How would Kamala Harris pay for policies that voters want?

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign shifted its economic message this week from breadth to depth, articulating some of the policies we could expect from a Harris administration. We’ve had a preview already: Stops in Philadelphia and Detroit not only introduced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate but also reiterated Harris’ commitment to such red-meat progressive favorites as paid family leave.

Now it’s time to explain some details, such as how the administration would get her plans through Congress and how her policies would be paid for.

Running the country isn’t cheap. That’s why it’s been nearly a century since a president actually lowered the national debt — Calvin Coolidge. Saving the middle class would be even more expensive than more of the same. History showed us that: Pushing through the New Deal, Franklin D. Roosevelt grew the national debt by more than 1,000%.

Even preventing disaster can be expensive, much less aiming for progress. As former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden tried to navigate the country through the pandemic and the historic global inflation that ensued, the final quarter of 2021 saw the U.S. saddled with a debt-to-GDP ratio of nearly 140%. And yet we also remain the strongest economy in the world.

Here’s one certainty: The next Democratic president will have ambitious, expensive plans.

Here’s another: No matter what Harris says, conservatives will find fault with it.

Not surprising, of course, considering they prefer austerity for those in need and abundance for the rich. While those with abundance enjoyed record profits and flew to space, the poor were left to fend for themselves with multiple jobs or the picket line.

It’s little wonder that the central economic message of Harris’ campaign so far — getting ahead as opposed to just getting by — has been so well received. But the honeymoon phase is going to draw to an end soon.

The work of selling the idea of a Harris administration will succeed or fail depending on what the vice president says about the economy. She needs a message that doesn’t reject the current administration, and she also needs to present a vision for the future that is distinct from Biden’s, a vision that she and Walz will represent.

Senators such as Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., have long talked about making the ultra-wealthy and corporations pay their fair share. The problem is that without a significant majority in Congress to provide the votes, it’s just talk.

For achievements such as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Biden was able to lean on the relationships and expertise he built in his 36 years in the Senate. Having served only four years in that chamber, Harris obviously doesn’t have the same resources to pull from. In fact, in the moments after Biden announced he was no longer seeking reelection, some Democrats in Congress lobbied for an open convention to pick a nominee. That push was short-lived but highlights that Harris’ relationship with the body is more complex than Biden’s.

Some members of Harris’ party may be slow to use their political capital to push for controversial policies. Biden has run into this himself, despite those decades-long friendships. Some of his most progressive policies — such as investing in people as part of the infrastructure bill — were derailed by Democrats from more moderate parts of the country.

Congress can block a president from fulfilling key campaign promises. The infrastructure bill made it across the finish line, but the John Lewis Voting Rights Act did not. Harris knows all too well how hard it can be to get senators to line up behind the administration — think Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. As vice president, she has been required to cast tie-breaking votes in the Senate 33 times, more often than any other vice president in history.

Harris has spent the past three weeks throwing out chunks of red meat to a base in desperate need of sustenance. She has money. And she has the full attention of her opponent, who is so shook that this past weekend he claimed AI had generated the images of 15,000 people flocking to support Harris in Detroit.

The images weren’t faked.

The enthusiasm is real.

I was there, as were several union members who roared each time Harris talked about helping the middle class. Pricey initiatives such as affordable child care were particularly popular. They always are. Getting the votes, paying for it … those are the reasons they haven’t come to pass.

Can Harris get the congressional support she needs to enact the progressive policies she is promising? The answer to that question begins and ends with how she intends to cover the costs.

LZ Granderson is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times.