• Latest
  • Trending
  • All
  • News
  • Business
  • Lifestyle
‘Ignore the Economists’: Dems, Liberal Media Scramble To Explain Why Kamala’s Price Control Plan Isn’t ‘Communist’

‘Ignore the Economists’: Dems, Liberal Media Scramble To Explain Why Kamala’s Price Control Plan Isn’t ‘Communist’

August 25, 2024
JENNY BETH MARTIN: A Socialist Victory – And A Warning For America’s 249th Birthday

JENNY BETH MARTIN: A Socialist Victory – And A Warning For America’s 249th Birthday

July 4, 2025
Trump Says Friday Is Elon Musk’s ‘Last Day, but Not Really’

Musk Continues Push For America Party

July 4, 2025
Trump Signs ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Into Law

Trump Signs ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Into Law

July 4, 2025
Lee Greenwood on ‘God Bless the USA’ Legacy: ‘That’s Where Patriotism Starts’

Lee Greenwood on ‘God Bless the USA’ Legacy: ‘That’s Where Patriotism Starts’

July 4, 2025
Trump Seeking Military Costumes for Parade

Trump Lambasts Dems Who Voted Against ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’

July 4, 2025
WILL SELLERS: Misunderstanding The Road To Independence

WILL SELLERS: Misunderstanding The Road To Independence

July 4, 2025
Dems’ ‘Project 2029’ May Not Actually Bode Well For Party’s Future

Dems’ ‘Project 2029’ May Not Actually Bode Well For Party’s Future

July 4, 2025
BRILYN HOLLYHAND: Gen Z, It’s Time We Start Acting Like We Deserve The Freedom We Inherited

BRILYN HOLLYHAND: Gen Z, It’s Time We Start Acting Like We Deserve The Freedom We Inherited

July 4, 2025
Dem Eyes House Seat That Swung Nearly 20 Points To Trump

Dem Eyes House Seat That Swung Nearly 20 Points To Trump

July 4, 2025
Outfit Behind Slanted ‘Terrorism’ Studies Pleads For Private Donors After Trump Funding Cuts

Outfit Behind Slanted ‘Terrorism’ Studies Pleads For Private Donors After Trump Funding Cuts

July 4, 2025
Gas Crisis Looms Over California As Dems Continue To Impose Crippling Regs

Gas Crisis Looms Over California As Dems Continue To Impose Crippling Regs

July 4, 2025
Can Elon Musk Shatter America’s Two-Party System?

Can Elon Musk Shatter America’s Two-Party System?

July 4, 2025
  • Donald Trump
  • State of the Union
  • Elon Musk
  • Tariffs
  • Congress
  • Faith
  • Immigration
Saturday, July 5, 2025
  • Login
IJR
  • Politics
  • US News
  • Commentary
  • World News
  • Faith
  • Latest Polls
No Result
View All Result
IJR
No Result
View All Result
Home News

‘Ignore the Economists’: Dems, Liberal Media Scramble To Explain Why Kamala’s Price Control Plan Isn’t ‘Communist’

by Daily Caller News Foundation
August 25, 2024 at 1:57 pm
in News, Wire
248 5
0
‘Ignore the Economists’: Dems, Liberal Media Scramble To Explain Why Kamala’s Price Control Plan Isn’t ‘Communist’
491
SHARES
1.4k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Daily Caller News Foundation

Vice President Kamala Harris’ proposed “price gouging” ban has been panned as a radical policy, and some Democrats and members of the press are working to clean up the fallout.

During an Aug. 16 speech in North Carolina laying out some of her economic ideas, Harris proposed to impose a federal ban on “price gouging” to bring down prices of food and groceries, an idea that critics from across the political spectrum derided as collectivist price controls, extreme and unlikely to work. In the week since Harris announced her idea, numerous Democrats and some prominent media personalities and outlets have mobilized to redefine or explain away Harris’ proposal as more nuanced and less radical than the GOP is making it out to be.

After Harris’ proposal received sharp criticisms from economists and pundits, unnamed sources familiar with the vice president’s thinking told The New York Times that the “price gouging” ban would likely only take effect in emergencies, such as a pandemic or in the wake of a natural disaster. However, since America is currently not facing such circumstances, those unnamed sources implied that it “might actually not do anything to bring down grocery prices right now” if enacted.

‘Most Terrifying Proposal I’ve Ever Seen’: Former Trump Economic Advisor Reacts To Kamala Harris ‘Price Gouging’ Planhttps://t.co/hhJgw3BhV7

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 17, 2024

Nevertheless, Democrats and some in the media have attempted essentially to defend the proposal by suggesting it isn’t so simple.

