Republican Representative REVEALS SERIOUS ISSUES With Harris’ Proposed Price Gouging Plan

Daily Report August 27,2024

The only House of Representatives member who operates a family-owned grocery store chain, Representative Michael Rulli (R-OH) warns America that Vice President Kamala Harris’ plan to ban price gouging will “slowly turn us into a Third World nation.”

“It’s going to be a lower standard of living for the whole continental United States,” added freshman Rep. Michael Rulli (R-Ohio), who won a special election in June to represent part of eastern Ohio and is one of the third generation to operate the Youngstown-based Rulli Bros. Markets chain, which has been in business since 1917.

Rulli, who has a background in the grocery business, warned that his district is struggling economically.

“Our people are literally being starved to death,” he said. “If you go into a grocery store, any grocery store in this country, you look at these people going through the register, and you see how much they’re getting. They’re getting half of what they used to get, and it’s not even what they want.”

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Rulli explained the challenges shoppers face when searching for needed necessities, stating:

“They can’t get their favorite soap —they can’t get their favorite meat – they can’t find that healthy vegetable. They can’t get any of it. What’s sadder than that. We need to fix this.”

Sometimes, Rulli has paid out of his own pocket to cover costs for customers he sees regularly; however.

Rulli also contended that the stores most likely to be put out of business first under such a plan would exist in food deserts, then medium-sized grocery stores and ultimately economy-of-scale larger ones.

Harris, on the other hand, has put out little in terms of specifics about her economic plan, an expectedly vague effort to go up against Trump’s significant perceived advantage as a steward of the economy.

Republicans blame the Harris-Biden Administration for incurring what many Republicans call deficit spending leading to high inflation, while Harris says that pandemic-related supply chain disruptions have caused prices to increase as corporations are keeping their costs artificially higher.

The Harris campaign issued a statement defending the plan, making distinctions between equitable pricing and what it calls exorbitant prices in the food and grocery business. Harris’ plan backers also argue several states already have price gouging laws for emergencies such as extreme weather events, and some Democratic senators are advocating federal legislation to deal with the problem.

Opponents fear that it buries the country’s head in sand, like price controls that create scarcity and have wreaked havoc on economies elsewhere. A recent evaluation by the Food Industry Association reveals grocery stores function on average profit margins of about 1.6%, Rulli said.

“Grocery stores are just not making any money, at all,” Rulli said while ticking off the cost reasons faced by the industry.

Rising inflation, which stood at 9.1% for the year ending in June, had slowed to 2.9% by July but concerns about what lies ahead have persisted. The comments came a month after Federal Reserve Chief Jerome Powell suggested that an interest rate cut may be right around the corner, but he also said it is still too soon to know when.