On Thursday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “The Hill,” Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) defended 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris’ seeming support of price controls on groceries, but stated that he’s a “little less comfortable” with President Joe Biden’s push for a price cap on rent because he fears it will decrease the supply of housing.
Host Blake Burman asked, “Your main takeaway is what, as [2024 Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump] was trying to keep the focus there on grocery prices and saying your candidate is going forward with price controls?”
Krishnamoorthi responded, “I think that the fact of the matter is that, unfortunately, prices have increased at the grocery stores far beyond even inflation or even their costs. Recently, it was found that prices were going up by almost 20%, even though the costs were going up in the single digits, and that’s just wrong. One CEO actually went on a conference call with analysts and said that inflation is a good thing for him, because it gives them cover to jack up prices. Now, states usually have these price gouging laws –.”
Burman then cut in to ask, “Did you take any issue with what Trump just said about it?”
Krishnamoorthi answered, “Well, I think that the thing that Trump is really trying to avoid dealing with is how he would actually control these prices, because states routinely do this. It’s just that the federal government has not taken up a similar type of law.”
Burman then listed some of the rates of price increases and asked, “So, if you are going to put price caps, price controls, whatever you want to call it on meat, should we do this on insurance? … Should you do it on the major gas companies? Should you do it on the major egg companies?”
Krishnamoorthi responded, “Well, I don’t necessarily think it’s going to be a cap. It’s going to be a comparison of how much costs are going up versus prices. As I said, if costs are going up by low single digits and prices are going up by much, much higher than that, then there’s some profit taking happening at the expense of the consumer because of something that’s beyond their control. This often happens, by the way in natural disasters.”
Burman acknowledged that gouging happens around natural disasters, and then said, “Kroger, … they made 1.43% last year. Grocery stores make 1% on average. And I just wonder if you think the federal government should possibly be levying fines against some of these companies.”
Krishnamoorthi responded, “Well, I think that — let’s see what the absolute amount of profits is as well. Remember, when you don’t have a situation where prices are kind of connected to costs, as what’s happening within the grocery or the food market, there are real consequences. People are unable to feed their families, people are unable to take care of their needs. Food is different than any other type of item, for obvious reasons, which I don’t need to tell your audience about. And that’s why it strikes such a chord.”
Burman then asked, “So, let me ask you about another one, which is rent, right? Because President Biden had proposed a 5% cap on rent if you own more than 50 units. Here’s what economists said about that: Only 2% agree that that was a good idea, 74% disagreed with that. We are also told here that Vice President Harris tomorrow is going to put out her plan on housing costs. Should she take up this idea from the Biden-Harris administration?”
Krishnamoorthi answered, “Well, I’m a little less comfortable with that, only because we have such a shortage of housing right now and the inventory is so low throughout the country and we need more housing. And so, I would be concerned about doing anything that would discourage building more housing. But going back to food, food is a staple, something that we have to absolutely be very careful about, because food insecurity is skyrocketing throughout the country.”
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