Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell criticized Vice President Harris’ proposal to implement federal price controls in order to stop “price gouging” on groceries.
“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 Harris campaign announced on Wednesday that she would institute a “federal ban on price gouging on food and groceries” as president in an attempt to stop “big corporations” from taking advantage of consumers.
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“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?”
Former President Trump held a press conference from New Jersey on Thursday, calling Harris’ proposal a policy of “communist price controls.”
“They don’t work,” he said. “It leads to food shortages, rationing, hunger and dramatically more inflation.”
Rampell wrote that Harris’ proposed legislation would “ban companies from offering lower prices to a big customer such as Costco than to Joe’s Corner Store, which means quantity discounts are in trouble.”
“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.”
Rampell said that the Harris campaign did not answer her questions about the specifics of the policy when she reached out.
The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
