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After nearly four weeks into her campaign to become the 47th president of the United States, Vice President Kamala Harris is set to announce her first major policy statement today.
Were he alive today, this one would warm the cockles of Karl Marx's heart.
She wants to set price controls on groceries, through what would be the first-ever federal ban on "corporate 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," the Harris-Walz campaign said in a statement.
But that begs the question, what constitutes "excessive corporate profits"? And as far as that goes, what business is it of the federal government to limit profits in the first place?
"There’s a big difference between fair pricing in competitive markets, and excessive prices unrelated to the costs of doing business," they added.
"Americans can see that difference in their grocery bills."
She specifically addressed the meat industry, claiming that "soaring meat prices have accounted for a large part of Americans' higher grocery bills, even as meat processing companies registered record-breaking profits following the pandemic," according to the campaign statement.
This is part of a broader economic policy that she’ll go over in greater detail today at a scheduled North Carolina campaign stop, which will reportedly include proposals to restrict corporate mergers.
They would especially target mergers between large grocery chains and food producers, "specifically for the risk that the proposed merger would raise grocery prices for consumers."
But big corporations have nothing to do with inflation — it’s big government that’s the culprit.
If Harris really wants to lower food prices, she should get out of the business of setting the prices of consumer goods and services, and lower instead the cost of government — the root cause of inflation.
The Biden-Harris administration approved $4.8 trillion in new borrowing within its first 20 months.
As Harris is on record saying, "we’re very proud of Bidenomics," although she’s trying to distance herself from that now.
She should also realize that the energy prices affect the cost of all goods and services — especially manufacturing and transportation costs.
To lower those costs, she needs to open-up gas and oil production — not restrict it.
Former President Donald Trump spoke to reporters at a press conference yesterday at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club and attributed America’s financial woes to Harris.
"Kamala Harris is a radical California liberal who broke the economy, broke the border and broke the world, frankly," Trump said.
That’s not to say Trump is blameless.
He overborrowed during the COVID-19 pandemic, but he’s ready to make up for it by reducing the size of government, and even eliminating the Department of Education.
Despite its $88 billion annual budget education standards have plummeted since it was established in 1979.
Harris has never once run a business of her own, has never had to pay a single employee’s wages out of her own pocket, but ironically is now telling actual business owners how to run their own businesses.
But she fails to understand that the very profit motive that she condemns is what makes businesses self-regulating. It prompts business owners to keep their costs and prices down in order to remain competitive within their particular industry.
Harris said she wants to pass her economic "reforms" on "Day-1" of her administration — if elected.
She's also previously announced that she wants to make tip money tax-free on "Day-1."
But "Day-1" for Harris was more than three years ago — Jan. 20, 2021.
She can’t run away from that.
And it’s significant that in the 26 days since Harris was coronated as her party’s presidential nominee without a single vote from the people, she’s managed to come up with only the two policy announcements — and she had to copy them both.
She lifted one from her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, and the second from her lifetime hero, Karl Marx.
If Harris truly wants to identify the root cause of inflation, she has only to look into a mirror.
She also has to realize, we can neither spend our way to prosperity, nor can we borrow our way out of debt.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.