'Bar Rescue's' Jon Taffer shreds Kamala Harris' price control proposal: 'It's a nightmare'
Vice President Kamala Harris' proposed 28% corporate tax rate and plan to control prices on goods could lead the U.S. to "catastrophe," "Bar Rescue" host Jon Taffer warned FOX Business viewers on Tuesday.
"It's a nightmare," he told Stuart Varney.
"Think of the hamburgers… there's thousands of different hamburgers a restaurant can buy… Every blend, every type you can think about. So, she has to send an analyst in to price every type of hamburger. Then the ranchers' costs can't go up. His price for feed [and] electronics must remain the same, so he can sell it to the processing plant. Then the processing plant's cost can't go up. They have to stay exactly the same – fuel, equipment, transportation, labor."
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"Then when it goes to the distributor, his costs can't go up. Fuel distribution, unions, all the other costs associated with his business. Then the restaurant gets the hamburger in a price-controlled way," he added.
Harris announced her plan to institute a "federal ban on price gouging on food and groceries" as president in an attempt to stop "big corporations" from taking advantage of consumers, last Wednesday.
The idea has raised eyebrows across different industries in the days since, with investors like Kevin O'Leary, financial gurus like Dave Ramsey and even among left-wing mainstream media outlets questioning the outcome of such policies if implemented.
Taffer, who has helped a number of struggling businesses regain footing, is focusing on how such policies might impact the restaurant industry.
"What about the bun? What about the tomato? What about the lettuce? What about the ketchup? What happens then? I mean, it becomes absurd," he said.
"You cannot accomplish this, and when we look at past countries that have done this, shortages happen. If the bun guy can't make money, he stops making buns. So the supply side impact is massive. It's an absurd premise. The fact that it's being presented as a policy is as absurd as the premise itself."
Harris also proposed a 28% corporate tax rate, a reversal on Trump-era cuts.
She touted the plan as a "fiscally responsible way to put money back in the pockets of working people," but Taffer is none too thrilled about the idea.
"That's taking 7% of the profits that we make out of our pockets. Those dollars are used for upgrades, for remodeling, for employee raises, for systems, for marketing, research and development, all of these things," he said.
"A communist country, China, is 3% lower than us. So, from the business standpoint, it's a disaster. We're going to see reductions in payroll, reductions in other ways, price increases, things to offset that impact. From an American standpoint, how do we compete in a global marketplace when our companies are paying a higher tax rate than our largest competitor that is a communist government…"
"It destroys business on a local basis, and it weakens America's economy on a global basis. These are policies that make no sense. When you start to put these things together, words like ‘catastrophe’ appear, and that's the most horrifying of all."
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Fox News' Gabriel Hays contributed to this report.