A Washington Post columnist condemned a proposed inflation fix by Vice President Kamala Harris that has allowed her to attempt to shift blame for the dire economy.
During an Aug. 16 CNN appearance, Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell harshly condemned Harris for proposing price controls as an answer to rising prices. Under the Biden-Harris administration, prices have risen nearly three times faster in 42 months than they did for the entirety of the Trump administration. Rampell referred to an existing proposal by Senate Democrats to institute price controls as “especially bad,” before warning that these would lead to black markets, uncertainty and corporate collusion.
“It's really hard for me to imagine any form of legislation that preserves the spirit of what she's proposing that would … at best, do nothing, at worst, cause a lot of harm,” Rampell told the anchors of CNN News Central.
Rampell explained that if price controls went into effect “some bureaucrat in DC” rather than markets would micromanage grocery store prices. She added that it was “totally unworkable, first of all, for the [Federal Trade Commission] to be deciding like how much Kroger charges for eggs in Michigan. But it also would be very bad for markets. We've seen this kind of thing tried in lots of other countries before: Venezuela Argentina, the Soviet Union et cetera, it leads to shortages, it leads to black markets, plenty of uncertainty.”
After presiding over a 19.4% rise in prices, Harris tried to duck responsibility for high grocery costs by proposing price controls as a fix in an Aug. 14 news release. Notably, Harris would tout one of the most expensive and inflationary pieces of legislation produced by the Biden-Harris administration, the bafflingly named “Inflation Reduction Act” only two days after trying to shift blame.
In total, the federal government spent $6.1 trillion in 2023, $6.3 trillion in 2022 and $6.8 trillion in 2021 according to the Congressional Budget Office. The Congressional Budget Office also projects $6.8 trillion in spending for 2024. During these years, Americans struggled through an average of 5.3% monthly inflation.
The Post columnist did not blame Biden and Harris for inflation on CNN or in her earlier Aug. 15 op-ed headlined, “When your opponent calls you ‘communist,’ maybe don’t propose price controls?” However, Rampell did admit that Harris tried (albeit unsuccessfully) to shift blame: “It’s not hard to figure out where this proposal came from. Voters want to blame someone for high grocery bills, and the presidential candidates have apparently decided the choices are either the Biden administration or corporate greed. Harris has chosen the latter.”
On the other hand, Heritage Foundation economist E. J. Antoni ripped Harris for trying to absolve the Biden-Harris administration in an Aug. 16 Fox News op-ed. “Not only did she cheerlead for trillions of dollars in inflationary deficit spending, she cast the tiebreaking vote on two of the three largest spending bills of this administration, he wrote. “Her fingerprints are all over the murder weapon that killed Americans’ finances.”
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