Democrats on defensive after Kamala Harris’s economic plans poorly received

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Democrats rushed to defend Kamala Harris’s newly unveiled economic plans on Sunday, amid criticism that they amounted to gimmicks that would fail to tackle inflation.

The Democratic presidential candidate outlined her economic vision at an event in North Carolina on Friday, pledging to ban price gouging and offer new tax relief for families and homebuyers. But some of the measures met a cool response from economists and habitual allies of the Democrats, complicating the vice-president’s bid to win voters’ trust on the economy and cost of living issues.

An ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll taken last week and released on Sunday showed Harris enjoying a six-point lead over former president Donald Trump. But it put Trump nine points ahead when it came to who voters trusted on the economy and inflation. This was at odds with the FT Michigan Ross poll conducted earlier in the month, which showed that more Americans trusted Harris to handle the economy.

Key Harris allies took to Sunday morning television shows to defend the policies, with Kentucky governor Andy Beshear telling CBS that the policies were about “making sure that capitalism stays within the guardrails”.

“This isn’t about trying to price fix, it’s just about making sure the economy is operating the way it should be,” he said.

Illinois governor JB Pritzker appeared on CNN, saying “you’ve heard corporations talk about how they raised prices even above what the inflationary amount would be . . . so I think it’s not unreasonable for [Harris] to say that the federal government should do what many states have already done, which is focus on price gouging”.

Asked by NBC whether Harris’s policies were smart, Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer replied: “People are reading too much into what has been put out there.”

In an editorial, the Washington Post — which has for decades endorsed Democrats for the presidency — said that Harris had “instead of delivering a substantial plan, squandered the moment on populist gimmicks”.

Jason Furman, who chaired the Council of Economic Advisers in Barack Obama’s White House, told the New York Times that price gouging measures were “not sensible policy” and could hit supply.

“I think the biggest hope is it ends up being a lot of rhetoric and not reality. There’s no upside here, and there is some downside,” he said.

Harvard economics professor Kenneth Rogoff told CNN that he did not think corporate price gouging had “all that much to do” with inflation. “I hope she walks this one back, she had some good ideas, some mixed ideas. This was a horrible idea,” he said.

Trump hit out at Harris’s economic policies on Saturday at a rally in Pennsylvania, a crucial swing state, saying she was advocating for “communist price control,” which would lead to “food shortages, rationing, hunger, dramatically more inflation”.

However, the former president also faced criticism from his own party for failing to stay on message. New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu told CNN that “almost any other Republican candidate would be winning this race by 10 points . . . if you talk about these economic issues”.