By james art Entrepreneur, billionaire and TV personality Mark Cuban held a town hall with the Harris-Waltz campaign in Reno today and 2 News Nevada had exclusive access.
Cuban highlighted Kamala Harris’ economic plan, which includes a plan to cut taxes for the 99 percent of small businesses that make $400,000 or less a year.
“When Donald Trump talks about tax cuts, he does it for C-corporations. So there are twenty thousand companies with more than 500 employees — that’s who he cares about,” Cuban said.
Cuban argues that Trump’s preference for big business also applies to his approach to tariffs: “You see when he’s talking about tariffs, he’s saying, well, we want you to bring back manufacturing; I asked for a show of hands here in Reno, all the small businesses, how many of them have production overseas, none of them are dependent on other manufacturers.”
Cuban says Donald Trump’s trade war with China will hurt small businesses and ordinary Americans.
“Almost every Christmas present we buy is made in China and imported, so if Donald Trump gets his way, the cost of our Christmas presents will go up 60% or more,” Cuban noted.
We reached out to Trump’s Nevada team for their response to Cuban’s claim about the tariffs.
“He [former President Trump] wants to be strong against our foreign countries that want to take advantage of a system that has taken away jobs, that has made our country as a whole less competitive on the global stage,” said Haley Dobbins, communications director for Team Trump in Nevada .
Cuban says Kamala has a plan to offset inflation by targeting one of the biggest costs for businesses and Americans: health care.
Cuban explained: “It will deal with pharmacy managers, reduce the impact on the prices they set and introduce transparency. I know from my personal experience and the research that’s come out that this will reduce the cost of pharmaceuticals and medical costs by 20 or 30 percent or more.”
Dobbins argued that despite the health care deal, Kamala Harris’ record as the deciding vote in the Senate was the main driver of inflation.
“How to reduce the price of everyday goods and services? You have to start at the root of the problem; in these inflationary costs that we’re seeing from Washington is definitely what’s fueling this persistent inflationary crisis, from health care, from local business startups, from everyday expenses for all families in Nevada,” Dobbins said.
Other topics Cubans focused on were the adoption of robotics and artificial intelligence, as well as the presidential candidates’ contrasting plans to deport immigrants.