'This Is A Really Bad Idea': Kevin O'Leary 'Stunned' By Kamala Harris's 'Toxic' Economic Plan - 'Bidenomics 2.0'

On Monday, O'Leary Ventures Chairman Kevin O'Leary slammed Vice President Kamala Harris' recent economic policy proposals during an appearance on Fox Business, describing the stunning price control policies as "Bidenomics 2.0." O'Leary, a prominent investor featured on "Shark Tank," informed the Fox audience that investors are "shocked" by the proposal.

"I've spoken with dozens of investors, and we're quite shocked just from the 30,000 feet. We thought Harris was going to reboot her whole position to the middle. The idea was to get the swing voters on board with her with a middle strategy. Instead, we're getting Bidenomics 2.0, which is a shock," O'Leary explained. "In addition to Bidenomics 2.0, if you look through the rally proposals, it's basically the same stuff they've been touting for the last 36 months. You've got this price control, price fixing, patina on top of it, which we know doesn't work."

"If you go back to the 70s, we tried this in the US. It was a disaster. Look at Venezuela today; North Korea or the old USSR tried this. It leads to black markets. It leads to a complete loss of freedom of goods and a breakdown of distribution. This is a really, really bad idea. I am so shocked that she's doing it. We're all shocked. We can't believe this is the platform," he continued. "We are almost stunned because this leads to a position where you are getting the same thing you had. Bidenomics as a brand is toxic waste to the swing voter. It's associated with inflation. All of these ideas are very inflationary."

Last week, the Harris campaign revealed that it would institute "the first-ever federal ban on price gouging on food and groceries—setting clear rules of the road to make clear that big corporations can't unfairly exploit consumers to run up excessive corporate profits on food and groceries." The Harris campaign's campaign against grocery stores is despite the fact that major grocers have made minimal, low-percent profit margins in recent years.

The Harris team pointed to the meat-packing companies as one segment of the food industry that is particularly consolidated, arguing that "the lack of competition gives these middlemen the power to drive down earnings for farmers while driving up prices for consumers." The vice president's proposal comes as she struggles to convince voters that she can be trusted to steer the economy in the right direction and attempts to distance herself from President Biden's economic record. The Democrat's policy team reportedly will lay out an initiative to help small businesses compete with the larger meat-packing corporations, which, Harris argues, have unfairly inflated prices since the COVID-19 Pandemic.

In addition to advocating for price controls, the Harris campaign revealed that it would support giving first-time homebuyers a $25,000 down payment, a plan that would certainly increase housing prices market-wide. "The Biden-Harris administration proposed providing $25,000 in downpayment assistance for 400,000 first-generation home buyers -- or homebuyers whose parents don't own a home -- and a $10,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers," the Harris campaign said in a statement. "This plan will significantly simplify and expand the reach of down-payment assistance, allowing over 1 million first-time-buyers per year – including first-generation home buyers – to get the funds they need to buy a house when they are ready to buy it."