The collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank over the weekend may have come as the result of a "series of unique circumstances," but Congress must investigate what went wrong, particularly when it comes to the policies of President Joe Biden's administration, Rep. Bryan Steil told Newsmax on Tuesday.
"I hope that we, as members of Congress, come together and recognize that one of the key culprits here is inflation and this administration's inability and unwillingness to address the root causes, particularly to rein in the reckless spending that we've seen continue to come out of the Biden administration," the Wisconsin Republican commented on Newsmax's "National Report."
That includes stopping the administration's "war on energy" and rewriting the nation's labor policies to help workers who remain on the sidelines after the COVID pandemic, Steil said.
"We've got to get serious about bringing inflation down because at the core of it, inflation and the higher interest rates from the Fed are what is driving this problem," he added.
"Bad management" also came into play at both banks, said Steil, as "they put themselves where they were sitting effectively on losses that were unrealized and filing to put that on to their balance sheet," but Congress must look at more.
"We need to make sure that the Federal Reserve, in its oversight role, is doing its job," he said. "As members of congress, we have to step back and say who's also to blame [and that] is the reckless spending in Washington coming out of the Biden administration."
Steil, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, noted that last week, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said he's committed to higher interest rates.
"The answer here is we also have to look at the policies in Washington that are the culprit of the inflation that's clobbering Americans across the country," he continued. "That should be job number one here in Congress, and if anything, this should remind all Americans that Congress has a job to do to bring inflation down."
Meanwhile, the nation's inflation rate is now at 6%, according to Consumer Price Index information released Tuesday, and even though the rates have cooled down some from last summer, the issue remains a "double-edged sword" for many U.S. consumers, said Steil.
"When you bring up core inflation, what does that mean?" he said. "It's talking about your energy, your gas, when you go to the grocery store, when you're buying products and food, when they go to fill up their car with gas, they feel it every day that their wages aren't keeping up with this high pace of inflation."
But as the nation is still nowhere near the Fed's target of 2%, "we're going to see more draconian action by the February Reserve," Steil added. "Congress has to get to work to actually put the substantive reforms in place to bring inflation down. Slow the spending, unleash American energy, [and] help workers get back to work."
Meanwhile, the Fed had "no good course of action" to take with the bank closures, said Steil, commenting after U.S. authorities launched emergency measures but still, Congress must hold hearings.
Biden wants to spend more money, including with his proposed 2024 budget that raises taxes but does not reduce spending, Steil continued.
"Americans are getting clobbered by the fact that this administration refuses to put policies in place to slow inflation," he said. "Republicans in the House of Representatives need to put forward those policies, and we need to get the Biden administration to the table so we can save this country."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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