Beshear says Harris’s economic plan to ensure ‘capitalism stays within the guardrails’

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) defended Vice President Harris’s newly unveiled economic agenda, saying it will help ensure the economy is working properly.

“I do because I’ve been an attorney general, just like the vice president, I pursued price-gouging statutes and their violations when it comes to the price of gas in Kentucky, and we won and ultimately returned millions of dollars to our people. This isn’t about trying to price fix. It’s just making sure that the economy is operating the way it should, that this is really supply and demand, which we all respect,” he said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“It’s no different than what Teddy Roosevelt did in breaking up monopolies. It’s just making sure we have the right regulations and tools in place to make sure everybody is playing the game fairly and by the rules,” he added.

Harris outlined a series of economic policy proposals Friday during a campaign stop in North Carolina Among them was a federal ban on corporate price gouging. The plan received some criticism, with The Washington Post editorial board hitting Harris over the agenda and characterizing it as “populist gimmicks.”

Beshear defended the economic plan, noting that price gouging remains an issue in the wake of disasters and crises.

“So, you have to have the evidence that this is beyond supply and demand, that this is people taking advantage of us. Certainly, we’ve seen it after natural disasters in red states and blue states. It’s just making sure that coming out of the pandemic or in difficult times, that people aren’t increasing the price of food just to make a bigger profit,” he said.

“All it is is making sure that capitalism stays within the guardrails. And it’s not new. We’ve been doing this in the states for a long time,” he added.