Harris touts her work on the economy, but what has she actually done for small businesses?

As Election Day approaches, Vice President Kamala Harris is seeking to define herself as a champion of small businesses, calling them “the engine of our economy.”

But does the vice president's record match her rhetoric? Voters who have made the economy the most important issue in this election do not seem to think so. Harris-Waltz's campaign is lagging behind her rival, former President Donald Trump, who has a 9 percentage point lead over Harris on this issue as of Oct. 1, according to Fox News Power Rankings. I was wearing it.

Harris has proposed a wide range of policies to revitalize small businesses in a bid to oust Trump, with her ambition to file 25 million new business applications by the end of her first term if elected. has set a goal. She hopes to surpass the 15 million applications filed during President Trump's first term. To achieve that goal, Harris has promised to give startups $50,000 in tax credits and direct venture capital to local entrepreneurs in rural areas of the country.

“I believe that America's small businesses are the essential foundation of our entire economy,” Harris said at a Sept. 4 rally in Northhampton, New Hampshire, explaining her vision of an “opportunity economy.” was outlined.

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Her proposals include low-interest and interest-free loans to small businesses, a simpler way for businesses to pay their taxes, more federal contracts with small businesses, and “billionaires and large corporations” to fund these programs. This includes tax increases on Harris' tax credit plan has been praised by some economists, including Nicholas Creel, an assistant professor of business law at the University of Georgia and State University, who called it “potentially transformative.” said.

Creel told Fox News Digital that her plan would help people “justify the risky prospect of starting new businesses and ensuring that more new businesses survive.”

Other supporters point to Harris' efforts as vice president and senator to promote minority-owned businesses in impoverished areas.

“As Vice President, Harris established the Coalition for Economic Opportunity, an unprecedented public-private partnership that funneled billions of dollars of critical investment into historically underserved communities. As a senator, she secured a transformative $12 billion for community development financial institutions and other community financial institutions that provide capital to small businesses across the country, including in rural areas.'' said Lindy Lee, member of the Harris Walz National Finance Committee.

Lee's family owns commercial and residential real estate in Pennsylvania.

“My family and I own small businesses, and the Biden-Harris administration has been incredibly supportive and always listening,” she told Fox News Digital.

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Vice President Harris leaves after a Rose Garden event at the White House to commemorate National Small Business Week on May 1, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Hundreds of venture capital investors also support Harris' economic policies.

“Vice President Harris' support for small businesses and startups is real and started long before this campaign,” said Gail Jennings O'Byrne, CEO of Woxstar Capital. Ta. “I had the opportunity to speak with her earlier this year when she visited North Carolina to announce a $32 million investment in a women- and minority-led venture capital fund, including myself. Over 825 of our Capitalists believe that her commitment was so strong that we publicly signed a pledge entitled 'Venture Capital for Kamala.'

As expected, Republicans are less optimistic about Harris' plan. Critics say high inflation under the Biden-Harris administration, brought about by excessive government spending during the coronavirus pandemic, is harmful to established businesses. There is.

“Vice President Kamala Harris has certainly positioned herself as a champion of small businesses, with notable initiatives like expanding the startup tax credit and focusing on underserved communities. “The reality on the ground tells a more complicated story,” said Ryan Waite. Republican political consultant.

Waite argued that the Biden-Harris performance would exacerbate inflationary pressures and undermine Harris's goal of supporting small businesses. Year-on-year price increases peaked at 9.1% in June 2022, but inflation has since fallen to around 3%, still above the Federal Reserve's target rate of 2%. .

“Entrepreneurs need more than just access to capital. They need a stable economic base to grow. So far, governments have failed to address these pressing concerns, leaving many small and medium-sized enterprises has not recognized the benefits of these policies as quickly as the vice president,” Harris would have us believe. ”

Harris-Waltz's campaign and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.

Harris' voting record

Then-Democratic California Sen. Kamala Harris speaks during a press conference of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee on Election Security at the Capitol on March 20, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images)

Harris' campaign website says she was a strong advocate for small businesses as a U.S. senator and later as vice president. She served as a junior senator from California from 2017 when President Trump occupied the White House to 2021, during which time she opposed Republican economic policies.

Harris voted against the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which lowers corporate taxes and provides small businesses with tax relief through the Qualified Business Income Credit, in addition to changes to the individual and family tax credits that affect the entire economy. .

