On 6/7/2022, Treasury Sec. Yellen faced tough questions on inflation when she testified before the Senate Finance Committee (the hearing was on Biden’s 2023 budget proposal) and also similar queries on 6/8/2022 before House lawmakers. She acknowledged that inflation has reached “unacceptable” heights, even as she defended Biden administration-backed spending bills that Republican lawmakers allege have contributed to the problem. Yellen was a major advocate for President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 stimulus spending package.
On 6/7/2022, Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming questions treasury secretary Yellen on record-high gas prices and inflation. He questioned Yellen’s credibility. “Is there a risk of inflation? You responded, ‘I think there’s a small risk,’” Barrasso told to Yellen. “Given that, it makes me wonder why Americans should put any confidence in your pronouncements and decisions and recommendations today.” “In my home state of Wyoming, rural areas, people who volunteer to drive for Meals on Wheels to deliver meals to shut-ins have had to stop volunteering, not ’cause they don’t have the time or the commitment or the open heart. They don’t have the money for the gas.”
On 6/7/2022, Yellen was asked by Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, if she agreed that corporate greed explains the surge in prices. Yellen replied that the “bulk of inflation” reflected supply and demand factors, “On the supply side, there was a shift in the pattern of consumption to goods and away from services, she said. And food and energy prices partly reflect Russia …” At this point, Grassley cut her off. “You are answering the question in a way that I’m glad you answered it, because I think your answer rejects the corporate greed argument that we’ve been hearing,” Grassley said. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), former chairman and current senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, pressed Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on the administration’s response to inflation, which has reached a four-decade high under President Biden.
Yellen acknowledged last week that she had gotten it “wrong,” putting the Biden administration on the defensive and thrusting herself into the middle of a political storm. “I think I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take,” Yellen said in an interview with CNN. She has clashed publicly at times with critics such as Lawrence H. Summers, a former Treasury secretary, who warned that too much stimulus could overheat the economy. In May of 2021, Summers warned about “very substantial risks on the inflation side” and characterized President Biden’s fiscal stimulus as “rather overdoing it.” For months, Yellen talked about inflation as “transitory,” saying rising prices were the result of supply chain problems.
On 6/7/2022, Senator Mike Crapo questions Yellen on American oil and gas production. “As prospects of recession and stagflation rise, this is no time to consider raising taxes or resurrecting reckless spending from the House-passed Build Back Better plan,” he said. “Secretary Yellen, you heard from me in my opening statement about the significant pain that Americans are suffering from because of inflation that accelerated and became broad based following enactment of the American Rescue Plan last year. Democrats are claiming that Republicans are trying to raise taxes. Nothing could be further from the truth. The reality is that as we speak, the Democrats are trying to negotiate a new massive plan that would raise taxes significantly. Do you believe that it would be prudent fiscal policy to increase taxes or engage in more stimulus spending with an economy facing the prospects of stagflation? … What I heard you say is that it is okay to raise taxes right now and it is proper to have more stimulus spending to deal with this crisis, and I just have to say that I disagree with you on that.”
On the Administration’s anti-energy policies contributing to high gas prices: “Do you continue to believe that the President’s policies with regards to reducing our capacities to develop our own oil and gas reserves and potential is the appropriate approach to this? You mentioned taking from our strategic petroleum reserve which I think weakens us, but you didn’t mention increasing our domestic production of energy … The permits for proceeding on leases are not being facilitated. The President issued an executive order to shut down the Keystone XL pipeline, to stop the issuance of more leases. They’ve stopped progress on the permitting of more leases, stopped offshore oil production. The fact is, we were energy independent and now we are not. And it’s not the result of a failure of capacity.”
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Yellen won’t blame corporate greed for inflation. Barrasso questioned Yellen’s credibility. Crapo Anti-energy policies.