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Vice President Kamala Harris has finally begun to discuss elements of her economic plans should she defeat former President Donald Trump in November, but they are getting a lot of heat, including from allies and members of her own party.

One of her proposals, which seeks to make it easier for first-time homebuyers to purchase a home, would provide $25,000 in taxpayer funds to assist with down payments.

“Many Americans work hard at their jobs, save, and pay their rent on time month after month. But they can’t save enough after paying their rent and other bills to save for a down payment — denying them a shot at owning a home and building wealth,” the campaign said in a statement.

“As the Harris-Walz plan starts to expand the supply of entry-level homes, they will, during their first term, provide working families who have paid their rent on time for two years and are buying their first home up to $25,000 in down-payment assistance, with more generous support for first-generation homeowners,” the statement said.

But the plan immediately received pushback, with many observers claiming that home sellers would simply boost the price of their offering by $25,000. Others noted that the taxpayer-funded handouts would also grow an already immense national debt.

According to a statement on the website of House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri, “The monthly mortgage payment for a median priced new home has increased by $970 and is 85 percent higher than when President Biden and Vice President Harris took office in January 2021.”

“Under the Biden-Harris Administration, prices are 20 percent higher, paychecks don’t cover as much, and buying a house is now a luxury even fewer can afford. None of these failures would be possible without Vice President Harris,” Smith added.

Harris has also proposed giving the federal and state governments authority to “crack down” on “price gouging” by grocers, ostensibly to lower food prices. “My plan will include new penalties for opportunistic companies that exploit crises and break the rules,” Harris said.

However, critics pointed out such a policy would quickly lead to shortages as it would drive the majority of small-to-mid-size grocery stores and chains out of business.

“There’s just one issue: Harris’ proposal could create more problems than the one it’s trying to solve, some economists say. Gavin Roberts studied anti-price gouging laws some states passed during the pandemic. One of the biggest effects he observed, especially at grocery stores, was that these laws motivated people ‘to go buy goods more than they would if prices had risen,’” CNN reported.

“And while Harris claims her proposal ‘will help the food industry become more competitive,’ Roberts said it would do just the opposite. ‘It’s more likely to maintain that status quo,’ he said because it would keep new competition from moving in to take advantage of the bigger profit margins — competition that could have helped lower prices in the long run,” the report continued.

“This is not sensible policy, and I think the biggest hope is that it ends up being a lot of rhetoric and no reality,” Obama administration economist Jason Furman told The New York Times. “There’s no upside here, and there is some downside.”

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