MOORESTOWN, NJ — Local businessowner and Candidate for Congress Bob Healey today criticized the Biden Administration, Andy Kim, and the Democrat-controlled Congress for having ‘no clue & no plan’ to combat inflation.
According to a report issued today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Inflation hit a new four-decade high, giving American households no respite from rising costs. Consumer prices surged 8.6% last month from 12 months earlier. 1
“When Joe Biden assumed office in January of 2021 inflation was less than 2%; and by July of 2021 it had more than doubled, when Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen suggested inflation was merely ‘transitory,’” observed Healey. “Back in June of last year, former Obama Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers ‘raised alarm bells about the potential harmful consequences of heavy government spending that can trigger damaging levels of inflation….’” 2
“Manufacturers and small business owners saw the Inflation problem coming 12 months ago because of bad government policy. But our representative Andy Kim was out to lunch. Despite serving on the House Small Business Committee, Andy doesn’t understand the needs of small business. Congressman Kim was, and still is, pushing massive federal spending – the root cause of inflation,” Healey remarked. “Working Americans are truly hurting as they watch prices at the gas pump and the supermarket skyrocket.”
“First, the Biden Administration dismissed the threat of inflation, then they declared it ‘temporary transitory’, still later Biden officials, blamed over a series of months various scapegoats from the meat and poultry industry, followed by ‘Covid’, and the ‘Supply Chain’ and finally ‘Putin’. Excuse after excuse, but never a solution that helps working families,” declared Healey.
“In 2020, Congress responded to a once -in-a-century pandemic and spent $4.6 trillion in Covid relief programs. But spending has been a never-ending exercise for Democrats like Congressman Kim, who irresponsibly pushed Biden’s Build Back Better program with more than $2 trillion in spending,” said Healey, a Moorestown homeowner.
“Every first-year economics major knows the cause of inflation is largely due to too many dollars chasing too few goods. And the Administration’s war on the energy industry has compounded the problem because higher energy prices act as a regressive tax on the economy – particularly impacting the working poor and those least able to afford it first -and increase inflationary pressures throughout the supply chain,” argued Healey.
“Congressman Kim and his left-wing colleagues need to put aside their socialist spending wish-list. New Jersey small businesses need an advocate, not a federal spending cheerleader,” concluded Healey, a lifelong New Jerseyan. Nationally, its estimated approximately one-third of businesses that were open in the beginning of 2020 have now closed. 3
1 Bureau of Labor Statistics, “CPI for all items rises 1.0% in May; shelter, gasoline, food indexes rise”, https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm.
2 “Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers on Inflation Worries, Cryptocurrency and ‘Our Greatest Long-Term Threat”, Eben Shapiro, Time Magazine, 6/6/2021.
3 “Small business investment are needed to spur New Jersey’s recovery,” https://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/story/opinion/2021/09/02/nj-economic-recovery-musts-focus-small-businesses/5686021001/ Burlington County Times, 09/02/2021.
Original source can be found here.