Axios ran a Tuesday story under the headline “How price gouging bans really work.” The article states that policies like the one Harris proposed are “oft-hated by economists, but they’ve been around for a long time” and that “most Americans intuitively understand the rationale behind them, and Harris is trying to appeal to voters — not academics or newspaper columnists.”

The Axios story cites Zephyr Teachout, a professor at Fordham Law School, for color; Teachout wrote her own Thursday piece for The Atlantic with the headline “Sometimes You Just Have to Ignore the Economists.” In her column, Teachout writes that “Kamala Harris’s proposed price-gouging ban might irritate academics, but it makes sense to everyone else,” simultaneously defending the policy as neither radical nor novel while conceding that its exact parameters are unclear.

Paul Krugman, an economist and columnist for The New York Times, described Harris’ economic ideas, including the price gouging ban, as “a solid center-left agenda” in a Monday column.

“I’ve been amazed at how many credulous commentators, and not just on the right, have asserted that Harris is calling for price controls, making her out to be the second coming of Richard Nixon if not the next Nicolas Maduro,” Krugman wrote in his column. “What she has actually called for is legislation banning price gouging on groceries. Obviously, this is a populist political gesture — a way to offer something to voters upset about high food prices. But just because something is popular doesn’t mean that it’s a bad idea.”

The Trump campaign’s assertion that Harris has embraced communist-style price controls is simply “a new line of false attack” against the vice president, CBS anchor Margaret Brennan said on “Face the Nation” on Sunday. CBS also brought Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear onto the program to discuss why Harris’ proposal is more nuanced than outright socialist price controls.

Gretchen Whitmer Says Critics Of Harris’ Price Gouging Plan Are ‘Reading Too Much’ Into Ithttps://t.co/h8GWuL2xvB

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 20, 2024

“It’s definitely clear that at least a few corporate journalists are trying to defend Kamala’s proposal. But it’s a very unenviable task,” Bill Da’Agostino, a senior research analyst for the Media Research Center, a conservative media watchdog organization, told the DCNF. “She proposed price controls, so now they’re going to bat for price controls. Moments like these are when the real hacks expose themselves.”

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, who recently said that she does not believe a new government report showing that 818,000 jobs purportedly created under the Biden administration never actually existed, also stepped in to deflect criticism of Harris’ plan. She described the notion that Harris’ proposal amounts to price controls as “a Republican talking point,” during a Wednesday appearance on CNBC.

Democratic Govs. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan have also attempted to downplay or contextualize Harris’ proposal as more nuanced than outright price controls, according to The Washington Post. Some of the criticisms of Harris’ “price gouging” ban have been made in good faith by some observers, but there are other criticisms of the policy that are “just malicious attacks from the other side trying to characterize her as a socialist,” Ben Harris, a former senior official at the Biden Treasury Department, told the outlet.

“Her idea flopped badly. They can’t just withdraw it, so they have to ‘contextualize’ it, hence the references to a pandemic or national emergency,” J.D. Foster, the former chief economist at the Office of Management and Budget and a former vice president of the Chamber of Commerce, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “It was a dumb idea and they are stuck with it as an example of Harris’ extreme ignorance about how the economy works.”

Ryan Young, senior economist at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, agreed that Harris’ proposed federal “price gouging” ban is effectively an endorsement of price controls.

“Most voters are too young to remember Richard Nixon’s price and wage controls, but they still have the right intuition—you don’t want politicians setting prices,” Young told the DCNF. “That is why Harris’s price gouging proposals have gotten a cold reception. That is also why her partisans are trying to claim that price gouging bans aren’t really price controls. Which they are, just under a different name.”

The Harris campaign did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Tags: businessDCNFU.S. News
Share196Tweet123
Daily Caller News Foundation

Daily Caller News Foundation

Advertisements

Top Stories June 10th
Top Stories June 7th
Top Stories June 6th
Top Stories June 3rd
Top Stories May 30th
Top Stories May 29th
Top Stories May 24th
Top Stories May 23rd
Top Stories May 21st
Top Stories May 17th

Join Over 6M Subscribers

We’re organizing an online community to elevate trusted voices on all sides so that you can be fully informed.





IJR

    Copyright © 2024 IJR

Trusted Voices On All Sides

  • About Us
  • GDPR Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service
  • Editorial Standards & Corrections Policy
  • Subscribe to IJR

Follow Us

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Politics
  • US News
  • Commentary
  • World News
  • Faith
  • Latest Polls

    Copyright © 2024 IJR

Top Stories June 10th Top Stories June 7th Top Stories June 6th Top Stories June 3rd Top Stories May 30th Top Stories May 29th Top Stories May 24th Top Stories May 23rd Top Stories May 21st Top Stories May 17th