COMMENTARY: Lina Khan taking her reign of terror to Mamdani’s NYC

The same politicians who swore that inflation was “transitory” during the last presidential administration have suddenly found religion on the issue of “affordability.” Emboldened by recent election victories in three blue bastions of America, the left is licking its chops at its perceived political good fortunes. You can’t turn on a left-leaning cable station without encountering a liberal talking a big game on the cost of living, while ignoring their role in the situation.

Nowhere is this trend more evident than in the election of Zohran Mamdani as New York City’s next mayor. The mainstream media credited the self-avowed democratic socialist for elevating the issue of affordability, while looking the other way on details of paying for government-controlled rent, buses and grocery stores.

A basic understanding of economics, combined with a cursory glance at a history book, tells us that socialism doesn’t work — a sad lesson that the taxpayers and businesses of New York City are poised to learn the painful way.

Even before taking the oath of office, Mamdani has already broken his word to his constituents with some of his high-profile personnel decisions. To chair his transition, Mamdani selected Lina Khan, the scandal-ridden former Federal Trade Commission chair in the Biden administration.

For those hoping Khan’s reign of terror, leading what’s intended to be an independent and nonpartisan agency, had been a temporary blip, it was an ominous sign. Khan took an agency that few had ever heard of and weaponized it against American innovation. She filed lawsuits, launched investigations and demonized success. She went after one retailer for purportedly setting prices too high after previously criticizing the same company for setting prices too low. Her conduct spurred multiple congressional investigations, not to mention plummeting morale among FTC employees.

Now, she is advising the incoming mayor of America’s largest city, home of Wall Street and the epicenter of capitalism.

In Khan’s worldview, a private-sector company that has reached a certain size and scale is not to be admired or respected, but rather viewed with disdain and outright hostility. She may not embrace the socialist label as openly and freely as Mamdani, but make no mistake: She shares his radical and wild-eyed ideology.

Take the price of food. Mamdani has called for at least one city-run grocery store in each of the city’s five boroughs. He claims the price tag would be $60 million.

As FTC chair, Khan led the successful blockade of a merger between supermarket chains Kroger and Albertsons. The grocers claimed that, united, they would be able to challenge leaders such as Walmart (which owns almost 25 percent of the market). Competition leads to lower prices. Ever suspicious of private business, Khan argued that the merger would not lead the stores to pass on the savings to consumers, and the deal was eventually scuttled.

Or take transportation. Mamdani wants free buses, again paid for through higher taxes and fees, including an additional 2 percentage point income tax hike on New York’s top earners who already pay the third-highest tax rate in the nation.

As FTC chair, Khan’s colleagues in the Department of Justice dealt consumers seeking more affordable airline options a blow by blocking a proposed merger between Spirit Airlines and JetBlue. Eventually, the agreement fell apart, sending Spirit spiraling into bankruptcy, with CNN noting that the company’s “severe financial hardship” has affected consumer fares this holiday season.

Sensing the pattern between overzealous regulation by government and negative outcomes for consumers? Even the popular iRobot, manufacturer of the Roomba vacuum, wasn’t safe. Khan opposed Amazon’s purchase attempt, which led to the merger collapsing. Forced to abandon its plans for acquisition, Massachusetts-based iRobot had to cut one-third of its workforce, and has struggled to find even ground since, with the company barreling toward Chapter 11.

As a result, Chinese companies have filled the void in the “global robotic vacuum cleaner market,” as Nikkei Asia reported, noting that in the first quarter of this year, “the world’s top four consumer smart vacuum companies were all from China, overtaking American pioneer iRobot.”

To be sure, the cost-of-living crisis is real in America right now, and conservatives would be wise to take it seriously. That does not mean embracing the policies championed by the ringleaders of Bidenomics, as certain conservatives have done under the moniker “Khanservatives.” A more appropriate term would be “Khanmunism” because that’s what Lina Khan represents. At least Zohran Mamdani is willing to admit it.

Ronna McDaniel is chairman of the Competitiveness Coalition and a former chair of the Republican National Committee. She wrote this for InsideSources.com.