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Posted: 2024-08-21T20:49:45Z | Updated: 2024-08-21T20:49:45Z

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Vice President Kamala Harris has been getting plenty of scrutiny and more than little grief over the lack of specificity in her policy agenda .

Its not hard to see why, though some context might be nice too.

On the one hand, Harris hasnt sat for interviews or held formal press conferences, or even posted a detailed agenda on her campaign website. Until late last week, when her campaign published a series of proposals to lower costs for American families , she hadnt introduced or defended any major initiatives.

And while Harris had made clear in her speeches that she is mostly running on the same mainstream liberal agenda that President Joe Biden had embraced in his budget proposals, that commitment leaves plenty of room for ambiguity which, truth be told, her campaign has seemed in no rush to clear up. Last week, one anonymous adviser told The Atlantics Ron Brownstein that Harris team wasnt especially worried about critics demanding five-prong policy agenda items.

But Harris has actually gotten more specific since then, starting with that initiative on cost for American families she introduced Friday.

In addition to its (controversial ) call for a federal law against price-gouging, the initiative included proposals to give the federal government more leverage over prescription drug prices , to extend extra financial assistance now available to people buying health insurance on their own, to subsidize both the construction and purchase of housing , and to reinstate a COVID-era cash stipend for families with children.

One, two, three ... hey, look at that. Five prongs.

And although the press release accompanying the announcement did not address the all-important question of how Harris intends to fund these initiatives which, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget , could require up to $2 trillion in new federal spending over the next decade her aides subsequently made clear their intentions to raise corporate taxes to 28%. The revenue from that alone would likely cover about half the new initiatives cost.