Sen. Cramer Discusses Inflation, China Tariffs on Kudlow

Press Release

U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), member of the Senate Banking Committee, joined Fox Business's Kudlow to discuss President Joe Biden's refusal to change course on his disastrous fiscal policies to combat skyrocketing inflation. He also encouraged the Biden Administration to unleash American energy and keep Section 301 tariffs on China. Excerpts and full video are below.

On Joe Biden Doubling Down on Dumb:

"One of the biggest confusions to me is that every time Joe Biden is proven wrong instead of changing course, he doubles down on dumb. That's what the op-ed was. Blame everybody else. Talk about what a difficult situation he inherited -- and by the way, he inherited a good situation compared to the one that Donald Trump was given. Biden benefited from a strong foundation built by Donald Trump and Republicans in the Senate and the House who passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which is why we had this robust growth going into the pandemic. Clearly, the pandemic created a problem, but we were already coming out of it with a robust, booming economy. Instead of slowing down and accepting the handoff, he doubled down. He passed the American Rescue Plan. This $2 trillion worth of fuel on an already booming economy. He talked about a whole bunch more stimulus all the while adding regulations and now he wants to add taxes. There was nothing new in the [opinion] piece. It was just more of the same old, same old."

On American Energy Production:

"Joe Biden and all the weirdos around him worship at the altar of climatology. It is such an existential threat in their bizarre religion that all things have to come back to that. The reality is they are going to destroy America's excellence and our economy. By the way, the world is crying out for the very things that America produces and can produce. Instead of sending the signals to produce more [oil and gas], which will not only bring down the price, but it'll secure us geopolitically, in many places where we can use some friends and trading partners, places like Europe. I don't understand any of it, Larry. I just don't see how they can be missing what's obvious -- other than they are so hung up on climate change that they can't see the great damage that they are doing to our economy and to national and geopolitical security."

On Biden's Skyrocketing Inflation:

"Remember inflation, when Joe Biden became president, was 1.4%. It is now 8.3%. Frankly, I don't know where the end is. I don't know if there is an end in sight. It's very concerning. These things matter. Who is in the White House matters. Who the economic advisors are matters. Right after I get done with this show, [Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome] Powell and I are going to have a phone conversation because he asked to talk to me. I'm looking forward to hearing his ideas on how increasing [interest] rate[s] and shrinking the money supply -- which I wish they would have started a long time ago when they could have done modest rate increases --is going to help inflation at the moment of crisis."

On Keeping Section 301 Tariffs on China:

"When you look at the signatures on this letter, there weren't a lot of us but we were diverse. Everybody from Rick Scott of Florida to Elizabeth Warren, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania to Rob Portman, and radicals like me. It's a pretty broad swath. Hopefully, it provides some air cover to the Administration so they do not lift these tariffs. These 301 tariffs are one of the few tools we have left. It's one of the smart things carried over from the Trump Administration to the Biden Administration, but they have been talking about possibly lifting them. It's the only leverage we have right now on China. We need to use it and much more. I agree with your friend and mine, Bob Lighthizer, when he says we need a strategic decoupling with China if we want to get serious about changing their behavior. We ought to be doing more business with people we know and love and share our values like Europe, which gets back to the start of the show and that is producing more oil and gas and the things Europe needs from us."

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