(Update: 1445ET):

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With the election right around the corner and the average American choking on inflation, Vice President Kamala Harris has unveiled several galaxy brain policies aimed at “lowering costs for American families,” which she and her teleprompter will present at a Friday speech in North Carolina at 2:45 p.m. ET – just days before the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

While we know about Harris stealing Donald Trump’s plan to eliminate taxes on tips (after she was the tie-breaking vote on legislation to supercharge IRS enforcement), the proposals also include;

Communist price controls to crack down on ‘corporate price-gouging in the food and grocery industries.’

(Except…)

Here’s your “price gouging” narrative: average costs paid by businesses have risen just as much as costs charged to consumers – if businesses are being “greedy,” they’re doing it all wrong… pic.twitter.com/ALiw72MXSf

— E.J. Antoni, Ph.D. (@RealEJAntoni) August 14, 2024

A $25,000 subsidy for first-time home buyers, under which those who have a two-year history of on-time rent payments would be eligible for “down-payment support.”
A cap on prescription drug costs and the elimination of medical debt for millions of Americans
Child tax credit that would provide $6,000 per child to families for the first year of a baby’s life (after JD Vance suggested an increase from $2,000 per child to $5,000)

Other items include efforts aimed at lowering the cost of rent and helping renters who are struggling financially, according to NBC News. She will also propose plans to stop data firms from driving up lease rates, as well as stopping Wall Street firms from buying and flipping homes in bulk.

As part of the rollout, Harris will call on Congress to pass the Preventing the Algorithmic Facilitation of Rental Housing Cartels Act, a bill introduced by Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Peter Welch, D-Vt., that they said would prevent corporate landlords from using private equity-backed price-setting tools to raise rents dramatically in communities across the country.

Harris will also call on Congress to pass the Stop Predatory Investing Act, a bill introduced by Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and several other Democratic senators. The bill is designed to stop communities from being taken advantage of by Wall Street investors and distant landlords. The bill would curtail those practices by removing key tax benefits for major investors who acquire large numbers of single-family rental homes.  

Harris will also call for the construction of three million new housing units via construction tax incentives – as well as a $40 billion proposal for local governments to build or preserve affordable housing units. We’re sure that won’t be a giant cash grab.

Cleaning Up Their Mess?

As even the Washington Post notes – “Harris has thus far surrounded herself with many former aides to Biden, and her team had made some overtures to business leaders that they hoped reflected a more centrist approach. But the policy positions she embraced Friday suggest she will continue, if not deepen, the party’s transformation under Biden, who pushed for more aggressive government intervention in the economy on industrial, labor and antitrust policies.”

Meanwhile, according to a Gallup survey taken earlier this year, just 21% of Americans say it’s a good time to buy a house – while just days ago, July’s inflation reading showed that shelter prices jumped 0.4% from the previous month. According to Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, it might take ‘several years’ for the pandemic-era rent increases to abate.

Trump Responds

During a Thursday news conference at his New Jersey golf resort, the former president denounced the package as Venezuela-style communism.

“This announcement is an admission that her economic policies have totally failed and caused really a catastrophe for our country, and beyond that, a catastrophe in the world,” said Trump.

President Trump calls Kamala’s price controls “the Maduro Plan”

“This announcement is an admission that her economic policies have totally failed.”
pic.twitter.com/LlnkwVgnGo

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) August 15, 2024

People have questions…

It should come as no surprise that #ComradeKamala is proposing a communist economic agenda.

She has openly said that her ideology means “everyone ends up in the same place.”

A vote for Kamala is a vote for food shortages and skyrocketed housing prices.pic.twitter.com/X6nr4n1zM7

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 16, 2024

won’t that just increase the price of all homes by $25,000 while also increasing the deficit https://t.co/F4VgpA1e1K

— Whole Mars Catalog (@WholeMarsBlog) August 16, 2024

for those asking:

3. wage controls.
4. nationalization
5. “but real communism has never been tried before” https://t.co/u123tz9R2B

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) August 16, 2024

Kamala Harris promises to cut inflation by spending and printing more money, reducing competition, and attacking businesses.

It worked nowhere never.

Welcome to US “peronism”

— Daniel Lacalle (@dlacalle_IA) August 16, 2024

pic.twitter.com/hgKz02UcRr

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 16, 2024

And for the icing on the cake – the Washington Post is now framing it as a “populist policy agenda,” a word whose starter pack we thought came with a tiki torch and khakis (reeee).