OPINION:
Kamala Harris, the Democrat Party’s pick for president — though not necessarily the Democrat voters’ pick, given her coup-like rise in ranks over President Biden — has announced a war on prices that calls out companies for raising prices and that promises her White House will stop companies from raising prices.
Well, at least she’s acknowledging, quietly, anyway, that the economy that she and Biden created sucks.
But her fix isn’t a fix.
Her proposed solution is actually socialism-slash-communism.
And her policy push completely negates the fact that if she truly wanted to fix the economy and lower prices, she could right now. She is, after all, in office as the vice president. She has, after all, been in office for going on four years. It’s part hilarious, part outrageous that the incumbent is running on a reform message.
All that being said: “Kamala Harris to propose ban on ‘price gouging’ for food, groceries,” The Washington Post reported.
“Harris economic plan features new tax cuts, housing incentives and price caps,” CNBC wrote.
“Kamala Harris’s War on Prices Hits the Campaign Trail,” The New York Times wrote.
War on prices? Price caps? Ban on ‘price gouging’ at the groceries?
Grocers aren’t price gouging consumers. They’re struggling to survive. They’re not purposely raising the cost of a loaf of bread from $2.50 to $5.50 to rake big bucks from the backs of the capitalist piggy consumers; they’re raising the cost because that’s the only way they can recoup the money they had to invest in order to purchase the bread from the manufacturers, the producers, the bakers — and the manufacturers, the producers, the bakers are only charging a higher amount than, say, 3½ years ago because the cost of the raw materials they need to manufacture and produce and bake have risen.
It’s not only the farmers who are suffering. It’s the truckers — it’s the transporters — it’s the people who bring the stuff into the store. Higher fuel prices, anyone?
Harris isn’t so much schooled in the common sense of the supply chain as she is in the sly art of spouting off promises to her low-information voters whose primary goals entail living off the taxpayer dime while protesting in the streets against those who would require they instead work.
Inflation has slowed, but remains high.
Mortgage rates have fallen, but remain high.
Fuel costs have dropped, but remain high.
Consumer purchasing power under Biden-Harris is far less than what it was under Donald Trump.
“In advance of Harris’s first formal policy speech of her presidential campaign,” Fox News wrote, “her team announced Harris plans to call for first-of-its-kind federal controls on food and grocery ‘price gouging’ by corporations. The proposal would give authority to the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general to impose harsh penalties on companies for setting excessively high prices.”
There’s a recipe for economic disaster.
It’s coming right out of communist Cuba.
“In July, Cuban authorities imposed a new round of price controls on powdered milk, chicken and pasta, among other goods,” the American Institute for Economic Research wrote. “Vendors in Cuba are now not allowed to sell chicken parts above a price of 680 pesos, whereas market prices are typically around 700 pesos.”
So goes Cuba — so goes America?
If Harris wanted to fix the economy, she wouldn’t have spent nearly four years under Biden hand-clapping and head-nodding as he ushered in an inflation level that hasn’t been seen in America for 40 years. Prices for eggs rose by 33 percent. Prices for gasoline rose by almost 60 percent. Prices for meat rose by more than 8 percent.
Telling companies to stop raising prices isn’t a solution. It’s a political maneuver that would bring devastating consequences on the entire nation by crippling the desire to produce, which in turn will only bring higher prices and empty shelves.
That Harris would ignore this economic truth is a clear reason to keep her away from the White House. She’s either ignorant of commonsense economic principles, or willfully unconcerned. Either way, she’s bad for the nation.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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