Vote for Harris to Lower Grocery Bill

 Some of those complaining loudest about problems the Biden – Harris administration hasn’t solved are folks who voted for Republicans in 2022 which left Democrats with a single vote majority in the Senate and a Republican controlled House. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has such a thin majority that the high number of cranks in his party has left him unable to even pass budget bills in a timely fashion.

One of the complaints you’re likely to hear most often is that grocery bills have gone way up. There are voters who somehow believe that Trump’s policies would bring grocery bills back down, but let’s face it once inflation raises prices they rarely go back down more that a small amount. Trump’s proposed national sales tax Trump is proposing on all goods that are imported would increase prices for a typical family by thousands of dollars per year. We’re talking about staples like food, clothing, gas, and medicine. As an example, Trump would place tariffs on coffee, bananas, and seafood, of which there is little production of in the United States. Almost none of the coffee or bananas consumed and imports 75 to 80 percent of seafood are produced in the U.S. yet they are staples for many American households. In fact, an economist at the Tax Foundation, a business friendly non-partisan organization, has found that the Trump sales tax would raise costs for some families by as much as $6,000 each year.

When Trump was asked recently about his plan to bring down food prices, he responded that he would block food imports from entering the country. Obviously the fool doesn’t understand supply and demand because when you cut supply prices go up unless demand goes down and I don’t see people eating less food. All blocking food imports would do is raise food costs and cause food shortages without increasing food production here in the United States. Many agricultural products that American families rely on every day, such as bananas and coffee, can only be grown in the United States at a much higher cost than if they were grown elsewhere. Simply demanding that American families can only buy food grown here in the United States would raise costs while reducing the variety of everyday food items that working families need.

Just look at Trump’s record to see that a second term would make consolidation in the food industry, which reduces competition and drives up prices, even worse. During Trump’s first term in office, he gave Big Ag corporations and the wealthiest Americans tax handouts. When it came to help farmers withstand his trade war with China nearly two-thirds of aid funding went to the top 10 percent of applicants rather than to family farms.

Kamala Harris has vowed to revitalize competition in food and grocery prices, because we all know that a healthy and competitive market means lower costs for consumers. She has promised to direct her Administration to crack down on unfair mergers and acquisitions that give big food corporations the power to raise food and grocery prices by instructing agencies like the Federal Trade Commission to specifically evaluate the risk that a proposed merger would raise grocery prices for consumers. On top of this, she’ll instruct her Administration to focus on investigating and prosecuting companies that illegally collude to set prices, up and down food supply chains. Finally, she will make sure the federal government has the resources to identify and take on anti-competitive practices in the food and grocery industries.

If your grocery bill is what drives your vote, then vote for Kamala Harris.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - October 30, 2024