Add a former official who worked in then-President Barack Obama’s administration to the list of experts on the right and left who are railing against Vice President Kamala Harris’ newly unveiled economic plan. “This is not sensible policy, and I think the biggest hope is that it ends up being a lot of rhetoric and no reality,” Harvard economist Jason Furman told The New York Times in a report published Friday. “There’s no upside here, and there is some downside.”
On Wednesday, Harris revealed part of her policy platform after weeks of speculation. The plan proposed price controls on grocery chains and their suppliers to combat “corporate price gouging.” [she called it “price gauging] The Biden-Harris Administration has frequently attributed America’s inflation issues to “corporate price gouging,” a concern that has consistently ranked high among American voters.
Under Harris’ plan, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys general would be allowed impose steep penalties on companies if their prices are deemed to be too high. “There’s a big difference between fair pricing in competitive markets and excessive prices unrelated to the costs of doing business,” the Harris campaign said in a statement. “Americans can see that difference in their grocery bills.”
Furman, who was the National Economic Council chair under former President Barack Obama, is not alone in opposing Harris’ proposals; other prominent left-wing voices have also voiced criticism. In an editorial published in the Washington Post, columnist Catherine Rampell framed Harris’ plans as a disaster waiting to happen.
“It’s hard to exaggerate how bad this policy is,” Rampell wrote in an op-ed published on Thursday. “It is, in all but name, a sweeping set of government-enforced price controls across every industry, not only food. Supply and demand would no longer determine prices or profit levels. Far-off Washington bureaucrats would. The FTC would be able to tell, say, a Kroger in Ohio the acceptable price it can charge for milk.”
The campaign of former President Donald Trump issued some rare praise for Harris after she made a startling admission during a rally ahead of the weekend. Harris was addressing a small crowd in North Carolina when she essentially admitted that the economy under the Biden-Harris administration has been less than stellar.
She said: “Everyday prices are too high… It feels so hard to be able to just get ahead… The bills add up… Food, rent, gas, back-to-school clothes, prescription medications… The cost of food. A loaf of bread costs 50% more… ground beef is up almost 50%… There’s a serious housing shortage… The price of housing has gone up… It is too difficult to build, and it is driving prices up… It is out of reach… The size of down payments have gone up as well… It is still too high… There’s not much left at the end of the month… And prices are still too high.” The Trump campaign responded: “We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.”
WATCH:
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. pic.twitter.com/W9H1CSDZlA
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 16, 2024
Democrats worry that the party’s smug overconfidence during Harris’s honeymoon period could undermine her ability to handle intense attacks as the November election approaches. Democratic strategists recognize that Harris, a far-left West Coast Democrat, will eventually need to address questions about her record and navigate any potential October surprises or opposition research aimed at derailing her campaign, and so far, nearly a month after President Biden endorsed her as his successor, she still hasn’t held a formal press conference.
“Every presidential campaign in modern history has had to go through an unanticipated scandal, crisis or world event, and at some point, that political law is going to happen to Kamala Harris’s campaign,” Fernand Amandi, a former President Obama strategist, told The Hill. “Anyone who is measuring the drapes at the White House needs a serious reality check,” he added.
Disclaimer: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.