Vice President Kamala Harris wants to take action against high food prices.
On Friday, Harris’ campaign team unveiled new details of his economic plan ahead of a campaign speech in North Carolina, focusing on reducing costs for Americans struggling with inflation.
A central part of their plan was a “first-in-a-generation federal ban” on price gouging on food and groceries. Price gouging, in which companies and corporations raise the prices of goods excessively, is criticized by President Joe Biden and many Democratic lawmakers – and the Federal Trade Commission has also launched investigations into high food prices.
Harris’s fact sheet says she plans to implement this ban within the first 100 days of her term and will direct the FTC to punish companies that do not comply.
“Price fluctuations are normal in free markets, but Vice President Harris recognizes that there is a big difference between fair prices and the inflated, cost-insensitive prices that Americans have experienced in the food and grocery industries,” the fact sheet on the plan states.
Harris will also announce plans to restore the child tax credit and provide parents with $6,000 for the first year of their child’s life, as well as other measures to reduce housing and drug costs.
Democratic lawmakers like Senator Elizabeth Warren have previously introduced legislation to combat corporate price gouging. In February, for example, Warren joined some of her Democratic colleagues in reintroducing the Price Gouging Prevention Act of 2024, which would allow the FTC to enforce a federal ban on “excessive price increases,” the press release said.
“Those high prices you see at the grocery store? That’s not just inflation,” Warren wrote on X on Thursday. “A handful of large corporations control the grocery industry and they keep prices high because they know they can. Democrats are calling them out and forcing them to cut costs.”
Still, the idea has drawn sharp criticism from Republican lawmakers. Senator Rick Scott released a statement Thursday saying Harris’ plan should “strike fear into the hearts of every American” and called a ban on price gouging “government on steroids – where Washington bureaucrats stick their hands into American companies and tell them what price they can and cannot sell a product at.”
In addition, Trump sharply criticized Harris’ economic platforms during a speech in North Carolina on Wednesday: “Does anyone here feel richer under Kamala Harris and Crooked Joe than they did during the Trump administration? Is anything less expensive under Kamala Harris and Crooked Joe?”
Friday’s announcement is the most detailed information voters have yet received about Harris’ economic program.
Harris is expected to unveil more details of her economic plans at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week. She has also pledged to debate Trump on Sept. 10, a debate that will likely see the two candidates clash over economic policy.
Are you struggling with high food prices? What economic concerns do you have ahead of the election? Share your story with this reporter at [email protected].
