Casey blames ‘scheming corporations’ for rising prices

(The Center Square) – The inflationary pressure squeezing taxpayers’ wallets comes from “scheming corporations," according to Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr.

During a five-minute speech on the final night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, the three-term senator told the crowd that rising prices on food and other necessities boils down to corporate greed.

“The corporations say your prices are up only because their costs are up,” Casey said as he reflected upon the $15 price spike for diapers over the last six months. “They are selling you a lie. It's in the bag with the diapers. Prices are up because these corporations are scheming to drive them up.”

The message comes just one day after the Department of Labor admitted overestimating job creation by 818,000 through the year ending in March , setting off alarm bells about the health of the economy and the Federal Reserve’s impending decision to lower or raise borrowing rates.

Although revisions happen, the figure is one-third lower than the original estimate of 2.9 million jobs, raising eyebrows among critics who worry about Vice President Kamala Harris’s ability to tackle the massive inflation spikes that have happened under the Biden administration’s watch.

A recent report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis found that Americans’ personal savings rate sank to 3.4% in June, down from nearly 20% in January 2021. Real disposable income per capita also shrank from 14% to 0.51%.

Data published in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Quarterly Report showed that credit card balances increased to a record $1.14 trillion in the second quarter of 2024. Household debt also hit $17.8 trillion, while delinquency rates for credit cards, auto loans and mortgages also rose.

Casey said Wednesday, however, that Harris and Democratic lawmakers will turn things around for taxpayers by supporting legislation to ban food price gouging and imposing harsher fines for corporations that cash in on crises like the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Most companies are good companies,” he said. “It’s the food conglomerates that sit behind the supermarkets, the faceless wholesalers, they’re the ones who are extorting families at the checkout counter. This is greedflation.”

Casey, who is seeking a fourth term in November against Republican challenger Dave McCormick, also credited Harris for backing a policy to lower the price of insulin to $35 per month in a victory over “big pharma.”