Vice President Kamala Harris acknowledged to a small crowd of supporters on Friday that food prices are “too high” under President Biden.
“We all know that supply chains were shut down and crippled during the pandemic, causing prices to rise. But while supply chains are improving now, prices remain too high,” the 59-year-old Democratic presidential candidate said in a speech outlining her new economic plan during a campaign stop in Raleigh, North Carolina.
“A loaf of bread now costs 50% more than it did before the pandemic,” Harris continued, supporting one of former President Donald Trump’s central campaign messages: that the economy was doing much better during his presidency.
“The price of ground beef is up almost 50 percent,” she added, as one member of the intimate audience exclaimed, “Wow.”
The 59-year-old vice president blamed rising food prices on “bad actors” such as big food companies “who are making their highest profits in the last 20 years” and “grocery store chains” who are allegedly “not passing on the savings to consumers.”
Notably absent from her critique of food prices under the Biden administration is the role the inflation crisis has played in food prices.
Harris mentioned inflation just once in her speech, praising the latest economic data showing inflation was “below 3 percent.”
The U.S. has suffered its highest inflation levels in four decades under Biden, 81, hitting a peak of 9.1% in June 2022.
At a noticeably smaller event than most of the sold-out rallies she has held since being selected to succeed Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee, Harris unveiled her economic plan for her first 100 days in office if elected.
The Harris campaign said only about 250 people attended the afternoon event at Wake Tech Community College. Local media WBTV.
She called for $25,000 grants to first-time homebuyers and proposed “the first-ever federal ban on price fixing.” [gouging] She is tackling the “food issue” as part of her controversial economic policies.
