Vice President Kamala Harris officially laid out her first policy if elected President of the United States this past Sunday, which involves price controls on food.
Jason Furman, top economist for former President Barack Obama, commented: “The good case scenario is, price gouging is a message, not a reality. The bad case scenario is that this is a real proposal. You will end up with bigger shortages, less supply and ultimately risk higher prices and worse outcomes for consumers if you try to enforce this in a real way, which I don’t know if they would or wouldn’t do.”
Appearing on ABC News, Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) said she would likely support Harris’s proposal — provided it could be used to roll back the Trump-era tax cuts.
“I am comfortable with that because what we need to do is get rid of the Trump tax cuts for the wealthy,” despite assessments from experts that the plan “would add $1.7 trillion to the federal deficit,” Duckworth shared.
Democratic Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, who appeared alongside Allen on CBS News’ “Face the Nation,” offered a more tempered defense.
“This isn’t about trying to price-fix. This has to be evidence-based. Ultimately, you bring an action, and you have to prove it in court. So you have to have the evidence that this is beyond supply demand — that this is people taking advantage of us.”
But Beshear did not mention the reality that many grocery stores, even those owned by large corporations, often operate on profit margins between 1-3% and are currently dealing with price increases linked to inflation; in other words they have no choice but pass this onto customers.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) also defended Harris’ economic plan.
“Kamala Harris has articulated a very important plan to make sure that we are lowering costs for everyday Americans, that we are ending price gouging throughout the country, and that, of course, we are growing the middle class,” he said.
Still, even with the support from the left, Harris is facing intense backlash from Republicans and even members of her own party.