Trump and Harris Campaigns on Key Issues to Young Voters
The 2024 Presidential Election is 11 days away, meaning that it’s crunch time for both voters and campaigns. Check out our voting guide if you are not already registered to vote and make a voting plan.
Per CNN, the top issues for young voters are: economy, housing, cost of living, immigration, climate, foreign policy, gun control and abortion rights. These are the policies we will be focusing on for the presidential candidates, but if you are curious about other policies, email us at deputymanagingeditor.14eastmag@gmail.com and we will add to our coverage.
Economy, Housing and Cost of Living
Harris
According to Harris’s website, she wants to create an “Opportunity Economy,” which is an economy where everyone, no matter what their background is, is able to succeed. One defining goal of her presidency is to build up the middle class – which means she wants to lower taxes, while also lowering the prices of basic daily needs like healthcare, housing and groceries. Click here to read Harris’s full plan to create an opportunity economy for the middle class.
Her action plans to create an opportunity economy are promising mortgage assistance for first-time homebuyers, placing bans on price gouging at the grocery store and providing a tax credit for parents of newborns, according to the BBC.
Trump
According to Trump’s website, his previous administration created “record-setting tax relief for the middle class,” doubled child tax credits and “slashed job-killing regulations.” However, according to Brookings, the tax cuts made the middle class worse off in the long run. Brookings also found that Trump touts that he will increase and expand tariffs on imported goods and maintain his prior tax cuts. His tax cuts have been criticized by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) for their ineffectiveness. The CBPP says that the policy was “skewed to the rich,” “expensive and eroded the U.S. revenue base” and “failed to deliver promised economic benefits.”
New for the 2024 campaign is Trump’s promise to end taxes on tips, Social Security and overtime pay. According to the AP, he argues that the No Tax on Tip policy would improve Americans’ personal financial standing and the overall U.S. economy.” Economists, per the AP, who have analyzed the tax cuts estimate that the cuts will range between $6 trillion and $10 trillion over 10 years, “depending on which ideas become policy and how they’re implemented.”
A part of Trump’s economic policy is a proposition to lower the corporate tax rate from 21% to 15% only for companies that produce in the U.S. He also says he wants to get “SALT” back. The SALT (State and Local Tax) deduction was capped at $10,000 for most married couples under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The current cap of $10,000 has led to larger tax bills for residents of New York, New Jersey, California and other high-cost, high-tax states.
Included in his economic policy, Trump wants to stop free trade with “countries [that] exploit the system at the expense of others.” He would impose more tariffs on China and “ban Chinese ownership of critical infrastructure in the United States.” While he says that these tariffs will make up for the tax cuts, tariffs are usually absorbed by households as taxing foreign imports leads to increased prices of imported goods.
On housing, Trump wants to open up federal land for massive-scale housing construction. The former president maintains that the cost of housing is because of immigrants and said in policy and speeches that he would ban mortgages for undocumented migrants. Mortgages for undocumented migrants are uncommon, but legal. According to the Wall Street Journal, 5,000 to 6,000 mortgages were lent to undocumented migrants in 2023. Consumer Finance says that 5.7 million applications resulted in mortgage loans in 2023. That is around 0.105% of mortgages loaned to undocumented migrants.
According to NerdWallet, a June 25 letter from a group of 16 Nobel Prize-winning economists stated, “We believe that a second Trump term would have a negative impact on the U.S.’s economic standing in the world and a destabilizing effect on the U.S.’s domestic economy.”
Immigration
Harris
Harris supported the hardline bipartisan border-security bill, which would have included $20 billion for border-wall construction, according to the BBC. It would also have fast-tracked decisions on asylum cases, limited humanitarian parole and expanded the authority to deport migrants. While congressional Republicans were against the bill due to its bipartisan nature, Harris wants to revive it and sign it into law.
She has said there “should be consequences” for people who cross the border illegally. According to her website, the border-security detail would also crack down on people smuggling fentanyl and other drugs.
Trump
Trump is known for his mass deportation promises, stating on his website that he “created the most secure border in U.S. history” in his first term. As of now, he has no specific plan to enact mass deportations. However, according to USA Today, he has made some plans in campaign speeches and interviews by Trump and his officials. These plans include using the 1700s law Alien Enemies Act, which was used to detain Japanese, Italian and German descendants during WWII, deputizing executive and emergency authorities to bypass existing laws protecting immigrants, leaning on local authorities to detain immigrants in their jurisdictions, using the military and National Guard to aid in immigration enforcement, and using federal employees and resources to support the mass deportation effort.
Trump touts that he will end catch-and-release, restore the “Remain in Mexico” policy and “eliminate asylum fraud.” According to the Texas Tribune, the 2019 policy forced those with pending asylum cases to wait in Mexico.
On asylum fraud, a 2019 press briefing from the White House claims that many “meritless” asylum claims are filed to gain access to “our great country.” Trump signed a Presidential Memorandum to streamline court proceedings and evaluate asylum applications within 180 days of filing, require fees for asylum application and work permit applications, and bar immigrants who have illegally crossed the border from receiving work permits prior to being approved for asylum. The memorandum also revokes work authorization for immigrants granted final removal orders.
A memorandum is not an official order — this briefing only pushes the Attorney General and Department of Homeland Security to enact policies. The policies were never fully enacted, but the Department of Homeland Security did adopt a one-year waiting period for asylum seekers.
Additionally, Trump’s website says he will continue to deputize the National Guard and local law enforcement to participating states to assist in removing illegal immigrant “gang members and criminals.” He adds that he will “deliver a merit-based immigration system that protects American labor and promotes American value.”
Climate
Harris
As vice president, Harris cast the tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which was President Biden’s landmark climate law, according to the AP. The IRA contains $500 billion in new spending and tax breaks that aims to reduce healthcare costs, boost clean-energy usage and increase tax revenues.
