United States presidential election: How climate change, abortion, tax, others will shape voters’ choice

Several issues are on the front burner for the Republican and Democratic candidates in the November 5, 2024 American presidential election. A few others ride stronger for different interests in the outcome of the polls. Voters’ choice of candidate couldn’t be clearer with Democratic and Republican candidates, Vice-President Kamala Harris and former president, Donald Trump having sharply opposing directions to addressing policies, Oludare Richards writes.

It is a few days left for the main election in America after over a week of early voting. Democrat, Kamala Harris and Republican, Donald Trump, have laid out an array of ideas in approaching areas that could immensely affect the lives of the voting and non-voting society, including economic, social and environmental concerns.

Topping the list are climate, economy, health, foreign policy, democracy and gender-based policy. Other areas that will shape the voting pattern are abortion, immigration and border security.

Climate Change
While Harris has promoted environmental justice programmes focused on protecting marginalised communities from the impacts of climate crisis, backs clean-energy tax credits, embraces policies that favour renewable energy resources and supports Biden’s overall climate policy approach, including subsidies for renewable energy; she is also opposed to offshore drilling and tracking.
She was a sponsor of the Green New Deal, a series of proposals meant to move America to fully green energy, when she was senator from California. Harris says the climate crisis is caused by human activity and represents an existential threat to the nation and the planet.

Harris also supported Inflation Reduction Act, which marked America’s most significant effort yet to combat the climate crisis. The law made major investments in renewable energy as part of the Biden administration’s target to reduce the planet-heating emissions of America by 2030. However, it also expanded planet-heating fossil fuels. Harris, as Vice-president, also presided over record-high American oil and gas production.

Trump’s climate and energy policies are rather far off as he has promised to re-exit the Paris Climate Change Agreement and remove regulations proposed and imposed by the Biden administration which targets energy-efficient household appliances including cookers and light bulbs.

He has promised that as president, he will prioritise clean air and water for Americans. However, he has also promised to continue to roll back environmental regulations, including all of the ones put in place by the Biden administration.

Trump, who has called climate change a ‘hoax’ and questioned established climate science, also said the warming climate is not necessarily responsible for making extreme weather events worse. His campaign trail mantra ‘Drill, baby, drill’; unequivocally, sums up his position on climate change. He threw out more than 100 environmental regulations and had climate change removed from the EPA’s website. During his first term, he dismantled many environmental policies, including protections for clean air and water as well as regulations aimed at reducing planet-warming emissions.

In a story broken earlier in May this year by Maxine Joselow and Josh Dawsey, of the Washington Post, he reportedly asked big oil executives for $1bn in campaign donations while promising that he would reverse President Joe Biden’s climate policies.
Health

Harris has consistently spoken in favour of abortion rights, including making the first official visit to an abortion clinic by a president or vice-president. In her campaign, she continues to advocate for legislation that would enshrine reproductive rights in America.

She supports a federal right to abortion and wants to prevent states from banning the procedure before the viability of a foetus. She criticised Trump and Republicans for creating a healthcare crisis that has led to the preventable deaths of women seeking abortion care.
As a presidential candidate, she has promised to veto any nationwide abortion ban. Already, she has called on the US Congress to pass legislation to restore the protections of Roe vs Wade, which the Supreme Court overturned in 2022 and in effect prevented states from banning abortion before fetal viability or about 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Trump appointed three judges to the Supreme Court while he was president. The move was pivotal in overturning the constitutional right to an abortion, a 1973 ruling known as Roe vs Wade. Trump, who bragged about his role in the appointments, has also lamented that the bans in Republican-controlled states could electorally affect him.

While he would not comment on whether he would veto an abortion ban, he has vowed that he would not sign a national abortion ban. He said if he wins, though, he would make In vitro fertilisation (IVF) free for women, though details remain controversial at legislative level.

Harris has been part of a White House administration, which has reduced prescription drug costs and capped insulin prices at $35 while Trump, who has often vowed to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, has said that if elected, he would only improve it, without offering specifics. The Act has been instrumental in getting health insurance to millions more people.

Foreign Policy
A record number of people crossed from Mexico at the end of 2023, but the numbers have fallen since. Arrests of people for crossing the southern border reached record levels during the early years of the Biden administration, but have sharply reduced since President Biden initiated an asylum clampdown
Harris, as vice-president, was tasked with addressing the root cause of migration. In her campaign, she has maintained a stern stance and emphasised her experience as a prosecutor in California taking on human traffickers.

Harris was tasked with tackling the root causes of the southern border crisis and helped raise billions of dollars of private money to make regional investments aimed at stemming the flow north. Her move to flip the script on immigration is perceived as one of her biggest vulnerabilities.
She laid out a plan to enact stricter penalties for people who attempt to claim asylum between lawful ports of entry, during her visit to the border in September. Republicans have blamed the ‘overrun’ at the southern border on the Biden administration as a result of its lenient migration policies.

