U.S. voters split on whether Trump or Harris will make life more affordable
In a sparsely furnished row house in north Philadelphia, Saiyda Bey gets comfortable on a grey chaise lounge. The home smells of incense and her black kitten, Kit Kat, is pacing around the room.
Bey, 33, proudly wears a “Blacks for Trump” hat she bought for $20 outside the J.D. Vance rally in Pennsylvania earlier this week. She’s nervous while looking over a few notes she made in preparation for this interview, yet happy to share her thoughts on the upcoming presidential election.
“I think life would be better under Donald Trump because of his plan to secure more jobs within the impoverished neighbourhoods,” said Bey, who, like many Americans, has been struggling with the high cost of living and blames the current government for the state of the economy.
“I had always been struggling. I just struggled less under Donald Trump’s administration.”
Americans are divided on which presidential candidate will be able to make life more affordable for middle and lower income families. Neither Donald Trump or Kamala Harris have released a detailed economic platform, yet polls suggest many Americans believe the Republicans are focused on the economy and tax cuts, while the Democrats promise to tax the rich and corporations.
The north Philadelphia neighbourhood where Bey was born and raised has a 39 per cent employment rate and the median annual income was just over $28,000 in 2022, according to U.S. Census data. Most of the people there are African American and live below the poverty line.
U.S. voters at competing Democratic and Republican rallies are expressing serious concerns about their economic futures, as the cost of living quickly emerges as a dominant issue of the 2024 presidential campaign.
The economy under Biden
Under the Biden administration, the price of groceries has soared and interest rates have risen to the highest they’ve been since 2001, making it harder for some Americans to pay their mortgages or buy homes. But things are improving, with the Federal Reserve now saying a long-awaited rate cut is on the table for September, which will lower borrowing costs.
“What we are seeing right now is unemployment rate which is very low, and an inflation rate that has reached normal levels,” said Francesco D’Acunto, the A. James Clark Chair in Global Real Estate at Georgetown University in Washington D.C.
Inflation in the U.S. is currently around three per cent and trending downward toward the target rate, which is two per cent. Two years ago, it was close to 10 per cent, a 40 year high.
However, D’Acunto says wages are growing at a faster rate than inflation, and middle-class households should have already started to see an uptick in their bank accounts as a result.
“Over the last few months, they should have started to see … a reversal of this unbalance,” he said.
D’Acunto says inflation began to rise during the pandemic when borders were closed and China was unable to send goods to the U.S., Canada or other countries. That increased the price of goods dramatically, while the war in Ukraine drove up energy prices.
“Those causes were neither due to Trump, back then when inflation started to go up, nor Biden,” said D’Acunto.
Working 3 jobs to pay the bills
Bey has three jobs. She works part time as the director of memberships at the YMCA, and tends bar at two different bars. Sometimes, to make ends meet, she has to rent a car so that she can also deliver food for Uber Eats or InstaCart.
“Just to pay rent and utilities, which are electric, gas and water, anywhere from $1,200 to maybe $1,600-$1,700,” Bey said. “That’s just in this neighbourhood.”
She says that’s what it used to cost to live in the suburbs or a higher income area.
After paying her bills, Bey says she’s left with about $100 a week for food and transportation. Still, she’s doing better than some of her friends who she says were forced to move out of the neighbourhood.
“This is already a below living standard neighbourhood,” said Bey. “So to not be able to afford to live sustainably and comfortably in this neighbourhood is a problem.”
Laid off and trying to get by
Pierce Hacking worked as a currency management associate at TD Bank until he was laid off last July. He’s now living below the poverty line and looking after his dad, who was diagnosed with cancer after he recovered from a stroke.
“We’re just a regular family trying to get by,” said Hacking, who volunteers for Harris’s campaign.
Hacking, 32, lives in the Maple Shade community of New Jersey, where there is a 63 per cent employment rate and the median annual income is $71,748, according to census data.
He’ll be voting for Harris in the upcoming election and says he believes she’s the right person to lead the country.
“She has an economics degree,” said Hacking. “And that never seems to be brought up by people.”
Harris has said she would push for paid family leave and affordable child care. She has also said that building up the middle class would be a “defining goal” of her presidency.
As a California senator, Harris proposed the LIFT Act in late 2018 to boost incomes of low and moderate-income earners by establishing a refundable tax credit that matched up to $3,000 in earnings for unmarried workers and up to $6,000 for married workers. The bill never passed the introductory stage.
She had also proposed a refundable tax credit to try to help people who pay more than 30 per cent of their income toward rent.
“Kamala Harris has given me so much hope,” said Hacking.
He says he thinks she’ll stand up for all Americans and will continue to introduce tax credits and programs that will help the people who are struggling.
