19 August, 2024 15:42

Harris: ‘I will go after the bad actors’ who unfairly drive up food prices

By Chuck Abbott, August 18, 2024

At the same time that she pledged “the first-ever federal ban on price gouging on food,” Vice President Kamala Harris said she would help the food industry become more competitive. “As president, I will take on the high costs that matter to most Americans, like the cost of food,” she said during a speech in North Carolina.

“My plan will include new penalties for opportunistic companies that exploit crises and break the rules and we will support smaller food companies that are trying to play by the rules and get ahead,” said Harris in an outline of her economic policy. More details will be released in the coming weeks, she said.

Harris listed housing costs, prescription drug prices, and middle-class tax cuts along with food prices in proposing an “opportunity economy” where everyone has a chance to move up in the world. “Today, by virtually every measure, our economy is the strongest in the world,” said the Democratic nominee for president. ‘Still, we know that many Americans don’t yet feel that progress in their lives. Costs are still too high.”

Business groups said they feared Harris’ plan to seek a ban on price gouging might veer into government price controls. A trade group for supermarkets said that food inflation has abated — grocery prices rose by 1.1 percent in the past 12 months — and food retailers face “significant economic headwinds,” such as “rising labor costs, volatile energy prices…supply chain challenges, and an unprecedented level of regulatory burden.” The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said “pro-growth policies” were the better approach.

“Comrade Kamala goes full communist,” said the Trump campaign in a statement. “Price controls have been tried — and failed — throughout history as they inevitably lead to food lines, shortages, and skyrocketing inequality among citizens.”

Harris, who said she would seek congressional passage of “the first-ever ban on price gouging on food”, did not explicitly call for price controls. In her speech, she said “I will go after the bad actors” and also said, “We will help the food industry become more competitive because I believe competition is the lifeblood of our economy.”

If elected, Harris would work with Congress to “set clear rules of the road to ensure that big corporations can’t unfairly exploit consumers to run up excessive profits on food and groceries,” said a Harris campaign statement. The new administration also would work with Congress to “secure new authority for the [Federal Trade Commission] and state attorneys general to investigate and impose strict new penalties on companies that break the rules.”

A Harris administration would “crack down on unfair mergers and acquisitions that give big food corporations the power to jack up food and grocery prices and undermine the competition that allows all businesses to thrive while keeping prices low for consumers,” said the campaign document.

The Republican Party platform says the solution to inflation is “unleashing American Energy, reining in wasteful spending, cutting excessive Regulations, securing our Borders, and restoring Peace through Strength.”

Former president Donald Trump’s support of high tariffs on imported goods would be the equivalent of “a new national sales tax,” said the Harris campaign.

A transcript of Harris’s speech was available here.