Vice President Kamala Harris blamed usury for high food prices, but experts say the Biden administration’s policies are to blame for the high cost of living and inflation.
“I will work to pass the first federal ban on food price gouging,” Harris said Friday in Raleigh, North Carolina. “My plan includes new penalties for opportunistic companies that take advantage of crises and break the rules, and we will support smaller food companies that are trying to play by the rules and get ahead.”
“We’re going to help the food industry become more competitive because I believe competition is the lifeblood of our economy,” the Democratic presidential nominee continued. “More competition means lower prices for you and your families.”
However, according to EJ Antoni, a financial scientist at the Heritage Foundation, price gouging is not the reason for the price increases.
“The prices that businesses are paying have gone up by the same percentage as our prices,” Antoni told The Daily Signal. “So any cost increases that businesses have faced, they’re just passing on to consumers, and that’s why we’re all paying more.”
Harris highlighted the price increases in the grocery store since 2020, just before the Biden administration took office.
“A large loaf of bread costs 50% more today than it did before the (COVID-19) pandemic,” she said. “Minced meat has become almost 50% more expensive.”
The Biden administration, not the food companies, is to blame for the rising prices, Antoni said.
“Government spending, borrowing and printing trillions of dollars that the government didn’t need to finance it devalued the dollar,” Antoni said. “That caused these huge interest rate shocks that distorted the economy so much, messed up supply chains so much and caused all these additional costs for companies.”
The Vice President promised that if elected, he would lower prices by increasing competition in the food industry.
“We’re going to help the grocery industry become more competitive because I believe competition is the lifeblood of our economy,” Harris said. “More competition means lower prices for you and your families.”
Antoni wonders why Harris believes she has to wait until her first day as president to address the issue of high prices, even though she has already been in office for three and a half years.
Harris boasted about the economic improvement since the Biden administration took office in January 2021.
“We faced one of the worst economic crises in modern history, and today our economy is, by virtually any measure, the strongest in the world,” the Democrat said.
The Biden administration has not solved an economic problem, Antoni said. It has created a problem and allowed it to run its course.
“Inflation is down – after driving it to a 40-year high,” Antoni said. “It’s still more than double what it was when you took office. The problem is not quite as bad as it was before, but it’s still bad.”
The Harris team did not immediately respond to the Daily Signal’s request for comment.
