Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, stop at a Sheetz gas station in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, on Aug. 18, 2024.Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty ImagesAs she unveiled her most detailed economic plan yet this week, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris pledged to fight price gouging in order to rein in voters’ grocery costs.The vice president first teased the federal ban in mid-August, prompting former President Donald Trump to attack the plan as “Soviet-style” price controls. Although Harris released more detail Wednesday as part of her 82-page economic plan, it’s still unclear what price hikes her administration would see as illegal “price gouging.””The bill will set rules of the road to make clear that big corporations can’t unfairly exploit consumers during times of crisis to run up excessive corporate profits on food and groceries,” the Harris-Walz campaign wrote in the policy pitch, released about six weeks before Election Day.Higher prices — and who or what is to blame for them — have become a central theme in the presidential race, as steep grocery bills frustrate Americans and retailers anticipate a holiday season marked by deal-hunting. Harris and Trump have each proposed their own solutions to combat inflation, as Americans continue to pay more for groceries, energy, housing and other everyday expenses.In the last year, prices for food at home have risen just 1%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But groceries are still 25% more expensive than they were in August 2019, before supply chain snarls and inflation sent prices soaring.Voters will ultimately weigh in on what role government leaders should play in companies’ pricing. Generally, Republicans support fewer economic regulations, although Trump has suggested limiting food imports …
