Misadventures in gutting antitrust law

Hard to believe anyone thinks this might be politically advantageous or legally sound, but there's some strange people out there.

As Kroger attempts to merge with Albertsons, this anticompetitve move is cheered by the elitist media, but you'd think elected officials would be more politically savvy than to support it. Yet a group of 12 Republican state attorneys general - including Ohio's Dave Yost - have filed a court brief claiming the FTC's antitrust powers are unconstitutional.

As with other recent weird legal theories, the legal logic of this is completely incomprehensible. But if this brief succeeds in court, government antitrust powers - which are already used much too little - will be essentially gutted altogether.

Even some Republicans have supported antitrust efforts in the past few years. Sometimes it was for reasons you might think are questionable, but broadly speaking, I would have supported these breakups, because competition is vital. Yost himself has even overseen some antitrust suits. But the new brief by the Republican attorneys general would stymie all of these breakups.

The move to gut antitrust law is mirrored by Project 2025, a policy document that consists mostly of right-wing ideas that have bobbed along for the past 45 years. Project 2025 has one good idea, which is to abolish the Department of Homeland Security. The rest of it stinks.

This comes after a recent FTC report said Kroger, Walmart, and Amazon have been taking advantage of supply chain disruptions to jack up prices. It started during COVID-19 and has continued ever since. Grocery price gouging is real. It's gone on since before then and has only gotten worse. Grocery prices have increased 25% in 4 years.

Antitrust enforcement is one of the most basic charges of government. And it's in danger.