Liberal Washington Post editorial board has scathing take on Harris' economic plan: 'Populist gimmicks'

The Washington Post editorial board rejected Vice President Kamala Harris' economic proposals, telling readers instead of offering a substantive plan, she "squandered the moment on populist gimmicks."

In a scathing piece published Friday, the Post editorial board accused Harris of being "less forthright" with voters about the reasons why prices remain high despite the cooling rate of inflation by "blaming big business."

"Ms. Harris says she’ll target companies that make ‘excessive’ profits, whatever that means," the editorial board scoffed. "Thankfully, this gambit by Ms. Harris has been met with almost instant skepticism, with many critics citing President Richard M. Nixon’s failed price controls from the 1970s. Whether the Harris proposal wins over voters remains to be seen, but if sound economic analysis still matters, it won’t."

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The Washington Post editorial board took aim at Vice President Kamala Harris for trading "serious" economic plans for "populist gimmicks."  (ALLISON JOYCE/AFP via Getty Images)

The editorial board was more charitable on Harris' housing plan, saying it is "built on a slightly firmer foundation" and calling her tax incentives "clever" but took a sledgehammer to her $25,000 offer to new homeowners, which the paper noted "risks putting upward pressure on prices."

"Such a measure might make sense if Ms. Harris paid for it by eliminating other demand-side housing subsidies, such as the mortgage interest deduction, a roughly $30 billion annual drain on federal revenue that benefits many wealthy Americans — but she does not," the paper wrote. 

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The Washington Post editorial board called Harris' economic speech a "disappointment." (Andrew Harnik/Getty Image)

The piece insisted Harris' "firmest ground" was with her proposal on increasing the child tax credit from $2,000 per child to $3,600 among other tax breaks. 

"Her ideas would cost money, yet she insisted in her speech that she would hold to President Joe Biden’s pledge not to raise taxes on any household earning $400,000 or less annually. That excludes 80 percent of taxable income, and does not take into account the recent surge in families earning over $400,000," the skeptical editorial board wrote. "The Harris campaign says it plans to raise revenue to cover these costs but did not provide specific offsets in its economic plan rollout. Without them, Ms. Harris’s full plan would add $1.7 trillion to federal deficits over a decade, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan budget watchdog."

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The editorial board continued, "To be sure, every campaign makes expensive promises that will never come to pass, especially with a divided Congress. Remember Mr. Biden’s pledge to make community college free? Even adjusted for the pandering standards of campaign economics, however, Ms. Harris’s speech Friday ranks as a disappointment."

The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.  

Critics have widely slammed Vice President Kamala Harris' price control proposal. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)

The Harris campaign rolled out a first-ever federal price-fixing plan for corporations as part of a sweeping initiative intended to reduce grocery prices and other everyday expenses.

"There’s a big difference between fair pricing in competitive markets and excessive prices unrelated to the costs of doing business," the Harris campaign said in a statement. "Americans can see that difference in their grocery bills."

The proposal would give authority to the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general to impose harsh penalties on companies for setting excessively high prices.

However, some economists and financial experts have cast doubt on Harris' plan, arguing that corporations don't play a huge role in rising grocery prices.

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Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell criticized the plan, writing "It’s hard to exaggerate how bad this policy is."

"If your opponent claims you’re a ‘communist,’ maybe don’t start with an economic agenda that can (accurately) be labeled as federal price controls," Rampell wrote Thursday.

Fox News' Jeffrey Clark and Megan Henney contributed to this report.