A Champion Of Free Markets

Kamala Harris’s proposal to stop price-gouging us neither radical nor new.  But to hear the howling from the right, you’d think she had replaced the Stars and Stripes with the Hammer and Sickle.

Countless commentators, including many who should know better, have claimed that she wants to impose wage-price controls, that her proposal is an unprecedented intrusion on free markets, and that she’s  attacking mom and pop stores.

They’re lying, and serving the Trump campaign, and she should say so.

Without going into the weeds of how her proposals will work, she should explain the impact of profiteering on the inflation that continues to anger Americans. Memes describing monopolistic consolidation in the food industry have proliferated on social media. Her campaign can use them to easily explain how some of the world’s largest food manufacturing and processing companies have enjoyed record profits in the past few years while prices have skyrocketed.

She should also note that most states already have statutes prohibiting profiteering.

In the past, federal intrusion into the markets has had mixed results, but her proposal isn’t particularly intrusive and would help ensure the integrity of our free markets and protect against corporate rapaciousness, especially in times of crisis.

In fact, she should make clear that her proposal is designed to help free markets, to improve the quality of Americans’ lives, and to protect them during national emergencies.

Kamala should be the champion of the marketplace and reasonable prices.  If Trump wants to defend high prices, let him have at it.