August's Consumer Price Index (CPI) saw prices moderate near their lowest levels in three years while core inflation came in slightly hotter than expected. National Economic Council deputy director Daniel Hornung joins Catalysts to dig into the data and break down how Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump could impact the economy in 2025.

Hornung calls August's CPI a "good report," highlighting that inflation is down to its lowest level since February 2021. "Under the hood, if you do things like taking out housing, you actually see that core CPI without housing is below 2%. So we really are at a point in this inflation cycle and this business cycle where the focus now is on sustaining the critical progress that we've made over the last years for American workers," he explains.

As the presidential election lies less than two months away, Hornung notes that President Biden and Vice President Harris "have put forward a series of plans that would really address the key needs facing this economy right now." This plan includes cutting taxes for working-class families and reducing the deficit by taxing the wealthiest Americans and largest corporations.

He points to housing as a major "pain point" for Americans, and explains that the Biden-Harris administration has invested in building new housing to bring down costs.

"When you look at the contrast here and comparing that against the alternative that's being offered by congressional Republicans, for example, you see plans that would do the opposite — would cut taxes for billionaires and large corporations, would impose a national sales tax that would drive up costs for middle-class families. So there's a very clear contrast on the economy, and we think that the plans that the president, that the vice president have put forward would really help grow the economy, strengthen the middle class," he adds.

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This post was written by Melanie Riehl