Venture capitalist and “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary has criticized Vice President Kamala Harris’s economic proposals, saying her plan for price controls on groceries is “beyond crazy” and warning that proposed corporate tax hikes could damage U.S. competitiveness.
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In an interview on Fox News that O'Leary shared on X, formerly Twitter, he spoke about Harris' suggestion of federal intervention in food pricing. “Price fixing—we tried that in the ’70s, that’s beyond crazy,” he said. Can you imagine America where there’s a Ministry of Pricing for Grocery that tells a farmer what an apple can be sold for and what you can buy it for?”
In a campaign speech last week, Harris promised a “first-ever” federal ban on food price-gouging, including “new penalties for opportunistic companies that exploit crises and break the rules.” According to Grocery Drive, the Vice President framed the proposal as a way to support smaller food businesses and increase competition in the industry.
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However, the plan has faced pushback from industry groups. The Food Industry Association (FMI) said it’s “inaccurate and irresponsible to conflate an illegal activity like price gouging – a defined legal term in which specific violations of trade practices law occur – with inflation, which is a broad, macroeconomic measure of increases in consumer prices over time.”
The National Grocers Association (NGA) called the proposal a “solution in search of a problem,” urging stronger enforcement of existing antitrust laws instead.
O’Leary sees Harris’ grocery pricing plan as misguided. In a tweet following his TV appearance, he likened the idea to “pure madness,” warning that a policy like that could lead to “empty shelves, sky-high prices, and lost jobs.”
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The entrepreneur’s criticism wasn’t limited to price controls. He also aimed at Harris’ proposal to raise the corporate tax rate from 23% to 28%, a move that NBC News reports would generate hundreds of billions in revenue over a decade.
“That’s a 21.7% increase. It takes America’s competitiveness in the G20 down to almost the bottom quartile,” O’Leary said, noting that his stance wasn’t partisan but based on what he considers good and bad policy.
O’Leary’s comments reflect the broader debate about the role of government in managing the economy, particularly in times of stubborn inflation.
While Harris and her supporters argue that stricter regulations could help curb price gouging and ensure fair competition, critics like O’Leary say the measures could stifle economic growth and lead to unintended consequences.
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