Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., released a report on inflation Tuesday and predicted the rising prices are "only going to get worse."
Paul, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, blamed the 7% jump in consumer prices on excessive coronavirus relief spending by congressional lawmakers, according to Fox News.
"The $4.9 trillion in COVID-19 stimulus spending has led to one of the highest and most sustained levels of inflation in U.S. history," he said in a statement. "While government stimulus spending was intended as a form of relief, and low- and middle-income families as well as small business owners were promised that their taxes would not increase, Americans everywhere are now paying a hidden tax called inflation.
"In recent months, prices on nearly everything from gas, food, and clothes to electricity, car prices, and rent, have all increased, and unfortunately it's only going to get worse. Congress needs to realize that further spending at this time of rapidly rising prices is only going to continue the trend of rising prices on this nation’s already vulnerable businesses and families."
Paul said the $4.9 trillion went for such projects as the Paycheck Program, the Economic Impact Payments (stimulus checks), and the enhanced unemployment insurances.
In the report Paul noted: "Further spending in this time of rapidly rising prices is to impose an even higher tax on this nation’s already vulnerable small business owners and low- and middle-income families. In the words of Milton Friedman, there is no such thing as a free lunch."
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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