Vice President Kamala Harris in some trouble this week: Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell expressed alarm at a recent suggestion by the veep that price gouging of groceries be prevented through federal, nationwide pricing rules.
“It’s hard to exaggerate how bad this policy is,” Rampell wrote in an op-ed published on Thursday. “It is, in all but name, a sweeping set of government-enforced price controls across every industry, not only food. Supply and demand would no longer determine prices or profit levels. Far-off Washington bureaucrats would. The FTC would be able to tell, say, a Kroger in Ohio the acceptable price it can charge for milk.”
The campaign of Harris, which unveiled the proposal on Wednesday morning, framed the measure as a move to keep “big corporations” from profiting off consumers — incorporating language that would create a federal ban on price gouging for food and groceries.
But Rampell cautioned that such a policy might come back to bite the government.
“At best, this would lead to shortages, black markets and hoarding, among other distortions seen previous times countries tried to limit price growth by fiat,” Rampell wrote. “(There’s a reason narrower ‘price gouging’ laws that exist in some U.S. states are rarely invoked.) At worst, it might accidentally raise prices.”
“But more to the point: If your opponent claims you’re a ‘communist,’ maybe don’t start with an economic agenda that can (accurately) be labeled as federal price controls,” she wrote. “We already have plenty of economic gibberish coming from the Republican presidential ticket. Do we really need more from the other side, too?”
In a press conference in New Jersey on Thursday, former President Donald Trump similarly called Harris’ plan “communist price controls.” He added, “They don’t work. It leads to food shortages, rationing, hunger and dramatically more inflation.”
Rampell also took issue with a potential practice change for businesses in Harris’ proposal — the prohibition on lowering prices to big customers like Costco relative to smaller outfits. “Quantity discounts are on the line,” as Rampell described it.
“Worse, it would require public companies to publish detailed internal data about costs, margins, contracts and their future pricing strategies,” the columnist continued. “Posting cost and pricing plans publicly is a fantastic way for companies to collude to keep prices higher — all facilitated by the government.”
