Inflation is generally the most important issue for voters ahead of the November election. Food prices have risen 20 percent since Donald Trump took office four years ago, while staple foods such as eggs have cost almost twice as much.
Trump, who has sharply criticized Ms Harris’s “communist” plan, has repeatedly tried to link the vice president to rising food prices during Joe Biden’s tenure in the White House.
A Democrat familiar with the thinking of Harris’ campaign accused a Washington Post editorial of distorting her proposal and creating the impression that she supported comprehensive price controls.
After Ms Harris announced the measure in her first major political speech of the campaign on August 16, the liberal-leaning newspaper claimed she had “wasted time on populist gimmicks” instead of “putting forward a substantive plan”.
“This move by Ms. Harris was met with skepticism almost immediately, with many critics citing President Richard Nixon’s failed price controls of the 1970s,” it continued. “Whether Harris’ proposal will convince voters remains to be seen, but if sound economic analysis still matters, it won’t.”
Gretchen Whitmer, governor of Michigan and an ally of Ms Harris, said last week that policymakers should tackle inflation “in broad strokes” and that “people are reading too much into what is being released.”
Trump accused Ms Harris of “proposing communist price controls,” adding: “If they worked, I would be all in, but they don’t work. In fact, they have just the opposite effect and impact.”
“We call it the ‘Maduro Plan’ as if it came directly from Venezuela or the Soviet Union,” he said this month, referring to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
