WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday criticized “Comrade Kamala” Harris for touting “centralized price controls” and trillions of dollars in new government spending as part of her economic agenda, suggesting the plan sounds like something Oprah Winfrey might come up with.
Speaking at the America First Institute forum in Washington, DC, Senator Johnson (R-Louisiana) vowed to overturn the “big government socialist experiment” that President Biden and Vice President Harris have led for the past four years.
“President Trump has famously referred to Candidate Kamala Harris as 'Comrade' and now she wants to take it to a whole different level,” the House Speaker said.
“If you listen to her little campaign speeches, all she talks about is more centralized price controls and new government spending programs.”
“And everyone gets a car,” he joked. “It's like Oprah running for president.”
Johnson also sat in on a fireside chat with Larry Kudlow, Trump's former director of the National Economic Council, who has sharply criticized many of Harris' recent economic proposals.
Economists estimate her plan would cost more than $1.7 trillion and would include tax credits of up to $50,000 for new small businesses, $25,000 grants for first-time homebuyers and a $6,000 tax cut for low- and middle-income families with children under the age of 1.
Johnson also rattled off a list of “very aggressive” counter-goals for the first 100 days if Republicans form a united government in November, focusing on “extending and building on” the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which expires at the end of 2025.
“We will continue these cuts, as well as double the guaranteed tax credit and implement a stronger child tax credit, to help create jobs,” he promised.
“But unlike Democratic proposals, we will ensure that our tax policy respects the dignity of work and doesn't pay people more for being out of the workforce.”
“The days of allowing China to steal our jobs, exploit our trade deals and rob us of our manufacturing are over,” Johnson said.
“It is clearly not in our national interest to rely on communists for energy, critical minerals or medicines. And we know it is not in our national interest to support the economy of our greatest geopolitical adversary,” the Speaker said.
Republicans noted that China is at stake in the 2024 election after Harris proposed a 28% corporate tax rate, which she said would be “at least 30% higher than any of our Chinese competitors.”
He also accused the Harris-Biden administration of hindering U.S. oil and gas production and wasteful spending on renewable energy alternatives through the Control Inflation Act of 2022, saying they are “costing twice as much as advertised and funneling taxpayer money to China.”
While performing in a high school play, Johnson wowed the audience with an impromptu Trump impersonation.
“Nobody's talking about energy independence,” the former president told House Republicans at a Capitol Hill breakfast in June, Johnson recalled. “Domination, domination.”
Those efforts could come alongside a rollback of parts of the Harris-Biden administration's spending plan and the creation of a new Government Efficiency Commission proposed by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk and supported by Trump to complete a federal audit of all financial waste, fraud and abuse.
Johnson was bullish on the plan.
“President Trump is trying to hit the regulatory state hard, and I want to help him keep it that way,” the House Speaker told attendees.
However, around the same time as the forum, the 45th President was posting on his Truth Social page about the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction that he approved as part of his signature law in 2017. According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the deduction would help reduce the cost of the tax reform law by $100,000. $1.2 trillion.
“I'm going to turn it around, bring back the salt, lower taxes and do a lot of things,” Trump said. Pledged“I will work with our Democratic governor and mayor to ensure we have the funding to return New York state to levels not seen in 50 years.”
The price tag will further complicate Republican efforts to cut spending.
