Harris’ Kill The Economy Plan So Bad Even WaPo and CNN Bashed It
WaPo: “It’s hard to exaggerate how bad this policy is. It is, in all but name, a sweeping set of government-enforced price controls across every industry, not only food.”
Kamala Harris trotted out some pretty appalling economic policies this week. Among these was a plot to impose Soviet-style price controls on goods, including food.
Greg Gutfeld had a great take.
When Gutfeld drops the 🎤 pic.twitter.com/NSe9aiEH4I
— Karli Bonne’ 🇺🇸 (@KarluskaP) August 16, 2024
But we expect clarity on economic matters from someone who leans right like Gutfeld. The measure of how truly terrible and economy-destroying Kackles’ proposed agenda is that it earned some pushback from the Democrat hacktivists at CNN and the Washington Post.
She starts announcing her plot by noting how much prices on food have risen in the years since she and Biden took office . . . and a wrecking ball to our nation’s economy.
Wild to me that Kamala Harris just admitted ground beef and bread are both up 50% since she and Biden took office. She wants us to re-hire her to fix the mess she completely created. Absolute insanity. pic.twitter.com/uv0WAkNMUS
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) August 16, 2024
WaPo is particularly clear in their take.
From WP: 'When your opponent calls you ‘communist,’ maybe don’t propose price controls? It’s hard to exaggerate how bad Kamala Harris’s price-gouging proposal is.' This is not a pro-Trump columnist… https://t.co/L17aSO36gw
— Byron York (@ByronYork) August 15, 2024
“Price gouging” is the focus of Vice President Kamala Harris’s economic agenda, her presidential campaign says. She’ll crack down on “excessive prices” and “excessive corporate profits,” particularly for groceries.
. . . . It’s hard to exaggerate how bad this policy is. 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.
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. (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.
. . . . That’s because price-fixing is already illegal. And it should be! It’s important to distinguish between real cartel behavior (whether among TV-makers or meatpackers) vs. temporary spikes in prices and profits due to high demand or supply-chain disruptions. Harris’s economic advisers are either too confused or lazy to tell the difference. They don’t seem to know the history of these kinds of policies and apparently haven’t thought very hard about what would make markets more competitive or improve the lives of voters.
. . . . 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.
And it’s not just an opinion writer at WaPo; the Editorial Board also got in on the action (archive link).
Wow… Washington Post Editorial Board calls out Kamala’s populist/socialist policies.
“The times demand serious economic ideas. Harris supplies gimmicks.”
They’re right. Just shocking to see from them. pic.twitter.com/QXS7u4aaHq
— Geiger Capital (@Geiger_Capital) August 17, 2024
From WaPo:
Vice President Kamala Harris’s speech Friday was an opportunity to get specific with voters about how a Harris presidency would manage an economy that many feel is not working well for them. Unfortunately, instead of delivering a substantial plan, she squandered the moment on populist gimmicks.
Americans are clearly still anxious and angry about the high cost of groceries, housing and even $5.29 Big Macs. While the inflation rate has cooled substantially since the 2022 peak, an ostensible Biden-Harris administration accomplishment, prices remain elevated relative to the Trump years. So it’s a real political issue for Ms. Harris. One way to handle it might be to level with voters, telling them that inflation spiked in 2021 mainly because the pandemic snarled supply chains, and that the Federal Reserve’s policies, which the Biden-Harris administration supported, are working to slow it.
The vice president instead opted for a less forthright route: Blaming big business. She vowed to go after “price gouging” by grocery stores, landlords, pharmaceutical companies and other supposed corporate perpetrators by having the Federal Trade Commission enforce a vaguely defined “federal ban on price gouging.”
Never mind that many stores are currently slashing prices in response to renewed consumer bargain hunting. Ms. Harris says she’ll target companies that make “excessive” profits, whatever that means. (It’s hard to see how groceries, a notoriously low-margin business, would qualify.)
Thankfully, this gambit by Ms. Harris has been met with almost instant skepticism, with many critics citing President Richard M. Nixon’s failed price controls from the 1970s. Whether the Harris proposal wins over voters remains to be seen, but if sound economic analysis still matters, it won’t.
Okay, so Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos also owns Amazon, which in turn owns Whole Foods, both of which would be devastated by this dangerous plan, but it’s so bad that even CNN got some shots in at the idiocy.
🚨🚨🚨 MUST WATCH 🚨🚨🚨
CNN just DESTROYED Kamala Harris' economic agenda.
"We‘ve seen this kind of thing tried in lots of other countries before. Venezuela, Argentina, the Soviet Union…it leads to shortages" and would "cause a lot of harm." pic.twitter.com/pFEMYDjpN0
— House Republicans (@HouseGOP) August 16, 2024
CNN also has a video up of an economics professor saying he hopes she “walks that one back,” and a lengthy piece entitled, “Harris’ plan to stop price gouging could create more problems than it solves.”
