The left turns on its own: Kam’s price-gouging scandal and more commentary
Conservative: The Left Eats Its Own
Progressive Jewish writer Joshua Leifer saw his book event canceled because one participant was a Zionist, notes Commentary’s Seth Mandel — and other progressive Jews (like NYC Comptroller Brad Lander and leftist Rabbi Jill Jacobs) “professed to be stunned” over this “act of overt anti-Semitism.” But the (now reportedly fired) employee responsible for the cancelation was only “following Leifer’s own dictates!” Leifer has “portrayed Zionists as violent ethnic cleansers” and “warmongers” and “described the Zionist project as a lie.” He’s even proudly “suggested that Americans drop their opposition to boycotts” of all things Zionist. “So what, in Leifer’s own despicable terms, did the dismissed employee at PowerHouse Books do wrong? Wouldn’t he have done the same, if he weren’t selling his own book?”
Economy beat: Kam’s Price-Gouging Con
“Data from the administration’s own Labor Department proves her claims of price gouging are simply false,” thunder Andy Puzder & E.J. Antoni at Fox News. Both “prices paid by businesses” and consumers “have risen 19.4 percent under the Biden-Harris administration.” That’s proof that inflation, not price-gouging, “has been impacting the entire supply chain from producers to consumers.” It was “government overspending” that not only “drove up prices” but “pushed up interest rates.” Price controls on groceries “would exacerbate the inflation Biden-Harris administration policies caused in the first place.” After playing “a key role in raising prices on corporations and consumers,” Harris now “attempts to blame hard-working business owners for the mess she helped cause.”
From the right: Harris at Her Worst
Kamala Harris’ “proposal to impose government price controls on private-sector businesses” is one of her worst ideas, warns USA Today’s Ingrid Jacques. “Democrats love to blame ‘greedy corporations’ for all the country’s ills, but the reality is much more complicated. And if they force the government further into the private marketplace, they’ll make things much worse for Americans,” causing higher prices and shortages. “It’s true that between 2019 and 2023, food prices rose 25%,” but “even the Biden-Harris Department of Agriculture targets blame to factors outside corporations’ control, from COVID-19 market disruptions to the war in Ukraine. Harris may want to look like she’s ‘doing something,’ but government interference isn’t the answer.” “Policymakers and bureaucrats will never be the best judges of what the right price is. That’s much better left to the free market.”
Eye on NY: Hochul’s Odd COVID-Report NDA
“The authors of a report on New York’s pandemic response are barred from discussing their findings with media under a provision of their contract with Governor Hochul’s office,” reports the Empire Center’s Bill Hammond. It bars the Olson Group from providing “news media information” without “written approval” from Hochul’s office. What’s she hiding? The $3.4 million report has drawn criticism “for its superficial research, copious factual errors and dubious analysis.” State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli last month said it “leaves us without answers” and “failed those who lost people in nursing homes who at the least want the deaths of their loved ones to have been counted.”
Libertarian: Dems Blow Off Windy City Warning
Chicago was an apt choice of location for Democrats’ convention, argues Reason’s Matt Welch, as the city “best exemplifies the chasm” between Dems’ “dreamy policy rhetoric and grim real-world results.” Thanks to “one-party misrule (there are zero Republicans on the 50-seat City Council), Chicago’s tax base is decreasing, not increasing. The population has declined for nine consecutive years, is shrinking by an annual rate of 1 percent, and is at its lowest point in more than a century.” Then again, Democrats’ “2024 campaign is famously more about ‘vibes’ than anything related to governance.” The Harris campaign still hasn’t released any policy platform, so “you’re going to have to vote for a Harris administration to see what’s in it.” Let’s hope it doesn’t look like Chicago.
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board
