HARRISBURG, Pa. — The United States has experienced a slow economic recovery since emerging from the global pandemic which sent prices soaring, but things still aren’t adding up for Americans struggling to make ends meet and put food on the table.
"The economic indicators of where we began, and where we are now show that the economy is actually doing quite well," said Dr. Alison Dagnes, chair of political science at Shippensburg University. "You can’t say that either because so many Americans are having a really hard time."
While both the Trump and Biden administrations contributed to rising inflation by supporting federal stimulus money, one presidential candidate is walking an economic tightrope.
"Vice President Harris is in an untenable position because she has been vice president for four years where prices have gone up," Dagnes explained.
"The Trump campaign’s approach, which is a wise one, is to tie the inflation and the concerns of people have about the economy to the Biden administration," said Berwood Yost, director of the Franklin & Marshall College Center for Opinion Research.
"The best economists in our country are clear that my plan compared to Donald Trump’s will strengthen our economy, his will weaken it," Harris said during a recent campaign stop.
The vice president has focused much of her attention on the everyday American, promising tax cuts for the middle class, investment in small business and lower healthcare costs.
"Whether it’s child tax credits, whether it’s mortgage assistance, whether it’s small business assistance," Yost said.
"She paid a lot of attention especially to young people, to the middle class and positioned herself as antithetical to what former president Trump is proposing," Dagnes added.
Former President Trump has an advantage when it comes to public perception of his ability to handle the economy.
"We’re not going to let these countries come in and steal our product and steal our companies and all we’re left with is one thing, unemployment," Trump said.
His proposal to end inflation includes tax cuts for workers, investment in American manufacturing and jumpstarting trade deals with other nations.
"Donald Trump is a tariffs guy," Dagnes said. "This is what he’s always believed in."
"People often support tariffs because they believe that other nations have an unfair advantage and coming into this large consumer market and selling goods," Yost added.
"A tariff is simply tax is placed on an imported product," said Dr. Kenneth Louie, director of the Economic Research Institute of Erie at Penn State Behrend.
Harris has attacked Trump’s proposals, claiming the tariffs would lead to higher prices for consumers.
Economists have a similar view.
"The impact, obviously, would be an increase in the prices of many things," Louie said.
While both candidates pledge to lower taxes and eliminate any tax on tips, each proposal may have one fatal flaw.
"One potential criticism of both plans for both sides is that they are both proposing to cut taxes and do other things that would help the middle class, but the question becomes how would we pay for that?" Louie said.
In the world of politics, proposals are the easy part.
"Given our system of checks and balances, as good as the different plans may sound if the opposing party to the president takes hold of Congress then it makes that much more difficult to implement," Louie said.
Election day is Nov. 5.
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