From the latter piece (archive link):
When prices are high, in most cases, the best policy action in response is actually taking no action, Roberts, the chair of Weber State University’s economics department, told CNN.
That would cause consumers who are deterred by, say, high prices of beef, to instead purchase another type of meat or protein. That helps keep beef on the grocery store shelves for people who want it enough to pay the higher prices.
And while Harris claims her proposal “will help the food industry become more competitive,” Roberts said it would do just the opposite. “It’s more likely to maintain that status quo,” he said because it would keep new competition from moving in to take advantage of the bigger profit margins — competition that could have helped lower prices in the long run.
Jason Furman, a top economist in the Obama administration, shared Roberts’ view that anti-price gouging laws could inadvertently harm consumers. “This is not sensible policy, and I think the biggest hope is that it ends up being a lot of rhetoric and no reality,” he told the New York Times. “There’s no upside here, and there is some downside.”
As if all that’s not bad enough, Politico also published some scathing commentary on Harris’ threat to destroy our economy, accusing Kackles of “supercharging” the failed Biden-Harris economic agenda. Not that Politico thinks that’s a bad thing.
Harris to roll out plan to fight inflation https://t.co/BIFUTAZ1As
— POLITICO (@politico) August 16, 2024
Needless to say, people have thoughts.
Jimmy Carter had a plan to fight high gas prices, too. He put a cap on prices. No refiner could make gas for so low a selling price. Shortages occurred. People waited in line for hours.
Now Kamala wants to do that with food? Good luck America. pic.twitter.com/xd2o7JaOdG
— Bob (@Bob76046) August 16, 2024
Short version- pic.twitter.com/KEkIELkrUf
— Usually Right (@normouspenis) August 16, 2024
Add Australia, Ireland and England where providing home buying subsidies failed and only resulted in higher home prices
— Mike Nelson (@ByWayOfNebraska) August 16, 2024
By adopting Soviet-style price controls, thereby creating MORE inflation and shortages.
No thanks.
— Me (@Keefer1958) August 16, 2024
Did the Inflation Reduction Act not work? https://t.co/oh4ZFObRam
— Vanessa (@Nessakins_) August 16, 2024
Well Kamala already proposed price-fixing a while ago, so she's sort of stuck. Flip-flopping on that won't work cuz it's all she got.
But she will try to deceive voters that the Soviet Union & tyrants like Maduro merely did it wrong. 🙄
— Jake (@Jake67_patriot) August 16, 2024
Kamala promises to finally do communism right, as only a strong woman of color can.
— Chad West (@Chad_WestReal) August 15, 2024
What happened to Venezuela under first Chavez and then Maduro is a literal tragedy, and it’s not ancient history. This all happened just a few years ago; we covered much of the horror, starvation, and suppression that resulted from policies just like the ones Kamala Harris is proposing.
Here’s what price fixing leads to every single time.
#VIDEO: An 8-hour line snakes for blocks at Venezuela supermarket. Nine in 10 say they can’t buy enough to eat. pic.twitter.com/V0f8PR1N5o
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 11, 2016
Praeger U did a short video on the destruction of a once-great country.
Here’s the thing, the destruction of Venezuela could have been stopped right away; when it became obvious that the communist policies were causing untold misery and despair and (quite literally) starving people to death, the government could have said, well, this is not what we wanted and unwind it right away. Ditto all the other times this brutal, evil ideology has been imposed on a formerly free people (from Lenin to Mao to Castro). But they never do stop it; instead, they double-down.
Maybe Team Harris-Walz is fully aware of what will happen. How could they not be with so many examples from around the globe, including the recent destruction of Venezuela? Maybe they don’t see anything wrong with imposing their ideological will on Americans, an agenda that will lead — can only lead — to tens of millions dead Americans. Maybe they are very aware of what will happen and why. Maybe they are looking forward to it.
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Comments
Not appalled enough to support Trump.
Just appalled that she doesn’t realize she needs to keep her Communist plans in the closet until after the election.
Harris has stolen both her No Tax on Tips and her Price Control policies. One from Donald Trump and one from Joseph Stalin.
More likely from Richard Milhous (no E) Nixon. She’s old enough to remember that, but not to remember how terrible it was. Her parents probably grudgingly approved of it.
No. Her father is a devotee of Marx. If she got it. she got it from the source.
glad that the lie that the socialists are just “independents” or “progressives”
when its a clarion call that its socialism and that 100% leads to communism
none of its hidden
and with the inclusion now of the 9 11 participants holding sway in congress
the choice is clear
america in the maga context
or
south american policies that are already defeating americas citizens into submission
This patently idiotic, indefensible and farcical price control scheme proffered by the dim-witted, dumb-as-rocks, lazy, narcissistic, arrogant and entitled crone-harlot, Harris, is precisely the kind of idea that comes from an elitist apparatchik-dunce who lives in a California-D.C. ivory tower and echo chamber, with yes-courtiers and lackeys praising her every word and step.
