Kamala Harris Admits Grocery Prices Were Lower Under Trump

In a surprising admission, Vice President Kamala Harris Harris acknowledged the painful reality many Americans are facing at the checkout line, with the cost of everyday essentials like bread and ground beef soaring by nearly 50% since before the pandemic during Trump’s administration.

Speaking to a crowd in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday, the Democratic presidential candidate admitted to the fact that grocery prices were more affordable during Donald Trump’s presidency than they are now under the Biden-Harris administration.

“As president, I will take on the high costs that matter most to most Americans like the cost of food. We all know that prices went up during the pandemic when the supply chains shut down and failed, but our supply chains have now improved, and prices are still too high. A loaf of bread costs 50% more today than it did before the pandemic. Ground beef is up almost 50%,” she stated.

Kamala Harris says she will get prices back to what they were under Trump: pic.twitter.com/xjv1JSv8l8

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However, instead of offering a solution that embraces the free market, Harris rolled out a plan that has many conservatives deeply concerned. She proposed federal price controls on food — an idea that has a troubling history.

She went on to promise to go after what she called “bad actors” in the food industry and to impose “new penalties for opportunistic companies that exploit crises and break the rules, and we will support smaller food businesses that are trying to play by the rules and get ahead.”

Her proposal is drawing comparisons to the price controls once used by the Soviet Union, which led to massive food shortages and a host of other problems.

Even Harris herself acknowledged the severity of the situation, noting that prices for basics like milk, cheese, and butter have jumped more than 30% since 2020. Eggs have surged by a staggering 54%, and cereal is up 28%, according to recent reports.

At a press conference on Thursday, Trump bluntly criticized her proposal as “something straight out of Venezuela or the Soviet Union” and warned that it would only make things worse.

“Now Kamala is reportedly proposing communist price controls, she wants price controls. And if they worked, I’d go along with it, too, but they don’t work. They actually have the exact opposite impact and effect and it leads to food shortages, rationing, hunger, dramatically more inflation,” he said.

Beyond conservative quarters, some on the left are pushing back against Kamala’s plan. The Washington Post, which usually leans to the left, published an op-ed by Catherine Rampell that ripped into the idea.

Rampell, in her argument, noted that the plan would disrupt the natural balance of supply and demand, potentially leading to shortages and black markets. She pointed out that similar efforts in other countries like Argentina, Venezuela and the Soviet Union have failed miserably, often making things worse for the very people they were supposed to help.

“At best, this would lead to shortages, black markets and hoarding, among other distortions seen previous times countries tried to limit price growth by fiat. (There’s a reason narrower ‘price gouging’ laws that exist in some U.S. states are rarely invoked.),” Rampell wrote, warning that Kamala’s policy might unintentionally push prices even higher.