HAVERTOWN, Pa. — Corporate price gouging has been a major theme of Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pennsylvania)'s re-election campaign, and he pushed back against criticism of his “greedflation” tactics at a rally on Thursday.
“A lot of them are wrong,” Casey told supporters Thursday morning at a bar in Delaware County, west of Philadelphia, as activists protested outside, holding signs and yelling, “Bob, you did a bad job.”
“Even very good editorial writers and editorial directors [have] “Wrong,” Casey added. “Read the bill.”
Casey is a co-sponsor of the bill in question. Anti-Unfair Low-Price Sales ActShe plans to run for Senate in February 2024 alongside Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin).
The bill would allow a federal ban on “grossly excessive price gouging” to be enforced by the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general, according to Casey's office.
Casey's campaign has focused on fighting what he calls “greedflation” and “syncflation” – the idea that companies have maliciously “jacked up” prices during the post-COVID-19 period of record inflation.
But several studies have disputed those claims, concluding instead that excessive government spending approved by Casey and other Democrats bears much of the blame for the inflation.
This week, a PAC aligned with Casey's Republican opponent, Dave McCormick, 30-second ad They used the senator's own words against him on the issue, such as when he dismissed his vote for the American Rescue Plan as posing a “low risk” of worsening inflation.
The ads began airing Wednesday in the Pittsburgh area and three smaller Pennsylvania markets: Harrisburg, Wilkes-Barre and Johnstown. In Johnstown, Former President Donald Trump's visit on friday.
Total advertising spending for the Casey-McCormick campaigns is expected to reach $360 million, making Pennsylvania's Senate race the most expensive of the 2024 elections.
