WASHINGTON—United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Banking and Appropriations Committees, today joined The Big Money Show on Fox Business to discuss this morning’s Banking Committee hearing with Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell as well as President Joe Biden’s upcoming budget request.
Partial Transcript
Hagerty on today’s Banking Committee hearing with Chair Powell discussing inflation: “I didn’t take the transitory argument at full faith, either. [Federal Reserve] Chair [Jay] Powell and I had these discussions back as early as the spring of 2021 when I argued, at that point, that [inflation] is not entirely transitory. Just look at the policies that this Administration has put in place, whether it be the failed policies against our fossil fuel industry, driving up energy costs, which are an input factor to every good and service that we buy or have to transport, or the massive amounts of stimulus money that got dumped into the economy starting in March of 2021. I’d say this, though: Chair Powell has come around to dealing with this in, I think, an appropriate manner. He’s been dealt a very tough hand, though, [from] the fiscal policies coming from this Administration, the fiscal gap that we’re driving here in terms of deficit spending, and we’ve still got more inflation in the pipeline. There are still unused pandemic stimulus funds that have yet to be deployed. So again, he’s got significant headwinds. What I heard today was a more hawkish posture. I think that means rates may find their way up to five, five and a half, five and three quarters percent range. It may happen sooner as well.”
Hagerty on the need to get inflation under control: “In Tennessee, people will tell you that inflation is a very real consideration. Everyone’s suffering, and it’s the most pernicious tax you can impose upon the economy because it hits everyone, people in the lower to middle-income brackets the hardest. You know, I would’ve been interested to see, and again, time is so limited in that exchange between Chair Powell and Senator [Elizabeth] Warren, if Senator Warren presented a hypothetical or Chairman Powell, he might have presented a hypothetical back to her. Again, he started that path. But what if the Fed were to do nothing? If we were to let inflation run out of control, I think the reckoning that we would see in the marketplace and on this economy would be absolutely devastating. So Chair Powell, again, as I said, has been dealt a tough hand, but he’s got to try to navigate this. He’s got to try to get inflation under control now.”
Hagerty on President Biden’s upcoming budget proposal likely to include more taxes and more spending: “That’s exactly the direction that this Administration has been driving us. And I expect to see [higher taxes and higher spending] on Thursday when we get the top-line numbers out—this quote, ‘skinny budget,’—not a lot of detail, but probably a lot more spending and a lot more taxation. I think the Biden plan will be to impose crippling taxes on hardworking Americans. That’s the only way to pay for this, for John Kerry to achieve his pipe dream on the green economy. He just as soon [would] cede the current economy in the tank to make it all happen. It’s not working right now. It’s certainly not working well for America. China, Russia, [and] Iran [are] laughing all the way to the bank as they step into the void and are seeing just incredible returns on their national resources. Meanwhile, you know, we are here in America waging war on our domestic oil and gas industry.”
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