well getting progressive policies in
through the back door
a new child tax credit goes into effect
next month
families will be paid three hundred
dollars per child each month
if they earn less than about 112
thousand dollars here now to react
monica crowley former treasury
department assistant secretary and
economist
steve moore welcome to both of you steve
i'll start with you
on this one i look at this child tax
credit scheme
especially the way it's structured and
the economist in me
sees universal basic income
taking root steve am i right on that
well you certainly are i mean you're
talking about let's see did you say
three hundred dollars a a month right
now
3 600 a year per child
so family of three that's that's ten
thousand dollars right there
don't forget on top of food stamps some
type of unemployment benefits and all of
these other programs
you're talking about a family with two
unemployed
uh you know parents uh getting 80 90
000 a year in government benefits it's
very dangerous
it fits in with what you were just
talking about in your previous segment
brian about these businesses having such
a tough time
getting workers back on the job and that
that
helicopter money because that's really
what it is is we're just
flooding the zone with more money it's
also contributing obviously to the
inflation problem
now monica you know this child tax
credit is supposed to last from july
until december so you know opposition
to me would say well hey it's not
universal basic income it's only a
limited program but you
obviously have many now saying we should
extend it it's the classic scenario
government gets something started it
never stops are you worried that we are
going to be on
autopilot with a lot of this new
spending
yes i'm incredibly concerned and steve
is absolutely right this is a backdoor
way of
universal basic income to lock ever more
people into government dependency
you know president biden said that he is
interested in extending the program and
of course
once government offers any kind of
social program it's
very very difficult to pull it back so
once this is ingrained and once people
start expecting it
no politician is going to want to pull
it back and that applies to both parties
so we're now in a position of ever
greater government dependency
which is part of the democrats larger
plan to fundamentally transform the
nation
that's exactly what i was afraid of
monica and steve hang on i want to get
your take on this next story
as inflation concerns rise republicans
may be using the issue to their
advantage
hillary vaughn is on capitol hill with
the details hillary
hey brian well fed chair jerome powell
says that inflation is here but it's
only
temporary even though he does
acknowledge that inflation
has increased notably after over the
past
several months but powell says that the
reason prices seem higher
could be that when compared to this time
last year when prices for certain
products dropped during the pandemic
prices today seem artificially higher he
also says supply bottlenecks are to
blame too because
they can't keep pace with a surge in
consumer spending as the economy
recovers
and reopens more quickly and powell also
says he thinks the rate of inflation
will
drop down as these external factors go
away
but honestly if you look at the you look
behind the headline look at the
categories where these prices are really
going up you'll see
that it's it tends to be areas that are
directly affected by the reopening
that's something that will go through
over a period it will then be over
there's no reason why it should leave a
mark on inflation
say a year or so ahead because we should
be through it then
powell may not be worried today but wall
street is deutsche bank had a survey out
yesterday that said
61 percent of market professionals think
inflation
is the biggest risk to markets right now
some republicans today think
that voters will be worried about
inflation too especially
when they're headed to the polls in the
midterms the republican study committee
chairman
jim banks issued a memo to republican
lawmakers encouraging them
to make this a campaign issues telling
his members this
we need to tie inflation to the biden
economic agenda and explain to voters
how inflation is democrats hidden tax on
the middle class
there's no doubt inflation is tied to
the reckless spending bills democrats
have pushed
for during the last year and brian
powell was asked about
the government spending more and more
more than it takes in and he said that
while
there is not a future that he sees when
the government cannot pay their bills he
says that this increased spending when
we're not bringing in
matching revenue is unsustainable brian
hillary vaughn on capitol hill thank you
well let's bring back
monica and steve steve i'm going to go
to you again first on this to talk about
the economics of inflation
jay powell is working very hard
almost every day to tell people hey this
inflation
don't worry about it it's going away are
you that optimistic that we are simply
seeing something very temporary right
now
well brian as you know i was uh tapped
by president trump to be on the federal
reserve board and it's times like now i
really wish i were on that board
because i got to tell you brian i would
be raising holy hell
i mean this is outrageous the fed is so
behind the curve on this
everybody across america is seeing the
inflation they're feeling the pain at
the
pump they're feeling at the grocery
store they're feeling it if they want to
make travel plans
and it's almost like the fed is living
in some kind of bubble
now i certainly hope that they are right
that this is transitory that's the new
big word in washington
transitory but i don't know i mean
the prices have gone been going up brian
they haven't been coming down
yeah monica people to steve's point can
feel it
they can see it it's it's catching them
in a way that you know they can't
remember for decades if they've even
been around that long
we look at the politics of this monica
the gop
clearly thinks this might be an issue
that can help them sweep into power
do you think it really has legs for
republicans
as they look at 2022 and beyond
absolutely particularly if this kind of
inflation
does go on for a protected amount of
time and if chair powell and the fed
are wrong about the temporary nature of
this and
and they're saying it's closely
associated with the reopening and like
steve i hope that they're right but i
fear that they're wrong and once
inflation really becomes ingrained in
the system
it's very very difficult to dislodge
and it's going to require a lot of pain
i mean
remember president reagan and chair paul
volcker they had to raise interest rates
i think the benchmark rate went
up to 18 to try to mop up all of the
excess money
and tighten the money supply so if in
fact
this inflation does seem persistent over
time
they're going to have to not only taper
but raise interest rates and you know
who's going to bear the burden of that
those on the lower end of the income
scale because remember inflation
is a hidden regressive tax and it hurts
workers and working families
most of all so it will have political
consequences next year
if these higher prices go on you don't
mess with inflation i don't know
why the fed would be taking this kind of
approach and dismissing it
because when it gets bad it gets very
bad monica and steve thanks so much for
your help today we appreciate your
perspectives