On National Voter Registration Day, Vice President Kamala Harris participated in a roundtable discussion hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in front of students from Lincoln University and Cheney University and NABJ members. During the roundtable, Vice President Harris outlined her vision for an opportunity economy, discussing in detail issues directly affecting the Black community, including plans to: expand and extend the child tax credit, provide down payment assistance to first-time home buyers, and increase investments to support small businesses.
Watch HERE
[Tonya Mosley, Gerren Keith Gaynor, and Eugene Daniels, 9/17/24]
See key excerpts from the interview below:
- “… Not everybody is – as you know, handed a silver spoon, but [instead] works hard and is trying to save up for a down payment. Part of my plan under my opportunity economy is to give first time home buyers a $25,000 down payment assistance so they can just get their foot in the door to be able to then engage in what will prove to be their opportunity to build intergenerational wealth.”
- “So part of my new approach is we need to expand the child tax credit, and so part of my plan that is under an opportunity economy is to extend and expand the child tax credit to $6,000. So that young families… have the resources to be able to buy a crib, buy a car seat, buy children’s clothing, and not have to worry about whether they’re going to be able to meet their other needs… I don’t need to remind anybody here, …but when we expanded the Child Tax Credit a couple years ago, we reduced black child poverty by half. “
- “Black men are like any other voting group. You got to earn their vote. So I’m working to earn the vote, not assuming I’m going to have it because I am black, but because the policies and the perspectives I have understands what we must do to recognize the needs of all communities, and I intend to be a president for all people, specifically as it relates to what we need to do.”
- “Part of my work is about understanding what we need to do in dealing with, for example, the historic inequities that have faced the black community around home ownership. Right? I don’t have to go through the history with anybody here about what that has meant in terms of redlining, what that has meant in terms of biases and home appraisals, and what the impact it has had on stemming the opportunity to build intergenerational wealth because of those obstacles.”
- “And so part of my approach is understanding the obstacles that traditionally and currently exist to allow anyone, including black men, be able to achieve economic wealth. And I’m going to tell you, I don’t think it is sufficient to just only talk about economic policy around reducing unemployment. It is an important marker, and I’m proud of the work that we’ve done thus far, but it should be a baseline where everybody’s working. The point is, do people have an opportunity to build wealth if that’s what they choose to do, if that’s what they want to do. And a lot of my perspective as we go forward is just that I believe that there are a lot of opportunities that are available to the American people, if we see people and understand what they want for themselves and their families and then meet them where they are.”