This or that: Where Harris and Trump stand on Pennsylvania voters’ top 3 issues

As Election Day draws near, and some still remain undecided, we’ve laid out where Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump stand on certain issues such as the economy, health care, and Supreme Court appointments. 

Hey Pennsylvania voters: Need an extra reason to cast a ballot this November? Your vote could very well decide who becomes our next president.

In the latest poll released Monday from Forbes, Vice President Kamala Harris has a two-point lead in the commonwealth over former President Donald, a slim gap that falls just outside the polling results’ margin of error. Simply put: It’s still anyone’s game.

Still, some Pennsylvania voters remain undecided. Maybe you’re one of them. Maybe you know someone who is. However, the differences between the candidates running for president couldn’t be more black and white – literally. One is the first Black and Asian woman to ever earn a major party’s nomination. The other is the oldest white man and the only convicted felon to run for America’s highest public office.

However, this election isn’t about how you feel about Harris and Trump. It’s about the facts. What would a President Kamala Harris or a second term for President Donald Trump do for you? That’s why we made this guide to spell out their plans – or lack of – to tackle the top three issues that voters say matter most to them.

1. The Economy

Harris wants to raise taxes on corporations and the country’s highest earners, while restoring and expanding the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit, including an extra $6,000 for the first year of a newborn’s life. She also wants to reinstate the payroll tax on earned income above $400,000 to strengthen Social Security and Medicare. Click here for Harris’ 82-page plan on building what she calls “an opportunity economy.”

Trump, meanwhile, wants to lower taxes for America’s top 1%, in addition to slashing the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. While he’s promised to “protect” Social Security and Medicare, the biggest drivers of the national debt, he’s put forward no concrete plans to do so. The national debt increased by $7.8 trillion during Trump’s first term – the third biggest jump in U.S. history.

2. Health Care

One of Harris’ top priorities is signing into law federal abortion protections so that women once again have autonomy over their own bodies. As part of the national “Fight for Reproductive Freedoms” tour, Harris became the first and only vice president or president to visit a Planned Parenthood clinic while in office. Harris is also a proud supporter of the Affordable Care Act and helped expand it during her time as Vice President. The Biden-Harris administration fixed the “family glitch,” which allows dependents of people with unaffordable employer-based family coverage to receive ACA subsidies, and reversed the short-term changes the Trump administration enacted. Harris has also made her private health records public – something every presidential candidate and vice presidential candidate has done, except Trump.

On the other hand, the former president has repeatedly, and proudly, taken credit for appointing the three anti-choice justices who took away women’s reproductive rights. “After 50 years of failure, with nobody coming even close, I was able to kill Roe v. Wade,” Trump has said. In the two years since that decision, the former president has waffled between backing a national 15-week abortion ban and leaving the issue entirely up to the states.

Trump has also promised to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, which provides more than 21 million Americans with health insurance. But, nearly a decade into his political career, Trump has yet to release any actual plans (although he claims to have “concepts”). The former president did include plans in his 2021 budget proposal to cut federal Medicaid spending by $1 trillion over 10 years.

3. Supreme Court Appointments

Our next president could very well appoint two justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, which could fundamentally change our country’s laws for several generations. Harris, the only presidential candidate to have ever worked in all three branches of the government, has called for “common sense” reforms, including term limits for justices and an enforceable ethics code that mirrors the one already in place for lower federal judges. The vice president’s campaign position does not include any plans to change the number of justices on the country’s highest court.

Trump also doesn’t support adding justices or any other court reforms. He’s repeatedly claimed that “the Democrat Party” wants to increase the number of justices by “4, 6, 8, 10, and 12,” which again, is not true. The former president has become personally familiar with the court system since leaving office. When Trump was charged with federal fraud and obstruction crimes for his attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election, the Supreme Court justices he appointed granted him immunity. He’s also the first and only president convicted of not just one felony, but 34.

Curious where the candidates stand on immigration policy? Grocery prices? Ukraine? Israel?

💙 Click here for Harris’ concrete plans on more than two dozen issues.

❤️ Click here for Trump’s vague outlines on a dozen.

Click here to see who’s on your ballot, and to make a voting plan.

Ashley Adams contributed to this story.