s attempt to tackle high prices but he held back from endorsing the idea, saying that he would need to review its details before forming a judgment.

“You have to see how it would work,” he told reporters. “Grocery prices are really bothering people. You can’t just say, ‘The hell with it, they’re wrong.’ That’s a mistake.

“We’d have to see how to work it out,” he said. “This is something I think is a good idea but you have to look at the details.”

Schumer also said he would “seriously consider” Harris’s proposal to exempt tipped income from wages but cautioned he would need to review it carefully.

He praised Harris for making the bold proposal, which is very popular in the swing state of Nevada, but acknowledged it divided Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill.  

“This shows who Kamala Harris is. She really does understand what folks go through and so she, despite the fact that some party didn’t like it, came out for it,” he said of the ‘not tax on tips’ plan. “It’s something I would very seriously consider. I’d have to look at the proposal, look at the ramifications.”

Harris’s says she would call for a federal ban on corporate price gouging and impose “harsh penalties” on companies that inflate prices but Democratic lawmakers acknowledge that it would be challenging to put the proposal into legislative language in a way to withstand inevitable court challenges.

Republicans have jumped on the proposal to accuse Harris and other Democratic candidates of supporting socialist-style “price fixing.”

Trump accused his opponent of going “full Communist” and mocked her as “Comrade Kamala.”

“She wants to destroy our country. After causing catastrophic inflation, Comrade Kamala announced that she wants to institute socialist price controls,” Trump said at a recent rally in Pennsylvania.

Moderate Democrats who have distanced themselves from the Biden administration and who are most likely to criticize Harris’s plan to punish private-sector actors for high prices are staying away from the convention.

Economic experts have raised questions about the wisdom of the federal government intervening in market pricing.

Former Obama administration economist Jason Furman told The New York Times anti-price gouging law “is not sensible policy.”

“I think the biggest hope is that it ends up being a lot of rhetoric and no reality,” he told The Times. “There’s no upside here, and there is some downside.”

Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, told CBS MoneyWatch, that corporate pricing practices weren’t much of a factor in causing inflation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There are lots of reasons for the high inflation we’ve suffered over the past several years, but aggressive or unfair pricing practices are at the bottom of the list of reasons, if they’re on the list at all,” he told CBS. “It may have been more of an issue back when supply chains were being disrupted by the pandemic, but today it’s hard to point to any significant, meaningful examples of price gouging.”

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who is up for re-election this year in a purple state, however, pushed back on the skepticism of these experts.

“Some of the best reporting has been done out of the St. Louis Fed … that there really is a lot of inflation that was just folks deciding to rack up and price gouge,” he said.

But Kaine also said that any federal response to corporate pricing would have to be carefully calibrated.

“You got to get the balance right,” he said. “Smart strategy. Got to get the details right.”

Other moderates in the Democratic caucus want Harris to keep her eye on independent and swing voters, and not stray to far in trying to rev up her own party’s base.

Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) said whether or not Democratic incumbents in tough races embrace Harris’s campaign proposals will be a telltale sign of their broader appeal to American voters.

“Watch the enthusiasm from those on the front line, whether it be [Sen.] Jon Tester [D-Mont.] or [Sen.] Jacky Rosen [D-Nev.] That will be a telltale sign,” he told The Hill before the convention.

Both Tester and Rosen, along with vulnerable incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), have decided not to attend this week’s events in Chicago.