Democratic vice presidential candidate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (left) and Republican vice presidential candidate Senator J.D. Vance (Ohio).
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housing
affordable housing It’s an important topic for many Americans, and both Walz and Vance addressed it.
May 2023, Waltz Sign housing legislation This includes $200 million in down payment assistance. The bill also allocates $200 million for housing infrastructure and $40 million for workforce housing.
“We expect Walz to be an advocate for a demand-side approach to housing,” TD Cowen analyst Jaret Seiberg wrote in a July statement. “These are the housing ideas we expect from the Harris administration,” she wrote.
A demand-side approach to housing aims to assist individual households by improving the quality of housing or reducing monthly housing costs.
Vance is also a supporter of affordable housing, emphasizing the issue in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention and on the campaign trail.
“Before running for the Senate, Vance believed that one of the keys to solving poverty was to address affordable housing,” Seberg wrote, and he opposed institutional ownership of rental homes and Chinese buyers of U.S. real estate.
child tax credit
If Congress fails to act, Trillions in tax breaks The bill Trump enacted, scheduled to expire after 2025, includes a child tax credit that would drop from $2,000 to $1,000 per child.
Congress approves temporary expansion in 2021 child tax creditincluding prepaid monthly paymentwhich Reduced child poverty rates According to analysis by Columbia University, this growth rate will fall to a record low of 5.2% in 2021.
In compliance with federal policy, Minnesota enacted refundable State Child Tax Credit In 2023, Walz described it as “signature achievement”.
Minnesota’s new child tax credit is narrow but among the most generous in the nation for low-income families.
Jared Walczak
Vice President of National Projects, Tax Foundation
“Minnesota’s new child tax credit is unusual in its narrow scope,” said Jared Walczak, vice president of state programs at the Tax Foundation. “But it’s an important step nationally for low-income families. Most generous.”
However, a permanent federal child tax credit expansion may be difficult, especially with a divided Congress and growing concerns about the child tax credit. federal budget deficit.
Walz’s campaign did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
senate republicans Block the federal child tax credit After last week’s expansion, Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, described the vote as a “blatant attempt to score political points.”
Despite the procedural vote failure, Crapo said he was open to negotiating a “child tax credit solution that most Republicans can support.”
The Democratic Party will arrange the voting part in Response to Vancewho positioned himself as a pro-family candidate. Vance was not present for the Senate vote but expressed support for the child tax credit.
Vance’s campaign did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
student loans
Vance has spoken out against student loan forgiveness.
“Forgiving student debt is a huge windfall for wealthy, college-educated people, especially America’s corrupt college administrators,” said Vance, a Yale Law School graduate. Wrote April X, 2022.
Outstanding education debt The size of the United States is approximately $1.6 trillion. Nearly 43 million people, or one in six U.S. adults, have student loans. female and people of color are the ones with the heaviest debt burden.
Vance does appear to favor loan forgiveness in extreme circumstances. In May, he Help develop legislation This would free parents from student loan obligations for their children who are permanently disabled.
Jane Fox, president of the UAW local 2325 legal aid association’s bar union chapter, said Vance’s view of debt relief as a benefit for wealthy people is hypocritical and incorrect.
“Student debt relief is a working-class issue,” Fox said. “The 1% who get into elite institutions and then work at private equity firms like Senator Vance rarely need debt relief.”
Vance’s campaign did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
Meanwhile, higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz said Walz, a former schoolteacher, supports plans to ease people’s student debt burdens.
he signed a Nursing Student Loan Forgiveness Program Kantrowitz said Minnesota has made it law, and Initiative to provide free tuition for low-income students.
“As my daughter prepares to go to college next year, affordability and student loan debt are at the forefront of our minds,” Walz Wrote Message posted on Facebook in 2018. “Every Minnesotan deserves the opportunity to receive a great education without being held back by soaring costs and student loan debt.”