As one of the more liberal members of the Senate, Harris co-sponsored the Raise the Wage Act of 2019. The bill, introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (R-Vt.), a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, would raise the federal minimum wage to $15. Republicans opposed the effort, saying it would increase costs for businesses that rely on low-skilled or entry-level workers. It passed the House of Representatives but was rejected in the Senate.

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From a more bipartisan perspective, Harris proposed a $2 trillion coronavirus relief package that created the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Initiative to help small businesses survive COVID-19 lockdown mandates. voted in favor of the CARES Act of 2020. The final bill passed almost unanimously, 96-0-4.

Later that year, Harris secured passage of the Jobs and Neighborhood Investment Act, which was included in the coronavirus-related stimulus package passed in December 2020. The bill provided $12 billion to community development financial institutions (CDFIs), which direct capital to local businesses. minority, low-income, and moderate-income communities;

Harris also voted on several amendments affecting businesses. She voted in favor of an amendment that would extend and expand paid sick, family and medical leave mandates for small businesses. Opposes an amendment that would prevent additional unemployment insurance coverage created by the CARES Act from exceeding employer coverage. And she opposed the February 2017 nomination of Linda McMahon to head the Small Business Administration.

Outside of Congress, Harris has been a consistent supporter of Small Business Saturday during her time in the Senate, and regularly visits small businesses while traveling and campaigning.

Jobs in the Biden administration

President Biden signs the Paycheck Protection Program extension alongside Vice President Kamala Harris (left) and Small Business Administration Secretary Isabela Casillas Guzman in the Oval Office of the White House on March 30, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Doug Mills Pool/Getty Images)

As vice president, Harris has primarily served as a spokesperson and advocate for Bidenomics. But in a pivotal moment, she cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate to pass the signature bill requested by President Biden.

Early in her administration, Harris promoted the American Rescue Plan, the $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid package under the CARES Act. She also campaigned on behalf of bipartisan infrastructure legislation. The infrastructure deal evaded the Trump administration, but the Biden-Harris Act has since allocated nearly $454 billion in funding, including more than 56,000 specific projects and awards in more than 4,500 communities across the country, Forbes reported.

Harris also voted in favor of the Inflation Control Act (IRA) in August 2022. The law expanded tax credits for health insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act and implemented additional tax credits to help small businesses save on energy costs. .

Republican lawmakers have criticized the IRA for increasing government spending without significantly reducing carbon emissions or inflation.

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Supporting the Biden administration's small business efforts and building on her work in the Senate, Ms. Harris has led calls for the federal government to expand capital access to underserved communities. Ta. The administration then authorized new applications for small business loan company licenses for the first time in 40 years. This will allow lending institutions to take advantage of government guarantees when underwriting small and medium-sized enterprises loans, reducing risk for lenders and effectively subsidizing costs for borrowers.

In 2022, Harris announced Economic Opportunities, a group of financial institutions and companies that work together “to address economic disparities and advance economic opportunity in communities of color and other underserved communities.” Established a federation. Member institutions have set a $3 billion investment goal in CDFIs and minority depository institutions that support businesses in these communities.

The White House is focused on supporting minority entrepreneurs and insists that statistics show its programs are working. The White House said, “Data from the Federal Reserve's Consumer Finance Survey shows that between 2019 and 2022, the percentage of households that own a business increased by 9%, and the increase was especially large among Black and Hispanic households.'' ” he said.

The administration noted with approval that the percentage of businesses owned by Black households decreased from 2007 to 2019, but more than doubled from 2019 to 2022.

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Javier Palomares, founder and CEO of the U.S. Hispanic Business Council, said Biden and Harris have a “mixed record” on small businesses.

“On the one hand, they supported the passage of bipartisan infrastructure legislation, which was an important accomplishment and boost for small businesses. It's created a myriad of opportunities,' and extraction into transportation,” Palomares told FOX News Digital.

“Meanwhile, the Biden-Harris administration has not taken any action regarding policies such as corporate research and development (R&D) write-offs,” he added.

“Vice President Harris has a mixed track record with small businesses under the Biden administration, and has sought to distance herself from that track record. However, the vice president has come up with pragmatic solutions, including interest rates and We should do more to speak directly to the concerns of small and medium-sized businesses,” such as cost of living, energy prices, and supply chains. ”