Inequality is on the ballot
Reproductive rights, immigration, and the economy + some issues you might have heard less about
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Inequality and opportunity are at the heart of this election. Trump ran a campaign on catering to the few instead of the many, on vitriol, xenophobia, racial insults, and the idea that the American way of life was meant for some. Harris ran a campaign on hope, policy, and the idea that the American way of life could improve. Americans want more opportunity for themselves, their children, and their communities. Here are the ways that inequality may improve or worsen depending on the election’s outcome.
Reproductive Health
Reproductive rights and women’s health is the biggest divide between Trump and Harris. Trump worked to load the Supreme Court with justices that would help dismantle Roe v. Wade, and his army of judges across the country has helped reinforce that position on the local level. The Trump administration also pushed for rules that would permit employer insurance plans to opt out of covering contraception if those employers objected on religious grounds. Even before the overturn of Roe v. Wade, 1 in 5 women had to travel +50 miles to get to an abortion clinic. Now, 1 in 4 women has to travel more than 200 miles.
Unsurprisingly, the longer the trip is, the less likely someone is to make that trip, which can be life threatening. This is particularly relevant for Black women. Black women already have maternal mortality rates 3x higher than white women. Half of all US counties already lack an OBGYN. These maternity care deserts are much more common in rural areas. Michelle Obama’s speech on the matter was invigorating, but perhaps not enough. The former first lady strongly argued that reproductive health isn’t just about women, and it isn’t just about pregnancy – it is about safety and about how much men care about the women in their lives.
If Trump wins the election, healthcare inequality will widen for women and the worst declines will be for minority communities in rural areas.
Immigration
Trump is a fierce advocate for mass deportations. Not only did he want to build a wall to prevent more immigrants from entering the nation, but his policies against immigrants could force 11-13 million people out of the country. 80% of those people have lived in the country for more than a decade. Trump and his allies painted vivid pictures of going into homes, rounding up families, and putting them in cars that would drive to airplanes waiting with engines running on tarmacs.
Despite his claims of advocating for mass deportation, Trump never carried out these plans while he was in office. For Trump, deportations never topped 350,000. For comparison, President Obama carried out 432,000 deportations in 2013, the highest annual total since records were kept. This time, though, Trump has gotten more specific and said he would invoke the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law that allows the president to deport any noncitizen from a country that the US is at war with, and Title 42, which prevents immigration based on health concerns.
Harris has embraced President Biden’s crackdown on asylum seekers and also followed tough-on-border rhetoric. Her main goal is close loopholes in the asylum process which would help the US stem the border crisis while continuing to allow immigrants in. At the same time she also wants to limit parole of migrants who are lawfully permitted in the country and redirect those resources where they are better needed. As a family of immigrants herself, her speeches often reflect how important immigration is towards developments in medicine, technology, and our economy.
If Trump wins the election, inequality for immigrant families will increase dramatically as mounting legal, regulatory, and social pressures mount that would force them out of America.
The Economy
Trump would increase income inequality while Harris would aim to decrease it. This would occur through two main channels: tax breaks and the safety net.
Trump’s tax plan would decrease taxes for the wealthiest Americans while Harris plans the exact opposite — to only raise taxes for people who make more than $400,000. Harris would also raise the long-term capital gains tax rate to 28%, up from the current 20%, for those who earn more than $1 million, which targets wealthier, stock-owning Americans. Harris has also promised to eliminate taxes on tips, a gain that would be especially beneficial for restaurant, service, and hospitality workers. These industries have the highest percent of workers who live in poverty. Trump has mentioned a similar concept, but offered no specific plans since.
For the social safety net, Harris plans to revive the American Rescue Plan’s benefits for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and Child Tax Credit (CTC). The EITC and CTC are two of the most powerful poverty alleviation programs the US has ever seen, and also just two of my favorite US policies if that is even a thing that one can say. These two programs that are targeted at low-income Americans with children would give families an additional $7,600 in CTC benefits per child. J.D. Vance has also supported the same idea, but Trump has never supported this publicly.
For Social Security and Medicare, Harris has made specific plans for supporting these programs and growing some benefits, while Trump has remained more vague yet steadfast that neither program should see cuts. Even though Harris plans to expand many social safety net services, her plan would increase the national debt by nearly 4 trillion less than Trump’s plan. This is because she plans to have tax increases on wealthy Americans to pay for those plans.
If Trump wins, only people who are already very rich will get richer. It is important to frame the conversation like this instead of saying “The rich will get rich and the poor will get poorer” because nobody likes to identify as poor.
Spotlight on everyday issues
Then, there are the smaller issues that all swell into much bigger areas of concerns.
Payday lending and financial security: Trump undeniably worsened inequality while he was in office. He rolled back rules for payday lenders that the Obama administration had set up under the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The rule had required payday lenders to check whether a person could reasonably repay the loan before the lender issued it. The Trump administration said that rule was not necessary and delayed the implementation further into the future. Strengthening payday lenders is only going to further trap more Americans under a weight of debt.
See our in-depth write-up on financial access and inequality Housing: Progressives were cautiously calling Harris the “YIMBY candidate” as she announced plans to build 3 million new homes in the next 4 years and offer $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time home buyers. During his presidency, Trump attempted to increase rent by 40% for roughly 4 million low-income households using rental vouchers or for those who lived in public housing. Meanwhile, Vance frequently ties immigration issues to housing issue. Trump has also been a longtime proponent of single-family zoning which is a notorious cause of our housing shortfall and prevents the development of denser cities. Trump’s opposition comes from the fact that zoning is not a federal issue and is a discussion for local municipalities, which is almost always correct. Federal policy can, however, influence this.
Education: Besides the fact that Trump has labeled public schools as vehicles of liberal indoctrination on gender and race, he also has publicly stated multiple times that he plans to shut down the Department of Education. 10% of public school funding comes from this federal level, but the Department of Education’s main role is to offer financial aid. More than $156 billion of its $224 billion annual budget goes to federal student aid programs. Harris, on the other hand, has proposed tripling Title I funding which gives money to schools where 40% of the student body is low-income.
The Path Forward
The clear path forward is to elect Kamala Harris as the next president of the United States of America. Nearly half of likely voters have already cast their ballots in this election, but for those who will be voting tomorrow, let’s pick opportunity over inequality.
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