WASHINGTON – Today, Competitiveness Coalition Chair Scott Brown blasted Vice President Kamala Harris’ “first-ever federal ban” on “price gouging” at grocery stores:

“America’s system of capitalism and free enterprise made our country and economy the envy of the world, but apparently not in the eyes of Vice President Kamala Harris,” said Brown, a former U.S. Senator and Ambassador. “Anyone with a basic level of history or economics understands that price controls lead to food rationing. Rather than chasing poll-tested rhetoric about junk fees and price gouging, the Vice President would be better served implementing policies that would create an environment where grocery stores, which already operate in a competitive market with thin margins, can reduce consumer costs. Instead, she is proposing to hand sweeping new authority to an out-of-control Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Ironically, this new power would follow the Biden-Harris FTC’s efforts to undermine a pro-consumer merger between Kroger and Albertsons, which has major potential to increase consumer choice and keep food prices low. Soviet Russia called, and they want their economic policies back.” 

In a must-read Washington Post column, Catherine Rampell wrote, “It’s hard to exaggerate how bad this policy is. It is, in all but name, a sweeping set of government-enforced price controls across every industry, not only food. Supply and demand would no longer determine prices or profit levels. Far-off Washington bureaucrats would. The FTC would be able to tell, say, a Kroger in Ohio the acceptable price it can charge for milk.”

Members of the press can contact the coalition at press@competitivenesscoalition.com.

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The Competitiveness Coalition is a first-of-its-kind group educating the public and advocating for policies that put consumers first while fostering innovation and attracting new investment.