As a U.S. senator, Vice President Kamala Harris had a remarkably slim record of accomplishments, shepherding only a handful of minor resolutions across the finish line. But that’s far from the last word on her legislative record. In fact, two bills she introduced (that went nowhere) may best define her past, and potential future, priorities as a lawmaker. Those bills would have turned the federal government into an unprecedented ATM machine, spitting out trillions of dollars in new benefit checks.
Then-Senator Harris’s sparse record is partially explained by the fact that her four years on Capitol Hill coincided with a Senate Republican majority and the Trump administration. Indeed, Roll Call in 2020 described her record as that of a "loyal Democrat and Trump counterpuncher." That suggests that, to best understand her legislative priorities, one should look not to the few bills that she passed, but to those that went nowhere — but might advance in the future if she occupies the White House.
That list includes dozens of bills that would have expanded the federal leviathan in all directions. The 2019 Rent Relief Act would have created a refundable tax credit (read: benefit check) covering rents exceeding 30% of gross income — likely raising rents instead of lowering them.
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The 2020 Climate Equity Act would have created a federal "Office of Climate and Environmental Justice Accountability" tasked with measuring "the costs of environmental and climate regulations on frontline communities" and ensuring those communities "benefit from such investments," whatever that means.
And then there’s the CCP-esque "COVID-19 Bias and Anti-Racism Training Act of 2020." That bill would have awarded federal grants "to health care providers, public health departments, tribal organizations, schools for social workers and health professionals, and other nonprofit entities for bias and anti-racism training to reduce disparities in COVID-19 ... response efforts."
But two other Harris bills far exceed all the rest in sheer audacity and cost.
The first, the 2019 "LIFT (Livable Incomes for Families Today) the Middle Class Act," would have created a new refundable tax credit paying $3,000 to individuals earning under $30,000 and $6,000 to married couples earning under $60,000. Those payments would be on top of other rapidly growing benefits for low-income households, including the over $9,800 a single mother with two children was already eligible to receive from the earned income tax credit (EITC) and child tax credit (CTC) that year.
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An analysis by the Urban/Brookings Tax Policy Center admitted the bill would have added nearly $3 trillion to deficits in the first decade alone. That makes the to-date prohibitive $1.6 trillion cost of permanently expanding the Child Tax Credit, as President Biden has proposed, seem almost modest by comparison.
A second bill makes the LIFT Act seem positively thrifty. During the pandemic, Harris proposed the 2020 "Monthly Economic Crisis Support Act," which may have been the most expensive legislation ever introduced. Conservatively estimated to cost $21 trillion, this bill would have sent most American children and adults $2,000-per-month "crisis payments" throughout the COVID emergency, running from March 2020 through August 2023.
Households could collect up to $10,000 per month or an astonishing $120,000 per year — nearly double the U.S. median household income of $67,521 in 2020. Across a span of 42 months, a typical family of four could have received $336,000 in federal benefit checks without anyone working a minute. That stunning payday would have been in addition to tens of thousands of dollars in existing pandemic benefits, like $600-per-week unemployment bonuses, expanded food stamps, and far more.
The vast majority of Americans would have qualified for Harris’s monthly payments, whose $21 trillion cost would have been seven times the $3 trillion cost of the 2020 CARES Act — the most expensive bill ever signed into law. While in effect, Harris’ legislation would have doubled the federal budget, sending the current $35-trillion national debt soaring to well over $55 trillion, without even considering its grim inflation and interest rate implications.
President Biden often says "show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value." If he is right, Harris’ mostly forgotten Senate agenda shows the high value she places on dramatically expanding federal benefits, spending and deficits. Republicans stood in the way of that agenda while Harris was in the Senate, and for the last two years under their House majority. The next 100 days will determine not only whether Harris moves up to the White House, but also whether any brake remains on her mostly forgotten record of extraordinary fiscal recklessness.