Trump, in his signature approach to immigration, has said he will go even harder on migration than he did four years ago. Besides promising to carry out the largest deportation in American history, he also said he would reinstate several controversial policies from his first term as president. This includes the “Remain in Mexico” programme, Title 42, and a travel ban targeting several Muslim-majority countries.

In a further promise to revoke the legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants under the federal temporary protected status programme, he said he would also rescind programmes that shield undocumented people from deportation, including children.
Trump has vowed to seal the border by completing the construction of a wall and increasing enforcement. But he urged Republicans to ditch a hardline, cross-party immigration bill, backed by Harris. She said she would revive the deal if elected.
On foreign policy, Harris has closely aligned with President Biden’s approach, especially on maintaining America’s global alliances, including North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and wants to send military aid to Ukraine. She has vowed to support Ukraine for as long as it takes. She has pledged, if elected, to ensure that America and not China wins “the competition for the 21st Century”.

On Middle East crisis, Harris’ longtime advocacy for a two-state solution between the Israelis and Palestinians, and call for an end to the war in Gaza runs with her support of the Biden administration’s approach to the expanding war, which now includes Iran, Lebanon and Yemen from its start in Gaza.

Harris has also called for a ceasefire in Gaza in exchange for the release of hostages taken by Hamas. While she has expressed empathy for the over 40,000 Palestinians killed, she has maintained that America would continue to defend the right of Israel to defend itself.

While she has not given details on her policies towards China, she has shown indication that she would continue Biden’s approach with China and honour America’s commitments to Taiwan. She said she wants to protect America against China’s economic practices without cutting ties entirely.

Trump’s infamous isolationist foreign policy proposes to disentangle America from conflicts around the world. He has criticised alliances such as NATO and suggested he would encourage Russia to invade a member country if he didn’t think the country was paying enough for its defences.
Although he has shown indication that he is reluctant to send further military aid to Ukraine, he has said he would end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours through a negotiated settlement with Russia. Democrats say the move, though, would embolden Vladimir Putin.

While he identified as a supporter of Israel, he has said little about how he intends to approach ending the expanding Israel-Hamas war. As for China, he said he would take an even stronger stand against China. Trump said he wants to eliminate the dependence of the American economy on China.
Economy

Inflation: Like with many western countries, inflation soared under the Biden presidency, in part due to post-COVID supply issues and the Ukraine war. While the overall economic picture has brightened in recent months, Harris, in agreement with Americans, believes prices are rather still too high.

She has said her first priority would be to reduce food and housing costs for working families. She said she would focus on the middle class, promising to ban price-gouging on groceries, help first-time home buyers, provide incentives to increase housing supply and expand tax credits for parents. She plans to offset the costs by increasing taxes on corporations and wealthy Americans.

While saying she supports tax breaks for entrepreneurs and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), she pledged to cut taxes for middle and low-income families. She has also expressed support for the Biden administration’s spending on renewable energy and infrastructure.

Trump, in his vastly opposite approach, wants to cut taxes further and enact more sweeping tariffs. During his first term in office, he enacted a large package of tax cuts and pursued protectionist trade policies, including the trade war with China.

Meanwhile, Trump has promised to end inflation and make America affordable again. Controversial as it is, he has promised to deliver lower interest rates, which is beyond the control of the president.

Trump argues that deportation of undocumented immigrants would ease pressure on housing. However, economists have warned that his vow to impose higher tax on imports could push up prices.

Taxes: Harris wants to raise taxes on big businesses and Americans making $400,000 (£305,000) a year. She has also unveiled a number of measures that would ease the tax burden on families, including an expansion of child tax credits.

Harris has broken with Biden over capital gains tax, supporting a more moderate rise from 23.6 per cent to 28 per cent compared with his 44.6 per cent.

Trump said he would not cut social security or medicare benefits, but he has not provided a plan to keep the programs solvent. He proposes a number of tax cuts worth trillions, including an extension of his 2017 cuts, which mostly helped the wealthy.
He has also said he would pay for them through higher growth and tariffs on imports. Analysts say both tax plans will add to the ballooning deficit, but Trump is sticking to more.

Trade: Harris has criticised Trump’s sweeping plan to impose tariffs on imports, calling it a national tax on working families which will cost each household $4,000 a year. She is expected to have a more targeted approach to taxing imports, maintaining the tariffs the Biden-Harris administration introduced on some Chinese imports like electric vehicles.

Trump has made tariffs a central pledge in this campaign. He has proposed new 10-20 per cent tariffs on most foreign goods, and much higher ones on those from China. He has also promised to entice companies to stay in the US to manufacture goods, by giving them a lower rate of corporate tax.
Education

Harris supports the Biden administration student-loan forgiveness effort and opposes laws that restrict what schools can teach about race, gender and American history. Also, she wants to increase funding for public schools through measures including programs focused on low-income students.

Trump, on his part, opposes student-debt forgiveness and affirmative action. He wants to abolish the Department of Education, give parents federal funds to send their wards to private schools or home-school them and restrict what schools can teach about gender, race and American history.