This week, Kevin Hassett, former senior adviser to Donald Trump and chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, accused Vice President Kamala Harris of appropriating a proposed economic policy from the Republican presidential nominee.
During an interview on PBS’ “Firing Line” with Margaret Hoover, Hassett claimed that Harris’ proposed $50,000 small business tax credit is something she opposed when Trump proposed increasing the tax credit during his presidency.
“So that policy, the small business deduction, it’s $5,000 in the law now,” he said. “And in 2018, President Trump and the Republicans wanted to expand the deduction to $20,000. It actually passed the House with very little Democratic support. And so, you know, Republicans are on the record as saying that there should be a bigger deduction for the start of a small business. And so this is an example of her reaching into Donald Trump’s playbook and taking one of his policies. Expanding the deduction for startup business is a good idea. And it’s something that Republicans tried to do in 2018, but the Democrats were opposed to it. And so, it’s something that she was opposed to before she was for it. And so you could say, well, is she really for it now? Or, you know, could she explain why she changed her mind?”
Hassett also noted that Harris’ economic agenda remains unclear, and he described many of her proposals as “very extreme.”