The Trump campaign on Friday slammed Vice President Harris’ economic policy rollout, arguing it is comparable to socialist policies implemented in countries such as Cuba and Venezuela and would not effectively reduce costs for consumers.
The former president’s campaign held a conference call with reporters ahead of a speech in North Carolina where Ms. Harris is scheduled to detail her efforts to end federal price gouging, expand the child tax credit and increase the housing supply.
“Her policies are comparable to the most socialist and authoritarian model in the history of the world. Instead of liberating American energy and easing the burden on American people, she will impose price controls like those in Venezuela and Cuba,” Brian Hughes, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, told reporters.
Trump administration officials have particularly criticized the federal ban on price gouging, arguing that it is tantamount to government-imposed price controls.
Harris’ plan includes calling for the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general to investigate how companies are jacking up prices to exploit consumers for profits, and she would call for more help for small businesses to enter the market and compete with the big meat processors.
“This policy is completely absurd,” said Kevin Hassett, an economist who served as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers during former President Trump’s presidency.
“But if she agrees to the government having the power to dictate prices, then the last two weeks have shown that all of her previous rollbacks of far-left policies that she supported were inaccurate,” Hassett added.
In addition to the price gouging proposals, Harris’ plan also calls for expanding the child tax credit to provide a $6,000 tax cut for families with newborns, an issue Democrats have sought to contrast with Republicans in recent weeks.
It also includes a push to build millions of new homes to meet demand and $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers.
Stephen Moore, an economic policy adviser to President Trump, argued that Harris’ proposals to help first-time homebuyers don’t address the underlying reasons why home buying is so difficult for many Americans.
He noted that the average mortgage interest rate is 6.5%, a significant increase from the final year of Trump’s term.
“The idea of giving people more money for a down payment is like putting a bandaid on a cancer patient,” Moore said. “The big problem is that mortgage payments are so much higher now than they were under President Trump that people can’t afford to pay them off.”
Friday’s speech will be Harris’ first major policy announcement since she announced her candidacy in late July after President Biden withdrew from the race. Her campaign has described her proposals as extending the 2017 tax cuts, deregulating and Impose a tariff As for imports, economists have warned that this could push up prices even further.
Hassett did not respond to a reporter’s question Friday about whether tariffs would worsen inflation.
“A future call on tariffs and President Trump’s policies is something the campaign is actively planning, but we have been instructed to focus today on Kamala’s proposals,” he said.
