Former Trump administration official Kevin Hassett criticized Vice President Kamala Harris’s recent proposal during a Friday appearance on Fox News, labeling it as “absolute socialism.”

Harris is anticipated to unveil a plan to curb “price gouging” by corporations on groceries in a speech scheduled for Friday in North Carolina. The proposal, which includes “harsh penalties” to be enforced by the Federal Trade Commission, has sparked significant discussion, as reported by the New York Times.

Hassett argued that similar strategies have historically led to shortages in countries such as Cuba, Venezuela, and the Soviet Union.

“For an economist, this is about the most terrifying proposal I’ve ever seen. Because What Kamala Harris is saying is that the government needs to set the price of things and she’s starting with food, but I guess if they set the price of food, they might as well set the price of everything else,” Hassett told “Fox and Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade. “They’ve also come out, you might recall, the Biden administration saying that they want to set rents, they think rents are too high, so they’re going to have the government decide what the rent for your apartment should be. This is absolute socialism and it never ends well. If you go back and look at countries that have tried this, like Cuba, Venezuela, Ukraine back when the Soviet Union organized it, then it leads to famine and shortages.”

The vice president has attributed the rise in prices to corporations, accusing them of price gouging and linking it to inflation.

However, according to economists, the impact of corporate actions on increasing food costs is less significant compared to the effects of government stimulus measures and the low interest rates established by the Federal Reserve, as reported by the New York Times.

“I was just in Lisbon, Portugal, where they still have really aggressive rent control, and all of the apartments are empty because the people who own the buildings can’t afford to rent them to people because the rent is so low,” Hassett continued. “And so this is an absolute disaster, this is socialism at its highest, and the really chilling thing is, think about it, it is right before the Democratic National Convention, she is the nominee, she should be trying to moderate her positions to appeal to swing voters, and instead, she is going all in on socialism. So, what it means is these people are that way, these people really believe in socialism and want to change this country, and they are willing to say it up front right now, and it is astonishing she would do that.”