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HAVERTOWN, Pa. — Corporate price gouging continues to be a major theme of Sen. Bob Casey’s (D-Pa.) re-election campaign, as the senator used a campaign stop Thursday to push back on critics of his “greedflation” campaign tactics.
“A lot of them have it wrong,” Casey told supporters Thursday morning at a bar in Delaware County, just west of Philadelphia, where activists outside the venue protested with signs and heckled “bad job Bob.”
“Even very smart editorial writers, opinion writers [have] got it wrong,” Casey added. “Read the bill.”
Casey co-sponsored the bill in question, his Price Gouging Prevention Act, along with Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) in February 2024.
According to Casey’s office, the bill would authorize a federal ban on “grossly excessive price increases” to be enforced by the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys-general.
Casey’s campaign has often focused on fighting what he calls “greedflation” and “shinkflation” — the idea that corporate actors acted in bad faith by “jacking up” prices during the post-COVID period of record inflation.
But multiple studies have disputed these claims, instead concluding that the excessive government spending authorized by Casey and other Democrats shoulders more of the blame for inflation.
This week, a PAC aligned with Casey’s GOP opponent Dave McCormick rolled out a 30-second ad using the senator’s own words against him on the issue, like when he dismissed his vote for the American Rescue Plan as having a “low risk” of worsening inflation.
The ad began airing Wednesday in the Pittsburgh area and three smaller markets across Pennsylvania: Harrisburg, Wilkes-Barre and Johnstown — the last of which will host a visit from former President Donald Trump on Friday.
Total ad spending in the race between Casey and McCormick is expected to reach $360 million, making Pennsylvania’s Senate election the most expensive of the 2024 cycle.
