Kevin O’Leary: Here’s Why Kamala Harris’ Proposed Economic Plans Won’t Work
Written by
Gabrielle Olya
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Chris Cluff
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Presidential candidate Kamala Harris has begun rolling out her economic plans, including proposals to ban corporate price gouging on food at grocery stores and provide $25,000 in down payment assistance to first-time homebuyers. While these proposals may appeal to those struggling to afford groceries or buy a home, not everyone believes these plans will actually work — including “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary.
“Let me set the table first,” he told CNN. “I don’t actually care who wins the White House. What I care about [is] what the policy is. Because I’m an investor, I have to put capital to work regardless of [who is] in the White House. So I really, really care about what Harris says and what [Donald] Trump says about potential policy.”
Here’s why O’Leary doesn’t believe Harris’ economic policies are sound.
Attempts To Curb Price Gouging Don’t Actually Work
According to O’Leary, other countries have attempted to stop price gouging, but these attempts have not been successful in practice.
“They tried that in Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, the USSR,” he said. “That’s not going to work.”
Furthermore, O’Leary doesn’t see how Harris could actually implement this policy.
“It’s impossible to understand how a corporation would set pricing based on gouging,” he said. “What does that even mean? That’s why it’s being ridiculed.”
The Down Payment Assistance Program Could Cause Inflation
O’Leary is also not a fan of Harris’ proposal to provide $25,000 in down payment assistance to first-time homebuyers, believing this policy would cause more harm than good.
“There are bad ideas; bad, bad ideas, and really bad ideas, and that falls into this category,” he said. “When you get $25,000 to anybody in a constrained market, you cause inflation. So if there’s three houses for sale on the street and everybody bidding on it gets another $25,000, all of that attributes to the seller, and you cause the price of the house to go up because there’s no supply.”
Harris’ other proposal to ease the housing affordability crisis by building 3 million new homes over the next four years was also shot down by O’Leary.
“Everybody knows in real estate — that’s what I do for a living — that it’s not controlled by federal mandate,” O’Leary said. “Housing is state by state. She can do nothing to solve that problem. There’s no way she’s building 3 million houses. Where? Which state is going to give her that mandate?”
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