Watching Vice President Kamala Harris propose her “federal ban on corporate price gouging” in the food and grocery industry reminded me of an arsonist who stands next to a burning inferno, ignoring her own role in the conflagration.
In an apparent effort by Harris to run on reform as a semi-incumbent, her proposal is more about deflecting blame from her role in causing high prices than offering up a realistic solution.
The fact is that even if inflation (the rate at which prices go up) has gone down from its all-time high during the Biden-Harris administration, prices aren’t going down.
In any inflationary cycle, prices tend to be “sticky,” often prolonging economic hardship for families. The damage has been done—and a simple leveling off of the inflation rate isn’t going to undo it. Because this is more than just inflation; the high prices Americans suffer today are the culmination of Harris’ multiple failed policies.
What’s more, the core consumer price index—the measure on which the Democrats have leaned lately to claim inflation is down—doesn’t even include the costs that are really hitting families in the Biden-Harris economy: food and fuel.
Let’s start with diesel. The retail price of a gallon of diesel fuel, which powers much of our economy (and more than a few cars and trucks used by families on an everyday basis), in January 2021 was $2.72. Now, three and a half years after Joe Biden and Kamala Harris took office, it’s about $3.73—an increase of 37%.
True, the price of diesel is down a bit from last year’s $4.35. But it’s wrong to imply that families aren’t still feeling that shock—especially the spikes caused by the Biden-Harris administration’s bad policies.
Those price spikes, by the way, are what’s behind runaway food prices because diesel fuel is required at every point in the farm-to-table process. Farm tractors need diesel; when it’s more expensive, so is the food.
Livestock feed requires additional levels of diesel, because it’s an industrial process that must be completed before livestock can be fed. Grains must be harvested, transported, treated, and distributed to farmers.
“If we purchase loose cattle cubes, we see only a 30% to 35% increase, but if we buy sack cubes, it’s almost doubled,” West Texas cattle rancher Ann Mitchell recently explained. “When you’re looking at it from an agricultural standpoint, it takes a lot more to make the business work right now. And we don’t see a big change in sale prices for our cattle. That narrows our margins more and more.”
It’s not price gouging; it’s the inevitable result of the Biden-Harris administration’s war on energy.
The same is true of high prices for electricity.
“Since January 2021, electricity prices have soared 29.4%—50% more than overall inflation—rising 13 times faster than the previous seven years, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data,” the New York Post notes. “Meanwhile, in those seven years before Biden took office, electricity prices rose just 5%.”
That applies to businesses, too. When the cost of electricity goes up, grocery stores pay more to keep our milk cold. When their costs go up, so do ours.
Not only would Harris’ price controls fail to address the “root causes” of inflation (massive government spending through the Orwellian-sounding Inflation Reduction Act), it would make matters worse. The unintended consequences, as the New York Post points out, would include “black markets, hoarding, less competition … and higher inflation.”
USA Today columnist Ingrid Jacques says: “Trump’s ‘Comrade Kamala’ insult is a bit much, but price controls really are an awful idea.”
Americans aren’t going to be gaslit on this; we know our budgets and bank accounts haven’t recovered from the ham-fisted economic policies of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Democrats who are trying on a populist persona are a day late—and a dollar short.
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