Meuser introduces the Stop Inflationary Spending Act

DALLAS — U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser this week introduced the Stop Inflationary Spending Act, a bill that would require the Congressional Budget Office to provide a 5-year inflation projection for all bills considered through budget reconciliation.

“Inflation occurs when there are too many dollars chasing too few goods and the price increases Americans are now experiencing is the predictable result of the excessive spending of the Biden Administration agenda,” said Meuser, R-Dallas. “The American people deserve to know the true cost of government spending that increases the size of government and constrains growth in the real economy made up of private sector innovators, entrepreneurs, and hardworking people.”

Meuser said inflation is “a hidden tax on everyone, and hardworking American families are now feeling squeezed of rising prices at the gas pump and grocery store.”

Meuser said when inflation was a significant concern in the 1980s, the CBO issued inflationary projections for individual bills. He said restoring this practice for reconciliation bills that spend big is a commonsense reform that will curb Washington’s “out of control spending” and hold government accountable to the American people for spending taxpayer dollars and running up the national debt.

Meuser added that prior to passage of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, economist Larry Summers, who served as President Clinton’s Treasury Secretary and crafted President Obama’s stimulus package, warned that the bill was three times larger than the economic shortfall and pointed to serious inflationary risks in a Washington Post Op-Ed column. Meuser said consumer prices increased 4.2% in April and 5% in May. Core PCE, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure, increased 3.4% in May, the highest level since 1992, Meuser said.

Stop Inflationary Spending Act

• Requires the Congressional Budget Office to project the impact on inflation of any bill being considered under Budget Reconciliation.

• The Congressional Budget Office would provide an estimate of inflation for the first 5 years after enactment of reconciliation legislation.

• In the 1980’s, the Congressional Budget Office issued inflationary projections for individual bills, and the SIS Act will bring this practice back.

“This can be a Great American Decade if we unleash the power of American innovators and entrepreneurs, but we can’t do that under the yoke of excessive spending, higher taxes, and runaway inflation,” Meuser said. “We must grow opportunity in America, not government.”

Infrastructure

“The American people deserve a focused infrastructure package that revitalizes communities, improves roads, bridges, highways, airports, and increases access to broadband,” Meuser said.

Meuser said President Biden initially proposed a $2.25 trillion hard infrastructure plan that included electric vehicles, housing, and expanded access to home healthcare.

Meuser said he supports the bipartisan deal for $1.2 trillion that is paid for by re-purposing unused money and generates $579 billion in new spending that includes only traditional infrastructure (bridges, highways, broadband, rail, pipelines.)