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Democrats revive a once-taboo idea: Capping grocery prices
Washington Post ^ | February 19, 2026 | Julie Z. Weil

Posted on 03/26/2026 4:53:52 PM PDT by grundle

On Thursday, the Center for American Progress, a prominent left-leaning think tank that often cultivates policy ideas later adopted by the Democratic Party, proposed a two-year freeze on the prices of 22 food items, such as strawberries and steak.

“Price caps interfere with the very basics of a capitalist economy,” said Steven Kaimin, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute who read the Center for American Progress paper before its publication. “Maybe it’s impossible to produce eggs at $3. Maybe the cost of producing them is $3.50. In which case the eggs come off the market entirely, or … only the cheapest producers can sell at $3, and then the supermarket puts them out at $3, and they sell an hour later, and everybody else goes and sees empty shelves.”

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: emptyshelves; grocery; pricefreeze
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To: grundle

Why don’t we call this what it is?
Democrats who don’t work or produce much
can’t pay the going rate and want to
stick the rest of us with their failures.
Prices are going to go up per Democrat
government produced auto inflation.
I have never figured out why any price
inflation is good for the economy.
I always thought
increased efficiency and cheaper
prices were good things.

In any event EFF the Democrats!
If gas floats to $8 per gallon
so be it. Markets will adjust
Democrats will suffer, I won’t.


21 posted on 03/26/2026 5:36:45 PM PDT by rellic
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To: grundle

If they do that then we will have empty shelves.


22 posted on 03/26/2026 5:40:36 PM PDT by arthurus (-l| covfeve |l)
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To: grundle

Yes because they’re communists. 🙄


23 posted on 03/26/2026 5:43:53 PM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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To: grundle

Egg shortage coming. Buy TP Now! :)


24 posted on 03/26/2026 5:50:00 PM PDT by Cold Heart
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To: grundle

My wife was working at Montgomery Ward days before price controls were instituted. The management had everybody in the store with their little sticker guns marking everything up in the store in anticipation of price controls. Instant 10% inflation.


25 posted on 03/26/2026 5:58:06 PM PDT by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60s, you weren't really there)
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To: Georgia Girl 2

Pinochet had the right idea for dealing with commies.


26 posted on 03/26/2026 6:07:51 PM PDT by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as )
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To: ChuckHam

Exactly.


27 posted on 03/26/2026 6:09:18 PM PDT by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as )
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To: grundle

For basic foodstuffs the capitalist system works quite well.

To be able to get a dozen eggs for $1.66 is quite a feat.


28 posted on 03/26/2026 6:21:38 PM PDT by Brian Griffin
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To: grundle

It was tried in the early 70’s.


29 posted on 03/26/2026 6:30:44 PM PDT by ImJustAnotherOkie (... )
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To: grundle

YES. Do it. Come one democrats.... Cap those prices.

FYI. I just bought four dozen eggs. 99 cents a dozen. Gonna eat one, pickle two, and freeze the other. They work great scrambled raw then put in ice cue trays.


30 posted on 03/26/2026 7:03:47 PM PDT by Organic Panic ('Was I molested. I think so' - Ashley Biden in response to her father joining her in the sho)
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To: grundle

Empty shelves strategy.


31 posted on 03/26/2026 7:19:22 PM PDT by anton
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To: grundle

Price caps cause shortages. This is Economics 101.


32 posted on 03/26/2026 7:28:45 PM PDT by Petrosius
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To: rbg81

Since this is about prices, I’ll tell you about one little trick I saw at Walmart. Won’t mmention the item, but to say I paid $1.64 for it. On the shelf it was marked down from about $2.64. Truth of the matter was that I used to pay(possibly a year ago) $1.00. I guess they were trying to make you think you were getting a bargain instead of a shafting & didn’t figure anybody kept track of past prices. Now, I have to wonder if they were also doing this on other items. This is the first time I had noticed this little deviation.


33 posted on 03/26/2026 7:31:30 PM PDT by oldtech
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To: grundle

Another once-taboo item: bring back the poor black slaves that Demoncrats loved.


34 posted on 03/26/2026 7:35:08 PM PDT by Mark (I enjoy checking DONORS' lists)
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To: grundle

Brilliant! Government is much of the problem and more government is their solution.


35 posted on 03/26/2026 7:38:28 PM PDT by Irenic
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To: grundle
I have lived within walking distance of two major grocery chain stores for the last 20 years.

Since Trump was elected, the usual sales competition between those two stores has completely vanished.

Store prices increase at both stores, almost automatically, every couple months.

Modestly priced chain store substitute brands have almost all disappeared from the shelves.

This is an affluent urban neighborhood, so Home Delivery may also have some impact.

On the other hand, I suspect that corporate leadership have silently agreed to relentlessly increase prices - then - blame the inflation on Trump, with plenty of help from the Hard Left news media.

36 posted on 03/26/2026 7:46:52 PM PDT by zeestephen (Trump Landslide? Kamala lost the election by 230,000 votes, in WI, MI, and PA.)
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To: grundle

There will be plenty of Freepers soon enough whining for export bans on oil and natural gas which is another form of price caps. We will hear no end to “our oil” and “natural gas” should not be sold overseas. It s coming along with grain exports.

We already restrict imports in the name of preserving “our jobs”. Why not exports?


37 posted on 03/26/2026 7:59:10 PM PDT by FreedomNotSafety
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To: FreedomNotSafety

I guess you are globalist Free TRAITOR. Exporting oil is muy stupido.


38 posted on 03/26/2026 8:01:13 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn. .. )
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To: FreedomNotSafety
Just so you know the nation econmic base was built on protectionism. Like the Democrats, you hate our founding fathers because every last one was a protectionist.
39 posted on 03/26/2026 8:02:56 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn. .. )
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To: FreedomNotSafety
There will be plenty of Freepers PATRIOTS soon enough pushing for a sensical export ban on oil
40 posted on 03/26/2026 8:06:17 PM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn. .. )
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