With a Harris vs. Trump election looking likely, The National’s Ian Hanomansing asks U.S. political insiders Cornell Belcher and Chris Cillizza to break down how the campaign could play out, and what a possible path to victory for Kamala Harris might look like.
So which party is better for the economy?
Hans Noel, an associated professor of government at Georgetown University, says that while Republicans are traditionally thought to be better for the economy, historically, the U.S. economy has done well under both parties.
“Democrats have, actually, a pretty good record on the economy, at least on some metrics like economic growth and …income distribution,” he said.
Noel says inflation is high worldwide, and if anything, the U.S. economy has recovered from the coronavirus pandemic better than some other democracies. However, he notes that voters have historically blamed incumbent parties for things that go badly under their watch.
He says that at the end of the day, voters need to determine where each party stands on the issues they’re aligned with, and vote for the candidate that most reflects their views.
Bey says when Trump was president, she received unemployment income from the government during the COVID crisis, which helped her get by. In 2020, Trump signed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, a $2.2 trillion economic stimulus bill.
But Bey has been a Donald Trump fan since before he was elected president in 2016. She believes his business background makes him best suited to pull the country out of inflation and make life better for Americans.
“He cares about making a change in America that doesn’t take us back to where we are coming from,” she said.
Published at Sat, 10 Aug 2024 08:00:00 +0000
WARNING: This story contains graphic images
An Israeli airstrike on a Gaza school compound housing displaced families killed nearly 100 people, Gaza government officials said on Saturday, while the Israeli military said it targeted Hamas militants there and cast doubt on the death toll.
Video from the site showed body parts scattered on the ground and more bodies being carried away and covered in blankets on the floor. Empty food tins lay in a puddle of blood and burned mattresses and a child’s doll were among the debris.
In another part of the Tabeen school complex in Gaza City, men prayed over a dozen body bags laid out on the ground.
Gaza officials said in a statement that the strikes hit when people sheltering at the school were performing dawn prayers, leading to many casualties.
“So far, there are more than 93 martyrs, including 11 children and six women. There are unidentified remains,” said Palestinian Civil Defence spokesperson, Mahmoud Bassal, in a televised news conference.
Around 350 families had been sheltering at the compound, Bassal said. Two floors were hit, the upper floor housing families, including women and children, and the lower floor that was used as a mosque. The Gaza health ministry has so far not provided casualty details.
Israeli military disputes death toll
In a statement in Hebrew the Israeli military said the death toll was inflated. It said around 20 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants were operating at the site.
“The compound, and the mosque that was struck within it, served as an active Hamas and Islamic Jihad military facility,” Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said on the social media platform X.
“According to an initial review, the numbers published by the Hamas-run Government Information Office in Gaza, do not align with the information held by the IDF (Israel Defence Forces), the precise munitions used, and the accuracy of the strike,” Shoshani said.
A military official said that the part of the mosque struck was a men’s area where no women or children were present.
“This was verified by intelligence and the strike was carried out using three small, precise munitions which cannot cause the scale of damage that the Palestinians are reporting,” the official said.
Israel says Palestinian militant groups embed among Gaza’s civilians, operating from within schools, hospitals and designated humanitarian zones — which Hamas and its allies deny.
Hamas says strike is a serious escalation
Hamas said the strike was a horrific crime and a serious escalation. Izzat El-Reshiq, a member of Hamas’s political office, said the dead did not include a “single combatant.”
Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians have sought shelter in Gaza’s schools, most of which have stopped functioning since the start of the war 10 months ago.
A separate strike on Saturday killed three Palestinians in Al-Nuseirat, in central Gaza and another killed one person in the nearby Deir Al-Balah city, medics said.
Images from Gaza City show the aftermath of Israel’s strike as people mourn over lost loved ones.
Nabil Abu Rudeine, a spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, urged Israel’s ally Washington to put an end to the “blind support that leads to the killing of thousands of innocent civilians, including children, women, and the elderly.”
Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia condemned the strike, which came as mediators were pushing to resume ceasefire talks. Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said the strike should serve as a turning point in their efforts.
Egypt said that the killing of Gaza civilians showed Israel had no intention to end the war. Qatar’s foreign ministry described the strike as a “horrific massacre.”
Egypt, the United States and Qatar have scheduled a new round of ceasefire negotiations for Thursday, as fears are growing of a broader conflict, involving Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has said he will not end the war until Hamas no longer poses a threat to Israelis, said a delegation would be sent to the Aug. 15 talks.
A Hamas official told Reuters the group was studying the new offer for talks but did not elaborate.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive in Gaza, according to the health ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Health officials say most of the fatalities have been civilians. Israel, which has lost 329 soldiers in Gaza, says at least a third of the Palestinian fatalities are fighters. Iran-backed Hamas does not publish its casualties.
Published at Sat, 10 Aug 2024 13:21:55 +0000
