Washington, Aug. 15, 2024 – Kamala Harris wants to take aim at rising food costs and price-gouging as she starts to lay out her own economic priorities and set herself apart from the Biden administration if she wins the White House in November.
The vice president heads to North Carolina on Friday to deliver her first address focused on the economy policy nearly a month after jumping into the presidential race with President Biden’s exit.
In one of her first economic proposals as Democratic presidential nominee, Harris plans to call for the first ever federal ban on corporate price-gouging, her campaign said.
During her visit to Raleigh, Harris will announce her plan to enact the ban during her first 100 days in office in her effort to address grocery costs as inflation has persisted throughout much of the past four years under the Biden administration.
While it is not exactly clear how the proposal would be enforced, the campaign said in its release that the plan would ‘set clear rules’ so corporations ‘can’t unfairly exploit consumers.’
It would give the Federal Trade Commission and state Attorneys General the ability to investigate the food industry and impose ‘harsh penalties’ on corporations that break rules.
The proposals would also crack down on big food corporation mergers that would allow companies to hike food prices and undermine competition, the campaign said.
The plan comes as Americans remain frustrated with higher food prices at grocery stores due to inflation.
Soaring costs have eased substantial from when inflation peaked in June 2022 when food prices were up more than 10 percent from the year before. Food costs are currently up 2.2 percent from a year ago but remain elevated well above what they were before Biden took office.
‘While our economy is doing well by many measures, prices for everyday things like groceries are still too high,’ Harris said at a recent rally in Wisconsin where she touted going after price fixing schemes as California’s Attorney General. (Daily Mail)
