As soon as Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) accepted former President Donald Trump’s vice presidential invitation, the media began digging through his digital history for politically embarrassing episodes. Among the ephemeral cat-lady blips and dressing-in-drag bloops, they unearthed at least one concerning thing of substance: a statement that Vance believed President Joe Biden’s Federal Trade Commission, which is under the leadership of Chairwoman Lina Khan, a former staffer at the left-wing New America, is doing a “pretty good job.”
By running headlines based on these now half-year-old comments from the Ohio senator, these media outlets sought to paint the Trump-Vance ticket as either hypocritical for criticizing Biden’s economic policies or just an endorser of the status quo. Both of these framings are improbable, given how sharply the Trump FTC’s record and enforcement priorities under former Chairs Maureen Ohlhausen and Joseph Simons contrast with those of the Biden FTC under Khan. Nevertheless, now seems to be as good of a time as any to recount just how destructive Khan’s lawless agenda has been to the economy.
For years, the FTC used what’s known as the “consumer welfare standard” to limit its regulatory footprint. This standard, popularized by Robert Bork in his 1978 book The Antitrust Paradox, ensured that the FTC only acts when business activity harms consumers by increasing prices or reducing quality and innovation.
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Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow and director of Constitutional Studies at the Manhattan Institute. Follow him on Twitter here.
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