Kamala Harris said former President Donald Trump plans to “cut off federal programmes that give loans to small businesses”….reports Asian Lite News
Vice-President Kamala Harris on Wednesday unveiled an “ambitious” plan to boost small businesses through tax deductions, low and no interest loans, investments and fairer tax codes, which together, she said, will make 25 million new applications by the end of her first term.
Small businesses “aren’t just building a business. They’re pursuing a dream. They’re building a better future for their employees and for the people they love in their communities, and by extension, they’re building a stronger middle class and a stronger America for us all,” Harris said at an election campaign event in New Hampshire.
“And so all of this is why as President, one of my highest priorities will be to strengthen America’s small businesses. And here I am in New Hampshire to announce a few elements of my plan.”
Harris had announced her larger economic plan in August, ahead of the Democratic Party Convention to formally nominate her to run for President. The overarching theme was “lower costs for American families” and key provisions of the plans were to ban price gouging, build three million new housing units and grant a tax credit of $6,000 per newborn.
The first part of the plan she announced for small businesses, Harris said, was “to help more small businesses and innovators get off the ground. Okay, now I’m setting what some I’m sure going to call a very ambitious goal but you know what I think we should admire ambition in each other”.
She added that she wants to “see 25 million new small business applications by the end of my first term. And to help achieve this, we will lower the cost of starting a new business”. The way she plans to reduce costs was to expand tax deductions for start-up from the current $5,000 to $50,000.
Second, she said, her plan will help existing small businesses grow.
“We will provide low and no interest loans to small businesses that want to expand, and we will, and this is very important, cut the red tape that can make starting and growing a small business more difficult than it needs to be, more difficult than it needs to be.”
Third, Harris said, her plan will “invest in small businesses and innovators throughout America, and here’s why we know that talent exists everywhere in our country, from rural towns to city centres, but not everyone has access to the financing, to venture capital or expert advice”.
Finally, the Vice-President said, “her plan will make our tax code more fair, while also prioritising investment and innovation. So let us be clear, billionaires and big corporations must pay their fair share in taxes.”
Harris then criticised her Republican rival’s plans.
She said former President Donald Trump plans to “cut off federal programmes that give loans to small businesses”.
Republican Liz Cheney endorses Harris
Former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney and a son of 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain on Wednesday threw their support behind Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, in the latest case of Republicans turning against party candidate Donald Trump.
Cheney’s announcement ended weeks of speculation about how fully the member of a GOP dynasty-turned-Trump critic would embrace the Democratic ticket.
Cheney, who co-chaired the House investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, became a fierce Trump critic and was ousted in her 2022 Republican primary in Wyoming as a result, made her announcement at an event at Duke University. In a video posted on the social media network X, she finished by talking about the “danger” she believed Trump still poses to the country.
“I don’t believe that we have the luxury of writing in candidates’ names, particularly in swing states,” she said. “As a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this. Because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris.”
Harris’ campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement Wednesday night: “The Vice President is proud to have earned Congresswoman Cheney’s vote. She is a patriot who loves this country and puts our democracy and our Constitution first.”
The daughter of former vice president Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney has been perhaps Trump’s highest-profile Republican critic. She joins other Republicans like her former Jan. 6 committee member, former Rep. Adam Kinzinger and former Rep. Denver Riggleman, as backers of Harris. More than 200 alumni of the Bush administration and former Republican presidential campaigns of the late Sen. John McCain and Sen. Mitt Romney also announced their endorsement of Harris last week.
Cheney was in House Republican leadership at the time of the Jan. 6 attack but broke with most of her caucus over Trump’s responsibility. She lost her leadership post and was one of the few Republicans willing to serve on the Jan. 6 committee, which was appointed by Democrats who controlled the House at the time.
Jimmy McCain, a son of former Arizona senator John McCain, said this week he has registered as a Democrat and will vote for Harris, a valuable nod of support for the Democratic nominee in a battleground state.
Meanwhile, Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, appeared outside Phoenix Wednesday for an event with the conservative youth organizing group Turning Point USA, which has been instrumental in remaking the Arizona GOP as a faithful organ of former President Donald Trump’s “Make America great again” movement.
Jimmy McCain’s endorsement and Vance’s Turning Point USA appearance reflect the disparate segments of the GOP that Harris and Trump are trying to reach. Democrats are appealing to traditional conservatives disillusioned by Trump’s takeover of the GOP, while Republicans are looking to shore up their base and ensure that their young supporters turn out.
Jimmy McCain, son of Arizona’s Republican Sen. John McCain, pauses at his father’s casket during ceremonies honoring Vietnam War veteran at the US Capitol Rotunda in Washington on Aug. 31, 2018. (Pool Photo via AP)
Democrats have made big inroads over the last six years in Arizona, once a Republican stronghold that routinely backed McCain and other Republicans for president, with an anti-Trump coalition that includes Republicans and conservative independents.
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