Harris teases first hard policy position with ‘price-gouging’ ban

Vice President Kamala Harris will detail her plan to lower food prices through a “price-gouging” ban as she unveils her economic blueprint this week.

The same day former President Donald Trump called her “an incompetent socialist,” Harris teased the price control proposal in a press release Wednesday evening. The vice president is set to announce a broader economic framework regarding her plans to tackle corporate greed, lower the cost of living, and strengthen the economy during a Friday speech in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Harris’s high-profile economic address in a state that she hopes to flip blue comes as she has faced criticism for running a campaign light on policy details.

“If she hopes to prevail, Ms. Harris needs to present her ideas,” the Washington Post editorial board wrote Sunday.

Voters tell pollsters they are more confident in Trump to handle the economy — a top priority for them this cycle. Polling data indicate voters favor the former president to bring down inflation, which reached a historic high two years ago under the Biden administration. In June 2022, inflation topped 9%. While inflation has eased since then, prices remain high.

Republicans have long derided President Joe Biden’s “Bidenomics” as a disaster for the country, arguing that his signature victories, such as the Inflation Reduction Act and the nearly $2 trillion American Rescue Plan, fueled high prices. As Biden’s No. 2, Harris became a target for Trump after her ascension to the top of the Democratic ticket, with his campaign rebranding “Bidenomics” as “Kamalanomics.”

“Just remember, she goes to work every morning in the West Wing,” Trump told a crowd during a Wednesday rally in Asheville, North Carolina. “Her desk is 10 steps from the Oval Office.”

Prior to that Trump rally, White House press secretary Karine-Jean Pierre told reporters that the Bidenomics record was both Biden’s and Harris’s.

“I’m not going to get into polling,” she said. “What I will tell you is Bidenomics has been something that both the president and the vice president has worked on.”

An Axios report earlier this month claimed Harris “wants to be not-Biden on inflation — arguably the biggest domestic topic of this campaign.

“Harris doesn’t want to be completely defined by the Biden-Harris record, advisers tell us,” the report read. But a Facebook post from Harris indicated she still supports key pillars of Biden’s economic agenda.

“Two years ago today, I proudly cast the tie-breaking vote to pass our Inflation Reduction Act,” she said on social media.

Trump focused on his own economic blueprint for a second term during the Asheville event, promising to pass “permanent” tax cuts, eliminate every “costly job-killing regulation the Biden-Harris administration has created”, and target “everything from car affordability to housing affordability to insurance cost to supply chain issues.”

The former president also pledged to “combat inflation” by ending the Green New Deal and vowed to “give all of the unspent funds back to building roads and bridges.”

Trump also claimed Harris had copied his plan to end taxes on tips for restaurant and service industry workers. The proposal attracted bipartisan support after the Republican presidential nominee announced he would seek to enact the tax policy during a Las Vegas rally in June. Harris declared her campaign would seek the same tax tips agenda last weekend.

In his North Carolina remarks that come just days ahead of Harris’s economic policy rollout in the same state, the former president said, “She’s doing a plan you know. She’s going to announce it this week. Maybe she’s waiting for me to announce it so she can copy it.”

During her Friday campaign stop in Raleigh, Harris is expected to hit back at Trump. The vice president is set to tell supporters that the former president intends to impose hidden tariffs on household items as she announces additional plans to lower prescription drug and housing costs.

“No matter what he says, one thing is certain: Trump has no plan, no vision, and no meaningful interest in helping build up the middle class,” the Harris campaign said in a news release. “We already know who Trump’(s) Project 2025 economic agenda is designed to benefit: Donald Trump and his wealthy friends.”

Project 2025 is a policy framework created by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Washington. The organization crafted the agenda in hopes that the next Republican president would be able to implement conservative proposals. Trump has repeatedly disavowed it.