Kamala Harris is backpedaling again, this time on her plan to ban “price gouging.”
Sources “familiar” with Harris’ “thinking on the ban” anonymously told The New York Times this week that the policy would be “narrowly tailored to the food and grocery industries” and “would likely be reserved for emergency situations, like the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster or the thick of a pandemic.”
It can’t be a coincidence that the “clarification” came just days after even the lefty Washington Post slammed Harris’ plan, flaming her for offering “populist gimmicks” as supposed economic fixes.
And after food-industry brass pointed out that the price hikes that are bulldozing Americans’ budgets resulted from inflation in their costs, not greedy fattening of their profit margins.
Fact is, Harris only issue her (purposefully vague) plan was so she could pretend “corporate greed” was the root cause of inflation.
Anything to deflect responsibility from what actually sent costs for basic goods soaring: the Biden-Harris administration’s never-ending spending sprees, economy-choking policies and vote-buying freebies.
It was Democratic gaslighting at its most blatant.
Hence her rapid shift, once even the center-left called foul, to try to make her price controls sound not-so-Soviet by claiming they’d only be deployed in emergency situations — that is, rarely if ever.
Yet even the rolled-back version is a bad idea: Companies set prices based on their own costs and what they think their customers will be willing to pay, and they’re a lot more knowledgeable about this delicate balance than government bureaucrats.
Not to mention that anonymous third-party quotes are no way to “roll back” what sure sounded like a serious policy announcement from Harris herself: How can anyone tell if this game of telephone accurately reflects here actual position?
She certainly can’t be held to account if she changes her mind again — and the rumor mill can’t clarify what’s meant by “emergency” or “rare,” if Harris herself even used those words.
So the industry still has to fear the reality is far worse, and so waste time and energy hunkering down — which is bad for it and its customers.
This was nothing but a signal to Democrats’ vast media cheering section to stop talking about Harris’ price-control “plan”; they’ll likely comply, but all that means is that America will remain left if the dark about what she actually plans, beyond saying whatever she thinks will help her get elected.
