Harris Scales Back Harmful Price Control Proposal
Several weeks ago, in an article in The Hill, I outlined how both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have put forward harmful economic policies that exploit widespread voter ignorance. One of the Harris policies I highlighted was a proposal for price controls on groceries. It’s therefore only fair that I acknowledge she has since scaled back that proposal.
As originally described, Harris’ proposal seemed to be a plan for broad, nationwide controls on grocery prices. The new version put out by her policy team, is still bad, but much less so than before. Michael Strain of the conservative National Review (which is not generally sympathetic to Harris) has the details:
There has been a great deal of confusion around Vice President Harris’s plans to combat “price gouging.” Last month, her campaign announced that, if elected, the vice president would push for “the first-ever federal ban on price gouging on food and groceries — setting clear rules of the road to make clear that big corporations can’t unfairly exploit consumers to run up excessive corporate profits on food and groceries….”
This vague language — along with mixed messages from her advisers and surrogates — led many analysts and commentators to conclude that Harris would use a recent bill from Elizabeth Warren as a template for her policy. Senator Warren’s bill is extremely broad and would give enormous power to the Federal Trade Commission to regulate prices.
If enacted, Warren’s bill would, of course, be a disaster for the economy. If federal bureaucrats took charge of grocery prices, shortages would occur….
Does Harris support Warren-style price controls? For weeks, we’ve been left to speculate.
Yesterday [Sept. 24], the vice president released a policy book that answers this question: She does not support Warren-style price controls.
From Harris’s book:
“Vice President Harris and Governor Walz’s proposal—like many of the laws already on the books in 37 states—will go after nefarious price gouging on essential goods during emergencies or times of crisis. When an emergency strikes, the American people deserve to know the government can take on bad actors that take advantage of a crisis to excessively jack up prices.”
The book makes two things clear: Harris would model her plan on existing state laws, not on Warren’s bill. And her regulation would kick in only during emergencies….
To be clear, I don’t think a federal price-gouging law is a good idea. S
Article from Reason.com
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