As Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled her economic plans in recent weeks former President Donald J.Trump has accused her of being a Marxist a communist and a socialist. When they meet on Tuesday night for their only scheduled presidential debate Ms.Harris will have the opportunity to rebut those claims and confront Mr. Trump about his record of managing the U.S. Economy. She will also lay out her vision which has been challenging as she tries to defend Bidenomics and demonstrate that she has a plan to chart a new course amid widespread economic discontent among many Americans who are struggling with high prices and other affordability issues.

In a compressed presidential campaign Ms. Harris indicated that she would continue many of President Biden’s policies which aim to raise taxes on companies and punish them for price gouging while also trying to strike a more business friendly tone.

In some cases such as her embrace of ending taxation of tips the vice president has even shown a willingness to adopt the policies put forward by Mr.Trump. How Ms. Harris would ultimately govern if elected will depend largely on the makeup of Congress but her initial suite of proposals from taxes to trade to child care suggest that she would take the economy in a vastly different direction than her Republican opponent.

Cost of LivingPerhaps Ms. Harris’s biggest political vulnerability is the run up in prices that occurred during the Biden administration.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly blamed the vice president for causing inflation to surge after the coronavirus pandemic a phenomenon that stemmed from a mix of factors such as supply chain issues Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and repeated bursts of fiscal stimulus to keep families and businesses afloat.

The higher cost of goods initially hurt Mr. Biden when he was running against Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris is now facing many of the same concerns from Americans who are feeling negative about a relatively strong economy.

Ms. Harris is selling many of her plans as a way to lower prices. Her ability to do so unilaterally is limited as it is primarily the task of the Federal Reserve to control inflation.

In her first economic policy plan of her short campaign she said she would ban price gouging in the food and grocery industries a proposal that her campaign said would mirror state level laws that limit companies from drastically raising prices in emergency situations.

Republicans including Mr. Trump immediately denounced the idea as Soviet style price controls while progressive Democrats cheered the proposal as a way to crack down on corporate greed.

However the exact way in which that ban would work remains unclear and people familiar with the proposal say it is unlikely do anything to bring down grocery prices right now.