This may be the unforced error that wins Trump-Vance the election. We’ll see.
Harris was so desperate to proffer an alleged “solution” to the problem of Harris-Bidenflation causing the price household staples, groceries, fuel, rents, mortgage rate, etc., to skyrocket, that rationality went out the window.
She clearly won’t/can’t take responsibility for the “Biden-Harris” Administration’s profligate, multi-trillion-dollar spending binges, nor, its war on/stifling of American fossil fuel production — the two largest contributors to Harris-Bidenflation. So, she and her lackey-advisors reach into their neo-communist back of tricks to proffer this malodorous policy turd.
“…neo-communist *bag* of tricks…”
I think the point here is that the inflation is intentional, that they wanted price spikes . . . . so they could swoop in with nation-destroying price fixes. This is just the next step in the plan.
For sure.
And, it’s quite comical, if you stop and think about it. The vile Dhimmi-crats’ idiotic and destructive policies create and/or exacerbate the very deleterious socioeconomic consequences and conditions which they then conveniently cite as alleged justification for yet another round of entitlement giveaways, or, a massively profligate new federal entitlement program — plus, more federal bureaucrats (or, even an entirely new agency!) to administer the program. In this manner, the apparatchiks’ inevitable and predictable policy failures ensure the growth of the federal government and entitlement spending, in perpetuity.
How many trillions of dollars have these reprobates spent “fighting” “The War on Poverty,” resulting in manifestly worse results for the poor, for black communities, for large cities, and, for the U.S. at-large? It’s a disgrace. But, the mistake that people make is in believing that these greasy apparatchiks actually sincerely want to alleviate poverty. The truth is, they seek to perpetuate and expand poverty, because doing so provides them with the rationales that they need to initiate the next big federal government spending program and its administering bureaucracy (or, to expand an existing one) — marketed as the alleged “solution” to the very ills and problems that these vile snakes created or exacerbated, in the first place. What an incredibly successful political hustle this has been, when you stop and think about it.
Don’t be too sure it’s not a vote getter. Mike Munger’s tale of the aftermath of a Hurricane in NC, and a guy who trucked in ice and was selling it for $20 a bag fell afoul of the price gouging law. The police broke up the line, seized the truck, and the lined-up people cheered. So no ice for them at any price. Harris is counting on the cheering.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_z-GnhHyGg
You’re right, too many will buy it. Watch that short Praeger U. video, the Venezuelan host explains how and why it works. At first. Once people catch on, it’s too late.
The American Electorate is f’g stupid.
And if you need more proof of that, just reflect on the fact that Prager U videos have all been demonetized by YouTube as disinformation.
Those are two separate issues, though related. The American electorate is stupid because their access to real information is severely limited (via Big Tech) and their own lack of curiosity. Most people just don’t care what is happening. They notice that their budgets are stretched, but when the intel-Democrat media tells them it’s not happening or that it’s all “big businesses'” fault, they lap it up. How do we break through to them? There has to be a way.
Sadly you’re correct. A lot of economically-illiterate voters will cheer this idea.
The “Maduro Diet”… Gotta use that every time someone agrees with price controls on food
Something about the shape of her head that reminds me of a common name in industry, Richard Cranium.
“Kamala Harris trotted out some pretty appalling economic policies this week.”
Appalling, not pretty appalling. /rant
“Harris to roll out plan to fight inflation.”
It will be very easy to fight inflation when there’s nothing on the shelves to actually buy.
It’s just the logical follow-on to three years of Biden saying that the inflation is caused by corporate greed. Those claims were always outrageous and dangerous. Kamala has just made that much, much harder to miss.
The Democratic convention will have all the appeal of the J6 Unselect Committee. They sure know how to put on a show.
The same that told us how with it Biden was are saying the same about Harris.
Looking forward to the real devastating stuff to come forth about her and her manly, man Walz.
Has everyone forgotten the 1971 Nixon wage and price controls? I guess so. But I remember them well. First Nixon condemned the idea, and then a month later did a complete reversal. The election was coming up, and people were really mad about the high prices, especially for meat. So he traded a short-term political gain for long-term damage to the economy. Wages got controlled, but lots of cheating on the prices. After the controls came off, prices surged.
Nothing new. Rexford Tugwell who was an early member of FDR’s so-called “brain trust” didn’t believe in market-determined prices. He thought government experts should set prices. This is what you get from a Columbia University professor of economics. Finally his overt socialism became too embarrassing to the Democrats, and he was forced to resign. Later he admitted that the New Dealers had copied Hoover in dealing with the Great Depression. FDR ran against Hoover’s big deficits only to run bigger ones which also failed.
