Vice President Kamala Harris recently suggested implementing price controls to combat inflation. Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) stated in response that the proposal was "radical" and saying it "should terrify every American."
The Hill reported that Harris would supposedly work on implementing a federal ban on price gouging in her first 100 days in office. Other proposals include systems to crack down on "unfair" mergers and acquisitions, echoing a proposal introduced by President Biden against certain meat processing companies. This would be one of the first comprehensive policies the Harris campaign put forth since taking off in July.
In his statement, Sen. Scott starkly pointed out Harris's lack of experience in the private sector, saying, "Tomorrow, Vice President Harris, a person who has never built a business, doesn't understand profit and loss, has never met payrolls, and who has never competed in a consumer market, is going to propose federal price controls. That should terrify every American."
He also reiterated that price gouging, the practice she seeks to eliminate, is already illegal in most states "and not the cause of high prices."
Law firm Molo-Lamken provided a more in-depth explanation, noting that 37 states prohibit raising prices of emergency items in short supply, such as gas and certain medical supplies. Still, no law exists at the federal level.
However, Sen. Scott suggested such a law was unnecessary and counterproductive, as "the skyrocketing prices created by the Biden-Harris administration aren't price-gouging, it's inflation. Her solution to the Harris Price Hikes she caused is big government on steroids—where Washington bureaucrats stick their hands into American businesses and say what they can and can't sell a product for. It never works because it causes companies to make much less of something—destroying supply and causing a mass shortage of goods."
The Florida Senator pulled no punches in saying that such a concept is taught in middle school economics classes, yet Harris would not understand as someone who has not worked in the private sector.
"Getting inflation under control will happen when the federal government stops recklessly spending money it doesn't have, and we finally beat back the destructive war that the Biden-Harris administration has waged on U.S. energy, which has made the cost of everything go up," Scott concluded.
