WASHINGTON—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) today joined Your World With Neil Cavuto to discuss his questioning of Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell on rising inflation.
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Partial Transcript:
Hagerty on rising inflation: “I’m very concerned. [Chairman Powell] is talking about this as though a pig is moving through a python, and that it’s going to be past us. It’s temporary, it’s transitory. But a lot of the policies that are being put in place by the Biden Administration are long-term policies that are inherently inflationary. If you think about the Biden Administration’s first move to kick us out of the Keystone XL pipeline, to stop drilling on federal lands. All of this increases the price of energy. Every good that we buy has to be moved. Those goods are now inherently more expensive. You look at what’s happening to the housing market. Housing prices are up dramatically. If you look at people here in my home state of Tennessee, people are feeling this in a very real sense. The goods and the services that they’re purchasing have all become incredibly more expensive. If you look at the move, month over month, from last month to this, and annualize it, we’re talking about a 12 percent increase. The Fed has been talking about a long-term 2 percent goal in inflation, and that they’re willing to overshoot slightly, but we’re way beyond slide in this most recent number.”
Hagerty on Chairman Powell’s job performance: “I think that Chairman Powell understands the markets. He encountered an incredibly challenging time in 2020, and he kept a steady hand and he moved through that. What we’re seeing right now, though, I think is unprecedented territory. What I hope Chairman Powell will do is pay very close attention to the comments and the discussions that we had today. The concerns that we Republicans expressed on inflation. I hope that that will register with him. He’s got the tools to deal with this he said, and my hope is that he’ll look strongly at the balance sheet.”
Hagerty on how to deal with inflation: “The most important thing to do to deal with inflation is to stop this incredibly rampant and reckless stimulus spending. And again, the policies that the Biden Administration are putting into place that have, I think, long-term effects.”
Hagerty on stimulus spending: “This stimulative spending that the level of this that we’ve never seen before, we’re talking another $6 trillion. This has got to have a massively inflationary effect. This has laid right at President Biden’s doorstep, and they need to own it. And we need to stop accommodating this at the Fed and allowing this balance sheet expansion to go on that I think facilitates it significantly.”
Hagerty on tackling the deficit: “From a personal standpoint, one of the big reasons I came to this position half a year ago now, was to stand up and push back. We’re at a point where deficit spending is at an unsustainable level. Chairman Powell acknowledge that today. We’ve got to turn the corner. We’ve got to be pushing back on this deficit, because we’re leaving this to our children and our grandchildren. That’s inherently unfair. I think it’s immoral to do.”