Top Obama Economic Advisor Torches Kamala’s Price-Fixing Plan: ‘Not Sensible’

A Harvard economist who worked in the Obama Administration voiced his opposition to Vice President Kamala Harris’ plan to install fixed-pricing on grocery chains and their suppliers.

“This is not sensible policy, and I think the biggest hope is that it ends up being a lot of rhetoric and no reality,” Jason Furman told The New York Times in a report published Friday. “There’s no upside here, and there is some downside.”

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On Wednesday, Harris finally unveiled a bit of her policy platform after weeks of speculation. The plan included price-fixing on grocery chains and their suppliers to prevent “corporate price gouging.” The Biden-Harris Administration has routinely blamed “corporate price gouging” for America’s inflation woes, which have consistently polled as a top concern among American voters.

“There’s a big difference between fair pricing in competitive markets and excessive prices unrelated to the costs of doing business,” the Harris campaign said in a statement. “Americans can see that difference in their grocery bills.”

Under Harris’ plan, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and state attorneys general would be allowed impose steep penalties on companies if their prices are deemed to be too high.

Furman, who served as the National Economic Council chair under former President Barack Obama, is far from the only left-wing voice who has come out against Harris’ proposals.

In an editorial published in the Washington Post, columnist Catherine Rampell framed Harris’ plans as a disaster waiting to happen.

“It’s hard to exaggerate how bad this policy is,” Rampell wrote in an op-ed published on Thursday. “It is, in all but name, a sweeping set of government-enforced price controls across every industry, not only food. Supply and demand would no longer determine prices or profit levels. Far-off Washington bureaucrats would. The FTC would be able to tell, say, a Kroger in Ohio the acceptable price it can charge for milk.”