SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
martin heinrich
Dems in Congress Vow to Fight 'Inflationary Policies' of Trump
"Make no mistake: imposing new tariffs, mass deportations, and politicizing the Federal Reserve will lead to skyrocketing prices," said the Joint Economic Committee chair.
Nov 13, 2024
Leading Democratic lawmakers used new federal inflation data on Wednesday to renew their warnings about the economic threat posed by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and pledge to keep fighting for working America—despite minorities in Congress.
"Democrats continue to fight to lower costs, and we saw promising signs last month that the cost of energy, groceries, and new vehicles stabilized. But with President-elect Trump in office, the reality for Americans' finances will become bleak," said Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), chair of the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee (JEC).
Throughout Trump's campaign against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, JEC Democrats released reports warning about Project 2025, a sweeping far-right policy plan for the next Republican president. Although Trump tried at times to distance himself from the Heritage Foundation-led initiative, it was crafted by at least 140 people who served in his first administration—and since Election Day, there have been clear signals from the president-elect's allies that "yeah actually Project 2025 is the agenda."
Heinrich said that "Trump and Republicans have led Americans to believe that their policies will lower costs, but make no mistake: imposing new tariffs, mass deportations, and politicizing the Federal Reserve will lead to skyrocketing prices. And that's only a sample of the inflationary policies Republicans have laid out in their Project 2025 playbook."
"Democrats have built a strong economy with smart policies that empower workers, grow the middle class, and lower costs for families. Meanwhile, Trump's policies will only help his CEO friends and ultimately lead to a weaker economy," he continued. "Democrats' commitment to families will not end because of a new Trump administration. We'll continue fighting to ease the financial burdens on families and ensure everyone across the country feels relief."
"American families cannot afford more Republican 'trickle-down' economics that throws the middle class under the bus while slashing taxes for billion-dollar corporations."
Congressman Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), ranking member of the House Budget Committee, responded similarly to the consumer price index (CPI) data on Wednesday, declaring, "Make no mistake: Trump's tariffs are taxes by another name—and it is hard-working American families who will pay the price."
"While today's report continues to show the progress we've made under the Biden-Harris administration, CEOs are already talking about raising prices for consumers in response to Trump's tax hikes," Boyle noted.
NPRreported last week that "forecasters at Pantheon Macroeconomics project that a 10% tariff would increase inflation by about 0.8 percentage points next year and impose an additional drag on U.S. manufacturers." Companies warning of price hikes if Trump's tariffs are implemented include AutoZone, Columbia Sportswear, and Stanley Black & Decker.
"I am deeply concerned that Trump's plans will force Americans to pay higher prices for everything from clothing to groceries," Boyle said. "American families cannot afford more Republican 'trickle-down' economics that throws the middle class under the bus while slashing taxes for billion-dollar corporations."
Steven Mnuchin, Trump's former treasury secretary, recently toldCNBC that tariffs, sanctions on Iran, and tax cuts will be top issues for Trump—despite Congressional Budget Office analysis that extending tax cuts the Republican passed in his first term to serve wealthy individuals and corporations would add $4.6 trillion to the national deficit.
"The top priority is extending the Trump tax cuts and the signature part of his program. I think that should be easy to pass in Congress, particularly if the Republicans control the House as well," Mnuchin said last week. Since then, decision desks have confirmed Republicans will retain their House majority, in addition to seizing control of the Senate and Oval Office.
Senate Republicans elected Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) as their next leader on Wednesday, just hours after the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that, as expected, the CPI increased 0.2% in October and prices grew 2.6% over the last year. Economists said the data means the Federal Reserve will likely cut interest rates again next month.
Trump is set to be inaugurated in January and has suggested he may try to oust Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whom he appointed in 2017, despite legal barriers. Powell—who has faced criticism from some economists and progressive lawmakers for holding off on rate cuts for so long, at the expense of the working class—seems prepared to fight for his job.
As Fortunereported Monday:
During a news briefing on Thursday after the Fed cut rates, Powell was asked if he would resign if Trump demanded it, and Powell simply replied "no." Later he was asked if he thought a president has the authority to fire or demote a Fed chair or other Fed official in a leadership post, and Powell said, "Not permitted under the law."
That exchange prompted Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) to post on X, "The executive branch should be under the direction of the president. That's how the Constitution was designed. The Federal Reserve is one of many examples of how we've deviated from the Constitution in that regard. Yet another reason why we should #EndTheFed.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk... then reposted it with a "100" emoji that indicates strong support.
