O’Leary Ventures chairman Kevin O’Leary reacts to housing costs soaring under the Biden-Harris administration on ‘Kudlow.’
Vice President Kamala Harris has yet to unveil her policies as the Democratic presidential candidate, but her “insane” and “un-American” economic proposals may be a dealbreaker for “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary.
The “Shark” investor and O’Leary Ventures chairman did not mince words during his appearance on “Kudlow” on Wednesday as he assessed the list of actions the Harris campaign has rolled out in recent weeks.
In an effort to combat the country’s unaffordable housing crisis, Harris proposed giving an average of $25,000 assistance to all first-time homebuyers.
According to the vice president, assistance would be given to more than 4 million people over four years if she were to win the election.
HARRIS SAYS HER ECONOMIC PLAN WILL ‘PAY FOR ITSELF’
O’Leary criticized the “crazy notion,” arguing that “$25,000 free helicopter money is insane” and will “never happen.”
“Think about it. You have a shortage. You then flush more helicopter money from the sky. You cause inflation because if you’re the seller of a house and you’ve got 15 bids and you know that person has just received $25,000, you up your price 25,000, the price just went up,” he stressed.
Despite Democrats looking to quell Americans’ homeownership concerns, O’Leary explained that “massive supply” problems and “punitive” regulatory policies must be addressed to “get more supply on the market.”
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But Harris isn’t just focusing on the first-time buyer. The vice president also offered a solution for rising rental costs — price controls.
“There’s a huge problem with that,” O’Leary said while discussing the “Soviet-style pricing” fix. “Here’s what happens to the price control building. No CapEx [Capital Expenditures], no maintenance. It starts to fall apart. There’s no incentive for the landowner or the person who built the building to ever spend another dime on it. They just slowly crumble,” he described.
The O’Leary Ventures chairman went on to add that controlling prices would not only distort markets but cause inflation, reduce supply and cause the CapEx on buildings to collapse.
“I don’t know where these ideas are coming from. These are really bad ideas,” O’Leary stressed.
Reports from The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have said that Harris supports the tax increases put forth by Biden in his recent budget proposal. This, according to Harris’ campaign, includes a 25% tax on unrealized capital gains for individuals with more than $100 million in wealth, and an increased corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%.
“Of all the suggestions I’ve heard on taxation, I find that the most offensive,” O’Leary said while discussing the administration’s “un-American” plan to tax unrealized gains.
“Let’s say our business went from being worth 10 million to 20 million over five years. Where am I going to come up with 3 or $4 million cash that I don’t even have, that I never had? I mean when you really start thinking pragmatically about these ideas, you understand how bad they are,” he expressed, arguing that it “makes no sense whatsoever.”
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The vice president has recently been criticized for not unveiling any presidential policies as she’s set to appear in her first pre-recorded interview on CNN on Thursday night.
“We’re all waiting for policy because there’s a 50/50 chance that Harris is the president. I’m okay with that. I just need to understand, what’s her policy?” O’Leary told FOX Business’ David Asman.
“And I’ve never seen a candidate in my life that doesn’t do live interviews with the press. I mean, this is unprecedented where they would ask those questions. I’m very uncomfortable about it, and I’m very vocal about it. I’ve been saying, ‘come out, come out, wherever you are and talk to the press. Live, live, live,’” he said.
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FOX Business’ Breck Dumas and Eric Revell and Fox News’ Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.