When Harris was a senator in California, she was an early supporter of the Green New Deal. The main goal of the Green New Deal was to reduce the amount of greenhouse gasses and toxic emissions needed to stay under 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming. Some proposals of the deal included building smart power grids, maximizing energy usage and water efficiency, and cleaning up hazardous waste. As California attorney general, Harris won tens of millions of dollars in settlements against Big Oil and held polluters accountable.
If she wins the presidency, she and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will “always fight for the freedom to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and live free from the pollution that fuels the climate crisis,” according to her website.
Trump
Trump is committing to rolling back portions of the Inflation Reduction Act, a Biden-era proposal to expand clean energy. He has also committed to dismantling the Green New Deal, a set of non-binding proposals to tackle climate change that was introduced by progressive Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Sen. Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts. The Green New Deal is not a law, so it cannot be passed. The proposals, even if passed, would not be laws, but ideals for the country’s energy sector.
Vowing to bring back drilling, Trump says he would unlock new lands for expedited oil-drilling permits and natural-gas pipelines. He has also indicated he will restart the liquified-natural-gas exports on his first day in office. He has also signaled to drain funding from climate and environmental agencies, saying on Fox News about the budget cuts that environmental agencies “make it impossible to do anything.”
If elected in November, Trump vowed to remove the “electric vehicle mandate” of the Biden administration on his first day. The Biden administration has not issued a mandate on electric vehicles. However, the administration did introduce incentives for those with electric vehicles.
Foreign Policy
Harris
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, Harris backs Israel’s right to self-defense, but also calls for a ceasefire on the Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the release of the Israeli hostages. She has supported U.S. military aid to Israel, which has reached $18 billion since October 7, 2023. She calls for a “two-state solution.” A two-state solution would be a world where both an Israeli and Palestinian state peacefully coexist. Israel should hold extremist settlers in the West Bank accountable, and the Palestinians should have the right to security and self-determination.
Harris does not condone Russia’s violence towards Ukraine and will continue to aid Ukraine in its fight against Russia. Since 2022, the U.S. has provided $175 billion in financial, humanitarian and military assistance to Ukraine, and in June 2024, Harris pledged to provide an additional $2 billion.
Trump
The former president has criticized NATO consistently through his first term and his campaign. However, he was close with authoritarian leaders like Vladimir Putin of Russia and Viktor Orbán of Hungary. He has promised to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accords once again, as he did during his first presidency.
On the Israel-Hamas War, Trump made comments about being “Israel’s protector” at an Israeli-American Summit in September. In addition to these comments, of which he shared no plan to target Hamas, he stated that Vice President Harris will not protect Israel.
Trump’s policy on the Ukraine War is unclear. During the presidential debates, Trump failed to answer if he wanted Ukraine to win the war. More recently, he blamed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for “starting the war” with Russia. He said that President Zelenskyy should have sought peace with Moscow by conceding some of Ukraine’s land, a proposition that is unacceptable to leaders in Kyiv. He has made comments that he could end the conflict before he would be in office in January, but has not said specifically how.
Gun Control
Harris
Harris advocates for stricter regulations surrounding firearms, according to NPR. She does not want to ban the use of firearms, as she and Walz both are gun owners, but she wants gun ownership to be more regulated.
In 2023, President Biden established the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which Harris oversees. The office’s main objective is to reduce gun violence by numerous executive orders, such as keeping dangerous weapons and repeat shooters off the street, equipping law enforcement with the methods to reduce gun violence, and addressing the root cause of gun violence in communities.
The office also implemented the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which was a law signed in 2022 that expands background checks, creates new criminal penalties for gun trafficking and for purchasing a gun on behalf of someone banned from doing so.
Trump
During his first presidency, Trump had a mixed record on gun policies. After a mass shooting, Trump’s administration tried to ban bump stocks. Bump stocks allow a semi-automatic rifle to fire bullets at the same rate as a machine gun. The bump stock ban was struck down by the Supreme Court.
He has, however, promised a rollback of Biden regulations. He specified he would cancel the Biden administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy that revokes federal licenses from gun dealers who violate firearm laws. He has also said he was supportive of a tax credit for teachers who carry firearms in schools. He also voiced his disapproval of schools being gun-free zones, saying that a gun-free zone does not allow people to protect themselves. He has also said he approves of schools having metal detectors, fencing and an armed police officer.
Abortion Rights
Harris
Harris believes that the right to have an abortion should be a federal right. According to NPR, Harris wants to eliminate the filibuster in the U.S. Senate in order to bring back federal protections for a woman’s right to have an abortion as they were under Roe v. Wade. However, promising to eliminate the filibuster is practically impossible. As president, she would not have any say in eliminating the filibuster because the filibuster is controlled by the U.S. Senate.
Harris blames Trump’s presidency for the overturn of Roe v. Wade, as Trump appointed three Supreme Court justices that aided in restricting abortion access.
Trump
Trump has been inconsistent on his abortion policy. He recently stated he would not vote for a Florida ballot measure that would amend the state’s constitution to overturn the state’s six-week abortion ban. He has recently criticized the law as being “too harsh.” He also said he would veto a national abortion ban, but then refused to comment on it during the presidential debate.
On abortion pills and prosecuting women for getting abortions, Trump said it should be a states’-rights issue. He made a comment in 2016 that said “there has to be some form of punishment” for women who have abortions. He also declined to comment on the matter of access to the abortion pill mifepristone.
On in vitro fertilization (IVF) and contraception, he at one point said he would introduce policy on both. He has not released a policy on contraception. On IVF, he has called himself the “father of IVF.” However, his answer during a Fox News town hall acknowledged that he needed an explanation on what IVF was.
Header by Anna Retzlaff
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