How Harris should tackle the economy in the final sprint to Election Day

This is an adapted excerpt from the Oct. 10 episode of “Morning Joe.”

With less than one month until the election, we have new numbers on the state of the U.S. economy. The consumer price index — which measures the average change in prices a consumer pays for goods and services — rose 0.2% in September, according to data released by the Labor Department on Thursday.

That number is slightly higher than economists expected and puts the annual inflation rate at 2.4%, above the Federal Reserve’s 2% goal. 

But what we should be looking at here is the only thing that really matters: how the American people feel about the economy. While gas prices are down significantly from where they were a year ago — there are a lot of places in the South where prices are below $3 a gallon — life is still expensive for many Americans, especially for food and housing. But Thursday’s report did include some good news, wages continued to rise faster than inflation.

For the Harris campaign, this isn’t a report to run away from. Inflation is lower than it was in March 2021, when President Joe Biden first came into office.

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While Donald Trump paints the economy in starkly bleak terms, he’s less specific on his plans to tackle higher prices. He says tariffs will be the answer, an idea that economists both on the left and the right say will lead to even higher prices. He says he’s going to cut taxes here, cut taxes there, and cut your hair on Friday.

But according to the most recent analysis of the economic plans of both candidates, Trump’s proposals would balloon the deficit by $7.5 trillion over 10 years. That same analysis found Harris’ plan would also increase the debt but by a significantly lower $3.5 trillion, less than half. 

Harris needs to be honest with the American people. She needs to tell them, you’re damn right, life is too expensive but we’re trying to address that, and what my opponent is offering you could make things significantly worse.