House Budget Committee Hearing Exposes How American Rescue Plan Ignited Inflation, Reduced Real Wages, and Wasted Billions

Hearing

Today, the House Budget Committee held a hearing on the Democrats' $2 trillion American Rescue Plan Act which further exposed how that law ignited inflation, reduced real wages, and wasted billions of taxpayer dollars.

In his opening statement, House Budget Committee Republican Leader Jason Smith (MO-08) showed how the American Rescue Plan has failed the American people across multiple fiscal and economic indicators:

"So, what did American families get? I'll tell ya. They got higher prices and lower real wages. Inflation began to rise to the fastest level in 40 years the month after Democrats passed the $2 trillion bill. Inflation was 1.7 percent in February of 2021 -- the month before passage of this boondoggle.

"The economy shrank 1.5 percent in the first quarter of 2022, 4.4 percentage points lower than where the Congressional Budget Office said it should be prior to passage of this boondoggle. The labor force participation rate is still below pre-COVID levels. The deficit in 2021 was $517 billion higher than the Congressional Budget Office said it would have been before passage of this boondoggle. At $2.78 trillion deficit, it was the second highest deficit in the history of this nation. Interest Rates are rising faster than seen in 30 years."

During his opening remarks, House Budget Committee Republican Leader Smith presented the committee with examples of the ridiculous waste that has been perpetrated under the American Rescue Plan -- including:

$1,400 checks to Japanese citizens living in Japan
$783 million worth of stimulus checks to prisoners
$4 million for a bird sanctuary
$7 million to social media influences to promote seafood
$140 million for a luxury hotel development in Florida
$20 million to modernize fish hatcheries in Maine
$2 million to plant trees in New York
$4 million for beach bathrooms and parking lots in South Carolina
And the list goes on. Click here or on the image below to hear Smith expose additional examples of abuse and misuse of taxpayer dollars under the American Rescue Plan.

Republican witness Stephen Moore, Chair of the Save America Coalition at the America First Policy Institute and Distinguished Fellow in Economics at the Heritage Foundation, confirmed that the American Rescue Plan was the match that lit the current "forest fire" of inflation.

Click here or the image below for Mr. Moore's comments.

Given record inflation, the second highest deficit in American history, and the decline in real wages, Smith asked Mr. Moore about the American Rescue Plan's effect on the economy. Mr. Moore confirmed the real stimulus for the economy in 2021 was President Trump's Operation Warp Speed and the vaccine it produced in record time, allowing businesses to reopen and Americans to go back to work.

Click here or on the image below to watch the exchange.

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