Amid a wave of Cabinet picks, Trump announced Tuesday that Musk—the world's richest person and a leading supporter of his campaign—and fellow billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy will lead the not-yet-created Department of Government Efficiency, which will work to "dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies."
As Common Dreamsreported, Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the watchdog group Public Citizen, responded to the news by warning that "'cutting red tape' is shorthand for getting rid of the safeguards that protect us in order to benefit corporate interests."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Fed 'Waited Too Long' But Finally Cut Interest Rates
"The Fed must continue to cut rates aggressively in the coming months to prevent a slowing labor market and provide much-needed relief to people who are bearing the brunt of high interest rates," said one economist.
Sep 18, 2024
Economists and working-class people across the United States on Wednesday welcomed the Federal Reserve's decision to cut its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point as an incredibly overdue and necessary move.
In line with signals from Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech last month, the Federal Open Market Committee lowered the federal funds rate by half a percentage point to 4.74-5%, the first cut "since March 2020 when Covid-19 was hammering the economy," as The Associated Pressnoted. Additional cuts are expected over the next two years.
"Finally," wrote Kenny Stancil, a senior researcher at the Revolving Door Project and former Common Dreams staff writer, in a blog post. "The Fed should have provided interest rate relief months ago. While this overdue move is welcome, we must reiterate that Powell's deferral of interest rate cuts has hurt the clean energy transition and inflicted other economic harms."
Lawmakers and experts, including Groundwork Collaborative chief economist Rakeen Mabud, have long called for rate cuts and highlighted the harms of refusing to pursue them.
"Today's rate cut is a step in the right direction, but only a first step," said Mabud in a statement Wednesday. "The Fed must continue to cut rates aggressively in the coming months to prevent a slowing labor market and provide much-needed relief to people who are bearing the brunt of high interest rates."
Center for Economic and Policy Research senior economist Dean Baker also welcomed that the Fed is changing course, saying: "This is a belated recognition that the battle against inflation has been won. Contrary to the predictions of almost all economists, including those at the Fed, this victory was won without a major uptick in unemployment."
"Unfortunately, the Fed waited too long to make this turn," Baker continued. "As a result, the unemployment rate has drifted higher. While there is little basis for concerns about a recession, if the unemployment rate is 0.5 percentage points higher than it needs to be, that translates into 800,000 people out of work who want jobs."
"It is good that the Fed has now recognized the weakening of the labor market and responded with an aggressive cut," he added. "Given there is almost no risk of rekindling inflation, the greater boost to the labor market is largely costless. Also, it will help to spur the housing market where millions of people have put off selling homes because of high mortgage rates."
Liz Zelnick of Accountable.US similarly stressed the benefits, saying that "while it should have come sooner, the Fed's interest rate cut will ease some burden for many Americans that found it simply too expensive to buy new homes or cars."
"Fortunately, the Fed's aggressive interest rate strategy defied odds and did not spur a recession as the economy continues to grow hundreds of thousands of jobs every month while wages are rising," she said. "Persistently high interest rates were never going to get at the root of the corporate price gouging epidemic that has needlessly kept prices high on many necessities—a problem that is on Congress to fix."
Some members of Congress who have been pushing for rate cuts also applauded the belated action—including Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), chair of the Joint Economic Committee.
"Let's be clear: Today's decision is a big win for families across the country," he declared. "Lower rates mean that more families will be able to buy a home or a car without high interest payments looming over them, and their credit card bills will go down."
"But there is still work to be done," he said. "I will continue to work with my colleagues to fight for policies that raise wages, strengthen our economy, create new jobs, and lower prices for families in New Mexico and across the country."
Congressman Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), ranking member of the House Budget Committee, has also criticized the central bank's refusal to cut rates and praised the Wednesday reversal.
"We've made significant progress on inflation, but House Democrats know there is more to be done to bring down the cost of everyday goods and take on corporate price gouging," Boyle said, nodding to the November election in which former Republican President Donald Trump is facing Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
"While House Republicans continue trying to inflict higher costs and higher taxes on the middle class with Trump's Project 2025 agenda," he added, "House Democrats will never stop fighting to deliver an economy that works for working families."
Harris similarly applauded the "welcome news for Americans who have borne the brunt of high prices" while acknowledging that more must be done and vowing that "my focus is on the work ahead to keep bringing prices down."
