‘We’re going to fight back’: Casey and Warren tackle corporate price gouging

Lisa Peoples-Crafton, a registered nurse from Wyndmoor in Montgomery County, once had money to save for vacations. Now, Peoples-Crafton needs to set aside much of her paycheck to afford groceries and other necessities for herself and her family.

“I’m also concerned about the cost of groceries, especially since I have a family, with my children still with me and my grandchild,” Peoples-Crafton said. “Our prices have increased so much that our shopping costs a lot now.”

Peoples-Crafton was one of about 250 people who gathered to see U.S. Sens. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts address corporate greed and rising consumer costs at Temple University’s Ambler campus on Sept. 20. During the campaign event for Casey, the three-term Democratic incumbent who’s running against Republican Dave McCormick in the November election, the two senators said increasing consumer costs are rooted in corporations hiking up prices and blaming it on inflation while making record profits. Casey and Warren refer to this as “greedflation.”

Both senators urged their colleagues to pass legislation they co-sponsored and introduced earlier this year, the Price Gouging Prevention Act. The bill would create a federal ban on what its text calls “grossly excessive” price increases and authorize the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general to enforce the ban.

“You see with all kinds of food and grocery stores people paying more, and these big corporations are laughing all the way to the bank,” Casey said.

The Pennsylvania senator pointed out that from July 2020 through July 2022, inflation rose by 14%. Meanwhile, corporate profits increased by more than 74%, nearly five times the rate of inflation, according to data from the Federal Reserve. While inflation has started to cool and food prices have started dropping, a report from the Pew Research Center said that Americans remain concerned about the cost of food prices and other consumer goods.

Food prices began to climb in 2020 as the COVID pandemic strained the economy, with food costs rising by about 3.5% in 2020 and 3.8% in 2021, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported. Food prices rose by 9.9% in 2022 as the avian flu affected egg and chicken prices and the war in Ukraine resulted in high energy costs, the USDA said.

Food price growth slowed in 2023, increasing by 5.8%, and those numbers are expected to keep dropping in 2024, according to the report.

However, it’s not just the avian flu and the war in Ukraine that are causing higher food prices, Casey and Warren said; it’s corporations raising prices and blaming it on inflation when the real culprit is corporate greed.

“We’re talking about the big guys here,” Casey said. “I’m not talking about small grocers. We’re talking about the biggest conglomerates in the world that are jacking up prices with impunity, and we’re not going to take it anymore. We’re going to fight back and hold them accountable.”

Warren, who has repeatedly called out corporate leaders for raising food prices, criticized corporations for taking advantage of higher costs in a global economy strained by war and pandemic.

“They looked over and said, Hmm, inflation; everybody’s talking about prices going up,” Warren said. “Well, as long as they’re talking about prices going up, instead of just passing along those price increases, which would have had an increase but would have been modest, huh, this is our big chance. We can jerk our prices even higher and raise our overall profits.”

“That’s price gouging, and that is why we are fighting that,” Warren continued.

The Massachusetts senator lauded Casey’s work to address corporate price gouging. Since last November, Casey has issued a series of reports focused on corporate price hikes and ways to stop them, including with the Price Gouging Prevention Act. At a Senate subcommittee hearing on the matter chaired by Casey in July, Pennsylvania residents and others detailed how rising consumer costs are harming them economically.

“This is about concentration of corporate power,” Warren said at the forum on Sept. 20. “Nobody has spoken more eloquently about this than Sen. Casey, and the focus on grocery stores and gas pumps.”

During the conversation, which was moderated by Democratic state Sen. Maria Collett, Warren criticized Casey’s opponent. McCormick is a former head of a Connecticut-based hedge fund.

“What this fight is all about is you can elect a hedge fund guy to go to Washington to watch out for — I don’t think it’s going to be you,” Warren said. “To watch out for the other hedge fund guys, to watch out for big investors, to watch out for private equity. Or you can elect somebody, once again, like Bob Casey, who is in this fight for you.”

Should Republicans win control of the White House and Congress in November, it would be disastrous for families’ finances, Warren told reporters following the event.

“If you think price gouging is bad now, wait until the Republicans are in charge of the White House and Congress to see what dominant corporations can do to the average American family,” Warren said. “We are in this fight because we just want a level playing field, a place where people can come in and buy things and know that they’re in a competitive market, not a place where giant corporations can squeeze every single last consumer for every last nickel in their pockets.”

The senators’ discussion of price gouging resonated with Pennsylvanians who attended the event. Yvonne Davis, a retiree from Wyndmoor, said she attended the forum specifically because of her economic concerns.

“I came out because of the inflation — the greedflation is so rapid out here,” Davis said. “Gas is high; shopping is crazy, so I’m not comfortable with moving to anything other than Democratic. Absolutely — Bob Casey, Kamala Harris. Up and down, I will be voting for Democrats.”

Others came out less for specific economic reasons and more because they wanted to show their support for Casey, Warren and other Democrats as the Nov. 5 election nears.

“I think the outcome of this election is going to determine the whole future of the country,” said Karen Martin, a retiree from Upper Dublin. “Pennsylvania is an extremely important state, and the issues that they’ve talked about today are the critical issues that I think people needed to hear about.”