Some Social Policy Questions for Kamala Harris

If there's ever an interview, I'd like answers to these questions.

Yesterday, Vice President Kamala Harris finally committed to a sit-down interview focused on her presidential aspirations. With criticism mounting — see here, here, here, and here — Harris likely felt she had no choice, despite the fact her campaign seems interested in continuing the Biden playbook of privileging TikTok and YouTube influencers over meetings with serious journalists.

One hopes the interview will actually happen, because details matter and the press is entitled — indeed obligated — to ask political candidates hard, probing questions:

A generic candidate who promises nothing on the campaign trail and is unburdened by any past might be the dream of electoral-politics nerds, but it’s the job of the press in a healthy democracy to make sure that voters know whom they’re supporting. An unexamined candidate can become anything, and can work under the influence of anyone, when they assume power.

Assuming the best of Harris and that an interview will actually happen this month, I want to submit for consideration some social policy questions that she should be asked. I previously posted these questions on my X feed — inspired by a similar thread written by journalist Zaid Jilani — and want to publish them here so they’re all in one place and I can add links for context. My questions cover education, housing, health care, child care, and — not included in my X thread — the death penalty.

Education:

• Were public schools closed too long during the pandemic and how can learning loss be addressed?

• During the pandemic, some national Democrats -- including your governor, Gavin Newsom -- sent their children to open private schools while public schools were still closed. Do you support school choice or vouchers for all parents? If so, in what form?

• What do you think is the best way to teach children to read?

• School systems around the United States and world are increasingly banning cell phones, at least during instructional periods. Do you think they are making the right decision?

Housing:

• What is the best way to increase the supply of housing in the United States?

• Do you think single-family zoning should be banned?

• Canada, New Zealand, and Singapore have recently imposed measures, including punitive taxation, to make it more difficult for foreigners to buy residential real estate. Given our current housing crisis, should non-resident foreigners be allowed to buy residential real estate on the same terms as Americans and permanent residents?

• Research has found Airbnb and other vacation rental platforms have contributed to rising rents, house prices, and displacement. New York City recently imposed strict vacation rental rules. What do you think of the city's policy? And should vacation rentals be banned in more cities with housing crises?

Health Care:

• In 2019, you supported a managed-competition universal health care policy that you referred to as Medicare for All. Now, your campaign is saying you've abandoned support for that plan. Does this mean you will not be sharing a true universal health care proposal?

• You've said you will improve the Affordable Care Act. The uninsurance rate is rising again, tens of millions of Americans are underinsured, and the percent of Americans who struggle to pay for health care is the highest since 2015. What specific steps would you take to improve the ACA?

• Your vice presidential candidate is from Minnesota. Leading health policy and antitrust experts have said the state's UnitedHealth Group should face aggressive antitrust action, given it now controls insurance plans, a massive network of physician groups, and medical billing software. DOJ is currently investigating them over antitrust concerns. Does UnitedHealth need to be broken up?

• How would you increase the supply of doctors -- especially primary care physicians and those serving rural areas -- in the United States?

Kamala Harris has pledged to improve the Affordable Care Act, but not provided any details about how that would happen.

Child Care:

• Child care in the United States is extremely expensive. Many families are paying more for child care than mortgage payments and rent. How would you make child care affordable for all Americans?

• If the government helps parents pay for care at child care centers, should stay-at-home parents, grandparents, or even friends providing care at home receive some sort of financial compensation for their domestic labor?

• How can the government ensure that all child care facilities are high quality and safe?

• Should employers play an active role in the provision of child care, like is currently the case with health insurance, or should access to child care be independent of one's job?

Death Penalty:

• President Biden promised to end the death penalty at the federal level, but his justice department sentenced the Buffalo shooter to death. Do you think Joe Biden made the right decision?

• As a district attorney, you personally opposed the death penalty — is that still your position?

• Almost all Western democracies have abolished the death penalty and the European Union routinely criticizes U.S. executions. If elected president, would you support ending the federal death penalty and encourage states to do the same? If yes, should terrorists and mass murderers still be executed?

These are challenging questions, but the presidency is a challenging job. It’s reasonable to expect Harris to have some general knowledge of the above issues and thoughts about them. And it’s not unreasonable for voters to expect her to share those thoughts in multiple public forums before election day.