Kamala Harris on Families & Children Democratic candidate for President (withdrawn); California Senator

Restore both Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit

Opportunity economy: child tax credit to $6,000

HARRIS: One of my highest priorities is to do what we can to support and strengthen the middle class. Day one, it's gonna be about implementing my plan for what I call an opportunity economy. I've already laid out a number of proposals in that regard, which include what we're gonna do to bring down the cost of everyday goods, what we're gonna do to invest in America's small businesses, what we're gonna do to invest in families. For example, extending the child tax credit to $6,000 for families for the first year of their child's life to help them buy a car seat, to help them buy baby clothes, a crib. There's the work that we're gonna do that is about investing in the American family around affordable housing, a big issue in our country right now. So there are a number of things on day one.

Q: What about you?

WALZ: The child tax credit's one we know that reduces childhood poverty by a third. We did it in Minnesota.

$6,000 child tax credit, expanded from $2,000 per child

These tax cuts would not come in isolation, however. America's budget deficit is running at about 7% of GDP, a level previously associated with wars or recessions, while the national debt is continuing to climb higher. Neither of the candidates has offered any serious proposals about how to clean up the country's fiscal picture, and would in all likelihood make it worse.

Cap childcare co-payments at 7% of income

Specifically, this landmark rule will:
• Cap co-payments for families [participating in CCDBG] to no more than 7% of income, saving families in states that do not yet cap co-payments over $200 a month on average;
• Encourage states to eliminate co-payments entirely for families of children with disabilities, children experiencing homelessness, children in foster care, children in Head Start, and families at or below 150% of the federal poverty level;
• Direct states to pay child care providers more fairly and on time, improving financial stability for 140,000 child care providers and incentivizing more providers to participate in the CCDBG program.

Increase penalties for sexual exploitation of children

Six months paid family leave; burden still falls on women

HARRIS: Many women are having to make a very difficult choice whether they're going to leave a profession for which they have a passion to care for their family, or whether they are going to give up a paycheck that is part of what that family relies on. So six months paid family leave is meant to and is designed to adjust to the reality of women's lives today.

Keep families together; end solitary confinement

If I was going to reform the system, I would do it from the inside. So I took on the position that allowed me to create one of the first in the nation initiatives around people who were arrested for drugs and getting them jobs.

My plan is about making sure that, in America's criminal justice system, we de-incarcerate women and children, that we end solitary confinement and that we work on keeping families intact.

Keep families together; end solitary confinement

If I was going to reform the system, I would do it from the inside. So I took on the position that allowed me to create one of the first in the nation initiatives around people who were arrested for drugs and getting them jobs.

My plan is about making sure that, in America's criminal justice system, we de-incarcerate women and children, that we end solitary confinement and that we work on keeping families intact.

Supports broad paid family and medical leave plans

15 CANDIDATES HAVE SIMILAR VIEWS: Michael Bennet; Cory Booker; Peter Buttigieg; Julian Castro; John Delaney; Tulsi Gabbard; Kirsten Gillibrand; John Hickenlooper; Jay Inslee; Amy Klobuchar; Seth Moulton; Beto O`Rourke; Tim Ryan; Bernard Sanders; Elizabeth Warren.

The congressional plan creates a universal, gender-neutral, national paid family and medical leave program allowing for up to 12 weeks of paid leave.

Sanctuary for prostituted youth so they can escape pimps

Our task force proposed establishing a safe house for sexually exploited youth--a sanctuary that would offer substance abuse and mental health treatment; the resources needed to get back to school; and a network of support to keep vulnerable young people safe, healthy, and on track. We advocated for funding to create the safe house as well as to run a public education campaign.

To our delight, the board of supervisors adopted and funded our recommendations. We were able to rescue scores of runaways within the first couple of years.

Shut down brothels masquerading as massage parlors

We believed it was important to disrupt the network of brothels masquerading as massage parlors, where so many people were being sexually exploited, so we asked the board of supervisors to direct law enforcement to investigate them.

[After S.F. funded a task force on prostitution], law enforcement shut down nearly three dozen brothels in the city.

2004: Performed same-sex marriage despite state ban

During Valentine's Day week in 2004, then-San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom decided to allow marriages for same-sex couples to proceed anyway.

around the block, waiting to get in. They were counting down the minutes before a government would finally recognize their right to marry whomever they loved. The joy and anticipation were palpable. Some of them had been waiting decades.

I got out of my car and walked up the steps of City Hall, where I bumped into a city official. "Kamala, come and help us," she said, a glowing smile on her face. "We need more people to perform the marriages." I was delighted to be a part of it.

Punish parents of chronically truant kids

Served as attorney in Division on Children and Families

Let same-sex couples marry the person they love

"Equal protection under the law is a bedrock of our Constitution," said Harris. "I look forward to the day when all Californians are granted their full civil rights and can marry the person they love."

In 2010, a court invalidated Proposition 8 on the grounds that it violated the equal protection guarantee of the 14th Amendment by taking away the right of same-sex couples to marry. Governor Jerry Brown and Attorney General Harris both refused to defend Proposition 8 on the basis that the law is unconstitutional.

"The sole yet profound effect of Proposition 8 was to take away the right of gay and lesbian couples to call their union a 'marriage' and to strip loving relationships of validation and dignity under law," says the brief.