Source: United States Senator for Ohio Rob Portman
December 14, 2021 | Portman Difference
In an interview this afternoon with Fox News’ Neil Cavuto, Senator Portman discussed his concerns with the Democrats’ reckless tax and spending bill, arguing that trillions in new spending and taxes will stifle economic growth, kill jobs, balloon the national debt, and increase inflation. Portman also highlighted the negative impact surging inflation is having on workers and middle-class families.
A transcript of the interview can be found below and you can also watch the interview here.
PORTMAN ON DEMOCRATS’ RECKLESS SPENDING AND RISING INFLATION:
“Well, what’s fascinating about that is our revenues are actually very high right now relative to where they have been. In other words, last quarter, it looks like our revenues may have been at a record level. So it’s not that we’re not taxing enough. We’re taxing a lot. And there’s a lot of uncertainty in the economy, so the more you tax the economy, the more you’re going to hurt working families. All the things that are in the so-called Build Back Better tax and spend extravaganza hurt working families.
“So the real issue is spending. It’s spending that has increased dramatically and the $1.9 trillion in March that was already spent is part of the problem. And now they want to make it even worse by once again overheating the economy with more stimulus spending that’s going to result in higher inflation. The American people get that because they’re going to the store, they’re going to the gas pump, they’re trying to buy clothes and everything is going up. You just had a great report from Susan Lee saying that it’s not only about the consumer prices going up, but now, as of the new numbers we just got last night, it is about the Producer Price Index at historic levels since we started keeping track of it over ten years ago. That means that this is upstream. That means this is not going to end soon and that businesses are raising their prices.”
PORTMAN ON THE NEED FOR THE FED TO BEGIN TAPERING:
“Well, I think they should start tapering as [Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell] has talked about. And you mentioned this a moment ago, the effect of that should be to raise interest rates slightly. But what’s going to happen eventually is with this kind of inflation, we’re going to have to do something. Raising interest rates is the obvious way to do it and has been successful in the past. You don’t want to do it too much because you don’t want to get to the stagflation of the late 1970s, early 1980s where you had low growth because interest rates were high double digits and also high inflation. It’s a double whammy.
“The best thing to do right now, Neil, though, is on the fiscal side. Let’s just take a pause. As Joe Manchin said wisely, let’s take a strategic pause. We’re in the middle of four things right now; incredibly high inflation, which will only be exacerbated by this. Record levels of debt, both in nominal terms but also as a percent of our economy, which is how you ought to look at it. And that’s really scary to all of us. Also, a lot of uncertainty because of COVID. We have a situation now where, unfortunately, the COVID situation doesn’t seem to be getting better, as we had all hoped. And then I would just say we’re in an uncertain time here in terms of a lot of other expenditures. Look at the natural disaster that just happened in Kentucky and other states around the Midwest and the South. Look at all the other natural disasters. We don’t have enough money in the FEMA bank to be able to handle all those.”
PORTMAN ON THE TRUE COST OF DEMOCRATS’ TAX AND SPENDING PLAN:
“…Whoever is talking about $1.7 trillion, because these things are all temporary, these spending programs, doesn’t realize that what Congress does when there’s a program like the Child Tax Credit is we tend to extend it year after year after year. That’s why the real cost of this, as the Congressional Budget Office just said, is closer to $5 trillion.”
…
“And there’s no better example of that than right now. So what’s happening today in the halls of Congress, Democrats are being pressured to vote for the Build Back Better legislation, why? Because at the end of this year, what expires? The Child Tax Credit.? So they’re pushing people to give that another year. What’s going to happen a year from now? What will be different?
“Once again, there’ll be the same pressure and it’s very likely to happen because that’s what happens around here. Meaning that the real cost of this legislation is far higher than advertised, and the revenue to try to pay for that is far lower than advertised. So it creates big deficits. But it also creates this issue where we’re adding more to inflation in an economy that is already suffering too much and it’s getting middle class families and lower income families are the ones taking the hit here.”
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