Wake up with the Washington Examiner: Harris’s tax conundrum, Democrats’ advertising adversity, and a new swing state?

Kamala’s tax cut collision course

Vice President Kamala Harris is trying to set herself apart from former President Donald Trump in every possible way. At the top of her list is putting daylight between her economic agenda and her opponent’s with a promise to let his signature Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expire. The only problem is that if those cuts expire, taxes are going up on earners who are making less than $400,000 a year. 

Congress and the next administration are headed for a huge tax fight next year when the “Trump tax cuts” expire. The Washington Examiner has laid out the various parts of that coming fight, with looks at wrangling over the corporate tax rate and the child tax credit. This morning, White House Reporter Haisten Willis took a look at the most personal, and possibly the most political, matter at hand with letting the cuts expire or renewing and expanding them. 

“[Harris’s] campaign says she’s keeping President Joe Biden’s promise not to raise taxes on anyone making under $400,000. However, she also appears to be keeping Biden’s promise to let the 2017 Trump tax cuts ‘stay expired’ when portions of the law lapse next year,” Haisten wrote. 

“That expiration would raise taxes on middle-income earners in the absence of new legislation. The 2017 overhaul included lower tax rates, an enlarged child tax credit, a doubled standard deduction, and many other provisions that, on balance, cut taxes for people below the $400,000 threshold,” he wrote.

Trump’s tax plan has been celebrated by Republicans as a crowning jewel the country could afford as it basked in a roaring economy. 

Democrats have blasted the plan as a giveaway to the rich that made life more comfortable for top earners while leaning on middle- and low-income taxpayers to foot the bill. 

“We believe in a future where every person has the opportunity not just to get by but to get ahead,” Harris said at a Wisconsin campaign rally in late July. “Building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency.”

While the cuts were larger for top earners — taxpayers in the top bracket had their rates reduced from 39% to 37%, compared to those making between $191,951 and $243,725, whose rate went from 33% to 32% — most people saw a reduction in their tax burden. 

“A contemporary analysis of the 2017 tax code rewrite from the Tax Policy Center, a center-left nonprofit research organization, found that [the TCJA] would cut taxes across the income spectrum,” Haisten wrote. “A score of the bill from the Joint Committee on Taxation, which provides tax analysis for Congress, found that majorities of middle-income households would see significant tax cuts. A report from the Congressional Budget Office, Congress’s nonpartisan in-house group of budget experts, indicated that the law reduced tax rates for all groups in 2018.” 

Harris is supposed to roll out the first significant policy pitch for voters on Friday when she travels to Raleigh, North Carolina. That appearance will reportedly be focused on economic plans for her administration. 

Harris’s policy plans have been vague to this point in the campaign, aside from keeping Biden’s promise that no one making less than $400,000 a year will pay anything more in taxes. The problem with keeping that promise and her vow to let the Trump tax cuts die is that writing a new tax bill is onerous and will depend on which party controls the House and Senate. 

“If they really want to keep the under $400,000 promise, then they will have to write a new bill,” Gerald Friedman, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, told Haisten. “Which they can do if they have a majority in Congress.”

Click here to read more about the tax cut fight coming in 2025.

Truth in advertising? 

Putting something on the internet, or in a campaign ad, doesn’t make it true. And two Democratic Senate hopefuls, along with Harris, are under fire for skirting the line of using misinformation in their quests for higher office. 

Senate Reporter Ramsey Touchberry dove into the legal but ethical morass of campaigns rewriting news headlines in Google Search ads to make it appear as though news outlets were writing favorable stories about them. 

“The campaigns of two Democratic candidates for Senate and the campaign arm of Senate Democrats have used Google Search ads in the past year to manipulate news headlines and article descriptions presented to internet users,” Ramsey wrote.

“A Washington Examiner analysis of Google’s Ad Transparency Center reveals the Senate campaigns of Reps. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) used the tactic this year against their GOP opponents, promoting real news links but with previews displaying alternate headlines and subtexts crafted by the campaigns,” he added.

Sponsored ads will direct users to legitimate news articles, though they may find a different headline and description of the story they were expecting. And while the sponsored ad often includes a Disclaimer the result is “paid for by” various campaigns, that caveat hasn’t always been consistently applied. 

“The ads from Slotkin, Schiff, and DSCC do not currently display the proper ‘paid for by’ Disclaimer when viewing them in Google’s Ad Library, which the company has said is due to a technical glitch,” Ramsey wrote. “All the campaigns have verified Google advertising accounts.”

Click here to read more about the media manipulation in campaign advertising.

Tar Heel turn

Trump is making fun of Harris every chance he gets, but his appearance in North Carolina on Wednesday night shows he doesn’t think this campaign is all fun and games. 

Harris’s move to the top of the ticket and its energizing effect on Democrats have been well documented. Fundraising, volunteer turnout, and voter registration are all up for her party. And downballot candidates are feeling better than ever now that they have an energetic executive’s coattails to ride. 

It also looks like Harris is not only turning the tide in swing states Biden was trailing in, but she is also expanding the map by creating new ones. For the campaign that is getting talked about like a second coming of former President Barack Obama, Harris’s team has its sights set on repeating the rare Democratic feat of convincing Tar Heel State voters to line up behind someone other than a Republican presidential candidate. 

“A source close to the Harris campaign said the team has been investing in North Carolina for a year, with almost 30 offices expected to be opened by the end of the week,” White House Reporter Naomi Lim wrote. “Meanwhile, Harris herself will be making a trip to North Carolina on Friday, her eighth of the year, to deliver a policy-focused address on the economy.” 

Republicans told Naomi they aren’t worried about whatever “Kamalamentum” might be telling Democrats they have put North Carolina in play. There are deep ties between the state and the GOP, including two North Carolinians in the upper echelons of the Republican National Committee. 

“In 2016 and 2020, Democrats lit money on fire in North Carolina only to lose to President Trump,” RNC spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement. “With President Trump’s record of success in the state and two North Carolinians at the helm of the RNC, 2024 will be no different — Tar Heel State families have felt the strain of Kamala’s failures and are ready to deliver for President Trump yet again.”

North Carolina isn’t a must-win state for Harris, whose paths to victory almost all run exclusively through Pennsylvania. But by putting North Carolina in play, or at least making Trump and the GOP act as though it could slip away from them, she is making life easier for herself as the sprint to Election Day nears. 

For a few short weeks, Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC) was considered a front-runner to join Harris at the top of the ticket. He took himself out of the contest, pointing to his controversial Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson as the reason he couldn’t afford to leave the state to stump with Harris. 

Democrats are spooked by Robinson’s rhetoric, which could turn out to be a boon for Harris. Those roughly 30 offices her campaign has set up in the state don’t need her to be crisscrossing the state to turn up the excitement level as they will be engaged with fighting off Robinson, who is running to replace the term-limited Cooper. 

Click here to read more about how likely Harris is to repeat Obama’s feat in North Carolina.

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Biden will make his first campaign appearance with Harris at Prince George’s Community College in Maryland at 1:30. The pair will speak about the progress they are making “to lower costs for the American people.”