Based Underground is now a conservative news aggregator AND curated newsletter.
(DCNF)—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.”
Don’t wait for a stock market crash, dedollarization, or CBDCs before securing your retirement with physical precious metals. Genesis Gold Group can help.
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 [email protected].
Diddy Charges and Arrest Beg the Question: What Other Elite Hollywood Celebs Knew About ‘Freak Offs?’
by Outkick
Puff Daddy is finally facing the mother of all karma for his alleged sick and twisted behavior spanning a decade or more. At yesterday’s press conference, reporters asked the attorney why it took so long to get these charges and that’s a great question. Fs Sot 3 (5) Here’s another…
Is This Kamala’s Biggest Lie About Her Family Yet?
by Natural News
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has falsely claimed that her grandfather was a freedom fighter in the Indian independence movement. The Democratic presidential nominee shared on Sept. 8 a picture of herself in India with her maternal grandfather P.V. Gopalan. She described him as a “retired civil servant who had…
What Did John Brennan Know?
by Frontpage Mag
In the wake of the second attempt on his life, Donald Trump flagged the “highly inflammatory language” Democrats have deployed against him, such as the charges of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris that the former president is a threat to democracy and so forth. When it comes to inflammatory language…
Are the White House and Pentagon Controlled by a Shadowy Few?
by Zero Hedge
As we approach the 2024 election, many Americans are disillusioned by the notion that their votes truly matter. Why? Because there’s a growing belief that a hidden force – often referred to as the Deep or Administrative State – wields disproportionate power behind the scenes. Despite our democratic process, can…
Special:
Stock up on long-term storage steak with 25-year shelf-life and take advantage of 35% off with promo code “freedom35” – this week only. Visit Prepper All-Naturals and secure your family’s future with freeze dried Ribeye, NY Strip, Tenderloin, and more.
Do We Have Another Instance Where the Secret Service Can’t Get Its Story Right?
by Townhall
Former President Donald Trump was nearly assassinated on September 15 while golfing in West Palm Beach. The former president’s trip to Trump International Golf Club was not planned, but would-be assassin Ryan Wesley Routh was waiting on the course, hiding in a shrubbery for 12 hours with a rifle and…
City Demands Pastor Take Down ‘Jesus’ Sign in Front of Church, Gets Epic Response From Him During Sermon
by Western Journal
Freedom-loving Americans cannot help but bemoan the mounting authoritarianism of both federal and state officials. As we discovered during the COVID era, however, sometimes Satan infects even our neighbors with the spirit of petty tyranny. In a clip posted Tuesday to the social media platform X, Pastor Mark Driscoll of…
Leftists Deserve the J6 Treatment
by J.B. Shurk
Remember: illegally appointed special counsel Jack Smith is prosecuting President Trump in D.C. for exercising his constitutional right to free speech after the 2020 election. Smith’s case essentially claims that Trump was not entitled to question the legitimacy of the mail-in ballot–tainted election and that his refusal to concede to Joe Biden…
Professor Teaches Students About Evil by Having Them Read Writings of Hitler’s Chief Propagandist
by Red State
A professor at the University of Austin ingeniously teaches students about “good and evil” by having them read the writings of some of the 20th century’s most evil people, including Adolf Hitler’s chief propagandist, Joseph Goebbels. Spoiler: I think it’s absolutely brilliant. Professor Marietta, who says Goebbels used “emotional appeal”…
Bombshell Lab Findings: Covid Jab Spike Proteins Likely Accelerate Cancer, Neurological Disorders, Dementia, Crohn’s, Lyme and More
by S.D. Wells, Natural News
(Natural News)—Back in February, U.S. Republican Senator Ron Johnson from Wisconsin held a roundtable discussion titled ‘Federal Health Agencies and the COVID Cartel: What Are They Hiding?’. In attendance at that forum was an internal medicine specialist and medical doctor named Sabine Hazan, who conducts and supervises clinical trials for cutting-edge…
Fan in MAGA Hat Denied Entry at Arizona Cardinals’ Home Stadium Unless She Threw It Away, Prompting Apology From Team
by The Blaze
The Arizona Cardinals organization has issued an apology after a fan was initially denied entry to the team’s home opener because she was wearing a Make America Great Again hat in support of the presidential candidacy of former President Donald Trump. On Sunday, thousands of football fans flocked to State…
New Report: State Department Funded Fact-Checkers to Censor ‘Lawful Speech’
by Michael Nevradakis Ph.D., The Defender
(The Defender)—The U.S. Department of State-funded domestic and international fact-checking entities that censored American independent media outlets and social media users who questioned the Biden administration’s COVID-19 and other policies, according to a congressional report. The report by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Small Business stated: “The Federal…
Springfield City Manager Admitted in March He’d ‘Heard’ About Haitian Migrants Eating ‘Domesticated Animals’
by The Post Millennial
A video from the Springfield City Commission meeting in March has resurfaced on Twitter, showing the Springfield, Ohio, City Manager Bryan Heck admitting that he had heard stories about Haitian immigrants to the town consuming “domesticated animals.” A resident of Springfield spoke to at the meeting and the City Manager,…
Did the Government Shield Diddy Like Epstein?
by Daily Wire
Some of the most revealing moments from the sordid saga of Jeffrey Epstein came when government officials were asked direct questions, then ducked them without any real explanation. Case in point: Five years ago, the Labor Secretary at the time, Alex Acosta, was speaking to reporters about his handling of…
Saudi Arabia Won’t Recognize Israel Without Palestinian State, Says Crown Prince
by End Times Headlines
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Wednesday said the kingdom would not recognize Israel without a Palestinian state and strongly condemned the “crimes of the Israeli occupation” against the Palestinian people. “The kingdom will not stop its tireless work towards the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East…
Retired Border Patrol Chief Accuses Joe Biden, Kamala Harris of Attempting to Hide Mass Release of Migrants Into U.S.
by Breitbart
Retired Border Patrol Chief Aaron Heitke, who left his position at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in early 2023, says President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s administration has worked to hide the mass release of migrants into American communities. During a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on…
Less Than 50 Days Until Life in America Changes Forever, and Our Nation Is Primed for Massive Civil Unrest
by Michael Snyder
(The Economic Collapse Blog)—Years of extremely inflammatory rhetoric from the mainstream media and from many of our leaders have brought us to the brink of a societal nightmare. The numbers that I am about to share with you are horrifying, but it is so important for us to understand what…