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Kamala Harris is set to unveil her economic policy today including a ban on price gouging on groceries, plans to build three million new homes and the slashing of prescription drug costs.
In her first major policy speech focusing on the economy in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday, the vice president will outline plans to tackle high grocery prices by taking on food and grocery corporations who hike the cost of goods for customers to unfair levels.
The Democratic presidential candidate will announce “the first-ever federal ban on price gouging on food and groceries — setting clear rules of the road to make clear that big corporations can’t unfairly exploit consumers to run up excessive corporate profits on food and groceries,” her campaign said in a statement.
The ban could come into effect within the first 100 days if Harris wins November’s election and takes the White House.
Any companies that break the new limits on price gouging would face “harsh penalties” from the Federal Trade Commission, The Washington Post reported.
Harris posted on X: “When I am President, it will be a day one priority to bring down prices. I’ll take on big corporations that engage in illegal price gouging and corporate landlords that unfairly raise rents on working families.”
Housing is another top economic priority for the presidential candidate, with plans to build three million new homes and bring in tax incentives for builders that could help first-time buyers, reported Reuters.
Plans also include a $25,000 credit for first-time home buyers, which could be claimed by more than one million people.
More details of her economic plans are expected to be laid out in the speech today.
Her move to hold the speech in North Carolina signals how the Harris campaign and the Democrats hope to flip the state that the party has only won twice in the last 50 years.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has been pointing to inflation as a key failing of the Biden administration in his attacks on Harris.
Families have grappled with sky-high grocery prices in recent years. Even though year-over-year inflation has reached its lowest level in more than three years, many are still struggling with food prices, which remain 21 per cent above where they were three years ago.
Harris will reportedly hone in on the meat industry as meat prices have risen by even more than overall inflation. Beef prices have soared nearly 33 per cent in the four and a half years since the pandemic began, while chicken prices have jumped 31 per cent. Pork is 21 per cent more expensive, according to government data.
Trump has seized upon this to claim that Democrats want to ban red meat. Speaking at an event in North Carolina on July 24, he said Harris “even wants to pass laws to outlaw red meat to stop climate change” – without any evidence to back up his claim.
The economy – and the two candidates’ policy plans around it – will be a key factor in this year’s election.
According to the latest The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, Americans are more likely to trust Trump over Harris when it comes to handling the economy, but the difference is slight: 45 per cent say Trump is better positioned to handle the economy, while 38 per cent say that about Harris.
About one in 10 trust neither Harris nor Trump to better handle the economy,
Harris’s unveiling of her economic plans comes one day after she and President Joe Biden touted a long-awaited victory in a years-long fight against high prescription drug prices.
In their first joint appearance since Biden stepped aside from the race and Harris was nominated to the top of the party’s ticket, the duo announced that Medicare will now pay for 10 widely-used prescription drugs starting in 2026.
