Opponents Slam Harris Economic Agenda as ‘Communist,’ but It’s Popular With Americans
Opinion polls demonstrate interest in government action against corporations
While her political opponents immediately began hammering at the economic agenda she outlined Friday, the policies Vice President Kamala Harris proposed are broadly popular with the American people.
Harris offered voters a glimpse of the policies she would try to enact if elected the first Black woman to become president of the United States in November.
“When I am elected president, I will make it a top priority to bring down cost and increase economic security for all Americans. As president, I will take on the high costs that matter most to most Americans, like the cost of food,” she said during a campaign stop in the swing state of North Carolina. “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 percent more today than it did before the pandemic. Ground beef is up almost 50 percent. Many of the big food companies are seeing their highest profits in two decades.
The policies Harris is advocating include expanded tax credits for things like children and home buying.
But it was her vow to crack down on the corporate price-gouging of essentials like groceries and fuel that prompted the fiercest attacks from the political right.
Her Republican rival for the White House, Donald Trump, called them “communist price controls.”
Other prominent figures on the right, such as commentators like Hugh Hewitt and Larry Kudlow, also derided the Harris approach as warmed over price-controls of the sort attempted during the 1970s.
However, Americans have said that they want aggressive action by the government against corporations that are charging high prices while reaping growing profits.
That’s according to public opinion polling.
Despite voters’ often low perceptions of the US economy, polling from the progressive think tank Data for Progress finds that progressive messaging on economic issues is generally effective, especially as it relates to reining in corporations.
This finding is also true among voters in other key demographics. Independents, voters living in a 2024 swing state, suburban women, and voters who have a low interest in politics all prefer the pro-regulation message over the anti-regulation position, with a slightly higher preference for reining in corporations that raise prices.
And the Harris economic agenda is one that’s embraced even by Democrats running for reelection this year, like Sen Bob Casey, of the battleground state of Pennsylvania.
“We’ve never seen the are record level of profits in America in the past couple of years and when they do that they are bragging about increasing prices so my point is we should give the federal government the power to investigate, just run of the mill price gouging and give the people an opportunity to fight back against them,” Casey said. “As I said, if they are not engaged in corporate price gouging, they have nothing to worry about, but this is long overdue.
“People are tired of just accepting higher prices. Now, consumers obviously have a lot of power here, and because I’ve pointed it out for the better part of nine or 10 months now, people are putting pressure, and some of that public pressure is working on some of these big corporations, but, look, they have had it pretty good,” he added. “They got the biggest tax cut imaginable along with the billionaires, that’s why they are attacking me in this campaign. They know I won’t vote for their tax cuts and they also know that I’m not going to give up on prosecuting this case on corporate price gouging, and people get it.”
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