So here we go again. Old wine in new bottles. Wage and price controls have failed so many times throughout history that the Democrats have a very hard sell. Notice how both parties have become more and more stupid along with the voting public who don’t understand that events in the symbol universe don’t correspond to events in the real universe we live in. A lot of people will think the government can fix high prices until they see all those empty shelves and long lines.
Um, I literally included a tweet about this. You might not read our posts, but at least scroll down them and look at the pretty pictures.
And no one, anywhere, is suggesting that government stop spending more than it takes in.
Those who don’t recall history are condemned to repeat it.
After The French Revolution, bread prices were too high so the government capped the price of bread. However the bakers could not afford to pay the price of wheat, so they stopped baking. The government responded by capping the price of wheat. The farmers stopped selling wheat except on the black market. The government then started imprisoning the farmers…so they stopped growing wheat altogether…
Starvation…
Yep, pretty sure that’s the goal here, too. Kamala is as dumb as a box of rocks, but the people around her (especially the Obama people) are not. This is what they WANT. They know what will happen, they are frothing at the mouth to see millions, tens of millions, a hundred million Americans starve to death. You don’t propose this unless that’s your goal because it’s the only outcome.
The Mike Nelson Twitter post about Australia’s home buying subsidy failing and causing higher home prices is misleading. The real problem is negative gearing where taxpayers spend billions every year paying off the rental portfolio mortgages of those (significantly?) better off than the average Australian.
What is so bad about a little starvation? Think of all the money that can be saved on Ozempic. Note also, Harris said she will be dealing with price “gauging” and did not correct herself. Is she just Joe Biden in a dress?
More seriously, Harris cast the tie-breaking votes in the Senate for the two huge Biden spending bills. Larry Summers, economist, Bill Clinton Treasury Secretary and Harvard President, said that the spending would be inflationary. Finally, the inflation rate was 9% in June of 2022, nearly 1.5 years after Biden came into office and under the Biden budget for the fiscal year starting October 1, 2021. Harris owns it with her votes and it had very little to do with Trump or Covid-related supply chain problems. If you drop money from helicopoters, no supply chain will be able to keep up.
Harris — along with every Democratic Senator— should be pilloried for those massive spending packages. Just one Senator with an ounce of common sense listening to Larry Summers could have derailed the disaster they created. Especially the American Rescue Plan which is what really kicked inflation into high gear, just a couple months into Dementia Joe’s administration.
The Senate being split 50-50, and the House with a razor thin Democratic majority tells a lot about the ideological composition of the country. This was the time for bipartisanship, not for using budget reconciliation to ram through legislation that half the country was opposed to, but from which all would have to suffer the disastrous consequences
But it was the Inflation Reduction Act! Even Harris is smart enough to read the title and know that! That’s why she voted for it! So how could it possibly have been inflationary?! If inflation following its passage was 9%, then it follows logically that had it not passed inflation would have been 18%.
Doesn’t it?
It is not Communist it is Fascist. You can still own Kroger but the government will tell you what to sell and how much to charge. Also who to hire and fire. Eventually they will get to who not to sell to.
That’s just the first stage. The next stage is government taking over all “essential” business sectors and running them from DC. These aren’t fascists we’re dealing with, they are dyed in the wool Mao-worshipping commies.
There was a great tweet about this the other day: https://twitter.com/RobertMSterling/status/1824840348008391127 It’s long, but read the whole thing.
I must admit I was thrilled when she announced her economic plan. With all her recent flip flops on fracking, taxing tips, second amendment protections, etc., along with the pretense that Walz was just some “Regular Guy” from rural America, I thought she could possibly pull off her charade of attempting to move to the center. Now, with her plan for price controls and talk about price gouging, she is finally showing her true colors.
I pray that swing state voters recognize or can be educated and persuaded to vote against such a disastrous proposal.
Harris presents as an idiot, but she passed the California bar exam on her second attempt. That means she was not stupid at that time at least. It could also mean there is some minority bar-passing exam scam going on in progressive states that Kamala didn’t use on her first attempt. There are many minority lawyers whose status as bar exam passers strains credulity. It could be she was of modest intelligence when young, studied very hard, and then spent the rest of her life as a bargain basement inamorata.
Hardly bargain basement. Helping her up the ladder may not have cost Willie Brown very much, but she got full value from it! (And there’s no indication she had any other affairs.)
In pricing we speak of the cost to the end user. However, I knew someone couldn’t resist such a remark. Kudos for giving credit to my point, along with the twist.
Who’s the end user? Brown, or us? He may have got a bargain, but we’re paying at least a million times the value he got.
Since the product described is a mistress, Brown was the user.
Fair enough.
The last paragraph is spot on, but I’d remove the “maybe”. Democrats aka communists are doing this on purpose and they want to hurt us.