President Biden is forming a strike force to crack down on unfair or illegal pricing by corporations “when they try to rip off Americans,” the White House said Tuesday, teeing up an economic theme of the president’s State of the Union Address later in the week.
The Strike Force on Unfair and Illegal Pricing will be co-led by the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, and is part of a broader administration effort to blame corporations for soaring prices.
Mr. Biden will unveil the strike force Tuesday at a White House meeting of his competition council.
Facing reelection, Mr. Biden is buffeted by concerns about higher cost due to inflation. He has repeatedly shifted the focus to corporations, saying they are price-gouging, imposing unfair fees and guilty of “shrinkflation,” in which goods get smaller while prices stay the same.
“This Strike Force will strengthen interagency efforts to root out and stop illegal corporate behavior that hikes prices on American families through anti-competitive, unfair, deceptive, or fraudulent business practices,” the White House said in a fact sheet. “DOJ and FTC, along with other agencies on the Strike Force, will focus their collaborative efforts on key sectors where corporations may be violating the law and keeping prices high, including prescription drugs and health care, food and grocery, housing, financial services, and more.”
Mr. Biden is expected to highlight the strike force and other efforts in his annual speech to Congress late Thursday.
He is trying to position himself as a champion for families suffering from high medical bills and other bills. Soaring prices are joining the president’s advanced age of 81 and unchecked migration at the border as the main impediments to his reelection bid in a likely rematch against former President Donald Trump.
While other nations have suffered from price inflation following the COVID-19 crisis, Republicans say Mr. Biden must shoulder the blame for increasing prices because of excessive government spending, including stimulus money that went straight to consumers.
Mr. Biden is deflecting that criticism by pointing to unfair practices by corporations.
“Even as prices have come down on important items like a gallon of milk and a dozen eggs, some corporations aren’t passing those savings on to consumers. Instead, some corporations are tacking on extra fees, hiding costs and sometimes even breaking the law,” Lael Brainard, director of the National Economic Council, told reporters.
Also Tuesday, the White House published a report from the Council of Economic Advisers estimating its efforts to eliminate junk fees on items such as airline baggage and hotel stays will save consumers nearly $20 billion per year.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized a rule to decrease credit card late fees from an average of $32 to $8. The administration estimates it will save consumers $10 billion per year.
Republicans said government efforts to suppress fees sound nice, politically, but will distort the banking system.
“While lowering the cap on late penalties may sound like a good talking point, in practice, it will decrease the availability of credit card products for those who need it most, raise rates for many borrowers who carry a balance but pay on time, and increase the likelihood of late payments across the board,” Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. “Lawful and contractually agreed upon payment incentives promote financial discipline and responsibility.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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