GROVER NORQUIST: Kamala's plan to make inflation worse: price controls and unbridled spending

Kamala Harris announced her Solution to inflation: price controls. This could be a turning point in the 2024 election.

So far, she has kept her political positions secret, refused interviews, and associates have claimed that she has distanced herself from her long-standing radical views.

But now, on the central campaign issue – inflation – she has revealed that she has no idea what causes inflation or how to stop it. Voters are seeing the real Kamala Harris, who cannot be ignored.

Government pricing of goods and services has a long history of failure. It's not just a bad idea. It's a very old, bad idea.

The failure of wage and price controls (you can't control the prices of goods and services without first controlling workers' wages) is recognized by historians and economists of all political stripes. This is not an argument between left and right. (RELATED TOPIC: 'The moment wasted': Washington Post editorial board calls Kamala Harris' economic plan a 'disappointment')

State laws on setting prices and wages And Rents do not lower prices. They Ddo not make inflation disappear.

Even the socialist Swedish economist Assar Lindbeck said“In many cases, rent control appears to be the most effective method currently known to destroy a city – short of bombing.”

Harris’ endorsement of the only “solution” to inflation that has never worked, underlines her Vote for the two major spending bills, the American Rescue Plan” and the “Inflation Reduction Act,” which drove inflation so high that Americans realize that the dollar in their pockets is not even worth 80 cents today.

RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA – AUGUST 16: Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris speaks about her political platform, including improving the cost of living for all Americans, at the Hendrick Center For Automotive Excellence on August 16, 2024 in Raleigh, North Carolina. This is the candidate's first major political speech since accepting the Democratic Party nomination. (Photo by Grant Baldwin/Getty Images)

Inflation has always been and will always be caused by government spending and by the government printing money to cover that spending. There is no other cause of inflation.

As Vice PResident, Ms Harris cast the deciding vote for major spending billls – Increase federal spending by trillions.

Now she is trying to remind Americans of her complicity in Joe Biden's (yesterday) unforgivable sin. Yes, she was just as responsible as Joe Biden for the price increases we are still suffering from. But Her advisers had hoped that a new face on the ballot would make Americans forget this.

She reminded us allm of what it has done and has proven that it does not even know how to control inflation – by simply spending less and printing less money. The Government spending programs they has suggested will undoubtedly trigger even worse inflation than the Biden-Harris efforts. (RELATED: CNN guest says Kamala Harris' housing proposal “just raised the price of every home” in America by $25,000)

Today's headlines remind us of the failure of price controls in the not-too-distant past. The policy proposal is reminiscent of the different approaches of Nixon, Carter and Reagan to dealing with inflation.

Just last year, Argentina elected President Javier Milei, who repealed most of the rent control laws. Rental costs rose briefly and then fell dramatically as more rental apartments became available. Higher prices lead to more supply. Who would rent out their basement apartment if the rent was too high?control keeps prices low? When price controls are lifted, more homeowners will rent their homes and the cost of Rental units decreases with increasing availability.

Economists call it “supply and demand,” the rest of us call it “common sense.”

Richard Nixon's price controls failed to stop inflation, but oil controls continued nonetheless.Many Americans Remember the pain or at least the photos of motorists waiting in line for rationed gasoline in the late 1970s. The crisis cost Jimmy Carter the presidency. TRonald Reagan lifted price controls on gasoline and the price of gasoline fell. Reagan cut spending and stopped the printing presses at the Treasury. Inflation fell from double digits.

To fight inflation, the government must spend less. Harris wants our government to collect more of our income as taxes – on wages, energy, capital gains – and will have to print more money even then, as their spending promises are tied to the interests of the Groups overshadow the significant tax increases they threaten on a daily basis.

The Harris campaign has gone to great lengths to distance itself from the spending, inflation and extensive government regulations of the Biden-Harris administration.

Yet in a single day, Kamala told the world that she knows less about the causes of inflation and how to solve them than Biden, Carter, and even the European socialists.

The failure of price controls is not a cause for “joy.” Not in the declining Roman Empire. Not during the years of stagnation under Carter. And not today.

Grover Norquist is president of Americans for Tax Reform, which documents Kamala Harris' economic proposals. Kamalanomics.org

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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