Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., on Sunday called inflation the nation’s No. 1 political issue — and blamed Democrats’ “excessive” spending.
In an interview on ABC News’ “This Week,” Blunt said “unacceptable” inflation was on the rise from the start of the Biden administration.
“The biggest political issue in the country today is clearly inflation,” he said.
“People are seeing not only gas prices at astronomical levels, and they were, by the way, at that unacceptable levels long before [Russian President Vladimir] Putin did anything regarding Ukraine. They went up almost every day beginning not just the day after the president was inaugurated, but the day after he was elected as people are seeing what was going to happen with his energy policies. And commodity prices are high as 20% in some cases.”
According to Blunt, Americans are getting a clear signal at the gas station, grocery store and on their heating bills “that something unacceptable has happened.”
“I think that's the excessive level of spending that Democrats all on their own put $1.9 trillion into the economy in March,” he said referring to the American Rescue Plan funds. “It will take us a long time to recover from that and even longer to pay it back.”
Blunt also said President Joe Biden, though doing the right thing for Ukraine’s fight against Russian invasion, it’s been done “two or three weeks slower” than it should have been.”
“What would be interesting I think would be to know whether Putin was more surprised by the incredible resistance of the Ukrainians, the rallying around of NATO to the original and unified purpose of NATO, particularly the German change in attitude, or how poorly his own military has performed,” Blunt said. “I’m sure he's surprised by all three of those, and frankly, I think we’ve been surprised by all three of those.”
“I don't think anybody could have anticipated those three big events or those three big items or, frankly, the leadership of [Ukraine’s] President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy,” Blunt added. “I hope he continues to be safe and brave and his country is rallying behind that willingness to be there and be in the fight.”
When asked if he would vote Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, Blunt said no, because she appears to look at “the Constitution as a more flexible document.”
“I think she’s certainly going to be confirmed,” he said. “I think it will be a high point for the country to see her go on the Court and take her unique perspective to the Court but I don't think she's the kind of judge that will really do the kind of work that I think needs to be done by the Court.”
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