"I know prices are still too high for many middle-class and working families, and my top priority as president will be to lower the costs of everyday needs like healthcare, housing, and groceries. That is why I am proposing plans to cut taxes for more than 100 million working and middle-class Americans, pass the first-ever federal ban on corporate price gouging on food and groceries, and make housing more affordable by building 3 million new homes and giving more Americans down payment assistance," she said.
The Democrat also took aim at Trump's intentions, warning that "while proposing more tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations, his plan would increase costs on families by nearly $4,000 a year by slapping a Trump Tax on goods families rely on, like gas, food, and clothing. He wants to repeal the law I cast the tie-breaking vote to pass that caps the costs of prescription drugs for seniors, including insulin at $35. He would end the Affordable Care Act and erase the progress we have made to lower premiums for millions of Americans by hundreds of dollars a year."
"Sixteen Nobel Prize-winning economists say his plan would increase inflation, and a Moody's report found it would cause a recession by the middle of next year," she noted. "This election is about whether we are going to finally build an opportunity economy that gives every American a shot not just to get by, but to get ahead. As president, that will be my priority every day."
Keep ReadingShow Less
JEC Report Details 'Radical' Project 2025 Plan to Crush Climate, Education, and Healthcare
"If Republicans get their way, low-income children will go hungry, seniors will be forced to choose between lifesaving medication and putting food on the table, and the planet our kids inherit will be in jeopardy."
Aug 27, 2024
A congressional committee on Tuesday released an annotated report exposing how the far-right Project 2025 "would undercut working families by making healthcare and higher education less affordable; providing less support to families; and rolling back climate enforcement and research."
The Joint Economic Committee (JEC) Democrats' publication is just two pages, but it highlights attacks on healthcare, education, and the climate found throughout the "radical" policy agenda for the next Republican president, which is over 900 pages long.
Along with the lengthy policy agenda, the 2025 Presidential Transition Project includes personnel recruitment, training, and a 180-day playbook. The project is led by the Heritage Foundation, backed by over 100 other groups.
The Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump, has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, but at least 140 people who worked in his first administration, including six former Cabinet secretaries, have been involved with it. Also, his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio)—a JEC member—wrote the foreword to Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts' new book.
"This Republican plan would concentrate power within the executive branch, make life harder for working people, and cede power to Big Pharma and other corporations."
As the JEC Democrats report details, on the healthcare front, Project 2025 calls for "reversing Democrats' efforts to lower prescription drug costs (see page 465)" and "putting lifetime limits or caps on Medicaid coverage (see page 468)."
The agenda also calls for overruling the Food and Drug Administration's "approval for medication abortion (see page 457), making it increasingly difficult to access these vital medicines by mail (see pages 458-459), and prohibiting the use of federal funding to cover the travel needed to obtain an abortion (see page 471)," the publication continues.
In terms of education, the report adds, Project 2025 advocates "gutting public school funding by creating a school voucher program (see page 347) and cutting Title I funding that supports low-income schools (see page 325)," as well as "rolling back free school meals programs for low-income children (see page 303)."
The impacts would be felt at all levels of education. It calls for "eliminating Head Start (see page 482)," an early childhood education program serving nearly 800,000 kids, along with "ending the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF) (see page 354) and creating a new, less generous income-driven repayment (IDR) plan (see page 337)."
The report notes that Project 2025's plans for wrecking the global climate include "directing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to favor fossil fuels over renewables and raise market prices received by fossil fuel companies (see page 400)" and "gutting Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enforcement (see page 425)."
It also recommends "rolling back Democrats' investments in clean energy production that are cutting pollution and lowering emissions (see page 365)," "removing key protections for public lands (see page 532)," and "dismantling the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a hub for climate research and the primary source of weather data (see page 674)."
Overall, "this Republican plan would concentrate power within the executive branch, make life harder for working people, and
cede power to Big Pharma and other corporations," the report says, blasting the agenda as "an assault on the rule of law and a host of other core American freedoms."
In a statement announcing the new report—which follows JEC Democrats' analysis of Project 2025's anti-worker economic policies—committee Chair Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) stressed the importance of thwarting efforts to enact the far-right agenda.
"Republican's Project 2025 is a radical agenda that rolls back decades of progress we've made toward a better future for everyone," he said. "If Republicans get their way, low-income children will go hungry, seniors will be forced to choose between lifesaving medication and putting food on the table, and the planet our kids inherit will be in jeopardy. We can't let that happen."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular