Former President Trump’s economic proposals would increase the federal deficit by $5.8 trillion over the next decade, nearly five times what Vice President Kamala Harris would increase, according to two new studies from the nonpartisan Penn Wharton School of Business Budget Modeling. The latter would add $1.2 trillion.
this Trump Report found that his plan to permanently extend the 2017 tax cuts would add more than $4 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years. His proposal to eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits would cost $1.2 trillion, while his pledge to further lower corporate taxes would add nearly $6 billion.
this Harris Analysis She said her plan to expand the child tax credit, earned income tax credit and other tax credits would add $2.1 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years. She proposes a $25,000 subsidy for all eligible first-time homebuyers, which would add $140 billion over ten years.
But the Harris report found that raising the corporate tax rate from the current 21% to 28%, as proposed by the vice president, could partially offset her $1.1 trillion in spending costs.
Harris said that in addition to raising corporate taxes, she also supports the $5 trillion worth of revenue increases included in President Biden’s fiscal 2025 budget proposal.
However, most of Harris’ revenue streams come with an important asterisk: They require congressional approval.
In contrast, Trump suggestion His agenda is to impose a 10% tariff on all imports and a 60% tariff on Chinese imports, neither of which would require congressional approval to be implemented. Trump claims these trade policies will generate enough long-term domestic growth to outweigh the short-term costs of his economic platform.
But Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi estimated to NBC News that Trump’s tariffs could bring in $2.5 trillion in revenue. More broadly, economists warn that such tough tariffs could reignite inflation just as the pace of consumer price increases begins to cool.
The Trump and Harris campaigns competed to portray the other as an economic danger, each trying to win over voters exhausted by the high cost of living.
“Donald Trump’s Plan 2025 economic agenda is an inflation and deficit bomb that leaves the middle class paying more and the rich paying less,” Harris campaign spokesman James Singer said in a statement to CNBC cost.
Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt defended the Republican presidential candidate in a statement to CNBC: “President Trump is a businessman who built a legacy of success in American history. The greatest economy, he certainly didn’t need to learn economics lessons from San Francisco’s radical liberal push for communist price controls.
In just over a month since Biden dropped out of the race, the Harris campaign has been rolling out its economic agenda at breakneck speed.
The pressure is heightened given voters’ nostalgia for the optimism of the pre-pandemic economy under the Trump administration, which has been a weak point in the Democratic campaign cycle.
— NBC News’ Sahil Kapur contributed to this report.
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