Kamala Harris’ Plan to Cut the Cost-of-Living. Can It Work?

Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled parts of her economic agenda aimed at lowering the cost-of-living last month, however economists have questioned whether or not it could work.
Both Harris, the Democratic nominee, and her rival former President Donald Trump, the GOP’s nominee, are seeking to win voters’ trust on how they would handle one of the top issues in this year’s presidential election—the economy.
A YouGov/Economist survey conducted between August 17 and 20 among 1,565 U.S. adult citizens found inflation and prices were the most important issues for voters at 26 percent followed by jobs and the economy at 12 percent. While inflation has slowed, food prices are still 21 percent higher than they were three years ago.
Harris outlined a proposal to ban price gouging on groceries during a speech in the battleground state of North Carolina on August 16, suggesting corporate greed was fueling high prices.
“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,” the vice president said.
Harris also proposed a $25,000 in down payment help for certain first-time homebuyers and a $6,000 tax credit for families with newborns.
In an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash that aired Thursday evening, she said she would seek to implement policies to bring down the cost of goods on her first day in office.
“Prices in particular for groceries are still too high,” Harris told Bash. “The American people know it. I know it. Which is why my agenda includes what we need to do to bring down the price of groceries, what we need to do to extend the child tax credit to help young families be able to take care of their children in their most formative years, what we need to do to bring down the cost of housing.”
When contacted for comment by Newsweek, the Harris campaign declined to comment further on the vice president’s proposals for lowering the cost-of-living and pointed to her remarks from August 16 in North Carolina.
Trump has blasted Harris’ plan to ban price gouging as a “Communist plan.”
“It’s never worked…It’s been tried many times. It leads to the same failure,” he said during a town hall in La Crosse, Wisconsin, on Thursday.
Some economists agree that Harris’ plan to ban price gouging would fail to bring down prices.
William Ruger, president of the American Institute for Economic Research, called the vice president’s plan “unrealistic and dangerous.”
Harris “can try to wish away market forces, but there will always be consequences,” Ruger told Newsweek via email. “In the case of price controls, it will be shortages and the emergence of black markets. So, her plan is both unrealistic and dangerous.”
The best way to lower the cost-of-living is for the Federal Reserve “to focus on price stability while the government stops overspending and overregulating,” Ruger added. “Then the economy can produce more goods using fewer resources. Unfortunately, Washington is addicted to easy money, spending, and control—a recipe for our current predicament and greater problems down the road.”
Marc Goldwein, senior policy director for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said he doesn’t think either Harris or Trump have a plan “to truly fight inflation—which would involve reducing deficits, meaningfully lowering health care costs, and boosting supply throughout the economy.”
Whether the plans “ultimately reduce or increase inflationary pressures will depend largely on what offsets each candidate supports and whether they are larger than the spending/tax cuts,” Goldwein told Newsweek. “We’re still analyzing that and waiting for more information from the candidates.”
Justin Wolfers, a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan, noted that while Harris “has a plan, Trump doesn’t.”
“There is literally no detail on what policy levers Trump will pull to address the cost of living,” Wolfers told Newsweek. “Harris has detailed an approach.”
Trump has vowed to quickly bring down prices if he wins a second term in November. His campaign did not respond to Newsweek when asked to provide specifics about the former president’s policies to bring down prices.
Trump pledged that his Cabinet would lower inflation in the first 100 days of his second term during a campaign rally in North Carolina on August 14.
“On my first day back in the Oval Office, I will sign an executive order directing every Cabinet secretary and agency head to use every tool and authority at their disposal to defeat inflation and bring consumer prices rapidly down,” he said. “I will instruct my Cabinet that I expect results within the first 100 days, or much sooner.”
Earlier this year, the former president pledged to end taxes on tips for workers as well as on Social Security payments.
“To help seniors on fixed incomes who are suffering the ravages of inflation, there will be no tax on Social Security,” Trump said. “With this vote, I will end this injustice.”
Wolfers added that some policies that Trump has outlined would raise the cost-of-living.
“The most obvious example is that he plans to raise tariffs on all imported goods by 10 percent, and on goods from China by 60 percent,” he said. “Economic research has shown that producers—including foreign producers—tend to pass on these rises in their costs dollar for dollar. So a 10 percent rise in the tax on importers will lead to a 10 percent increase rise in the price Americans pay on all imported goods, as well as a price hike in the many domestic goods that rely on imported inputs.”