Former Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard criticized President Joe Biden’s massive social spending bill, known as the Build Back Better Act, during an interview on Wednesday, warning that the bill would increase already-worsening inflation rates.
Gabbard’s remarks followed negative economic news earlier in the day on inflation rates. “Inflation across a broad swath of products that consumers buy every day was even worse than expected in October, hitting its highest point in more than 30 years,” CNBC reported. “The consumer price index, which is a basket of products ranging from gasoline and health care to groceries and rents, rose 6.2% from a year ago, the most since December 1990.”
When asked by Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto what she thought of the news, Gabbard responded that the administration’s answer was to try to pass Biden’s massive spending bill.
“But the reality is that this bill is only going to make the problem worse, our government is already too powerful, it is already too bloated,” Gabbard said. “And what this bill is going to do is make inflation worse, it’s going to increase the national debt, it’s going to make things harder for small businesses. And ultimately, it’s going to make people more dependent on a government that already is encroaching too much in every, almost every part of our lives. So, I think it’s more important to actually start to look at how do we actually solve the real problems here, rather than the direction they’re taking, which is, hey, let’s just throw more money at it and think that government is going to be the answer to everything when we know for a fact that it’s not.”
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TRANSCRIPT:
NEIL CAVUTO, FOX NEWS HOST: Again, we’re waiting to hear what the president his ideas are for dealing with the supply chain disruption. They are confident that they, there will be goods on shelves and stock to plenty by the holiday season. Is that doable? Let’s go to Tulsi Gabbard, the former Hawaii Congresswoman, also former presidential candidate. Congresswoman, very good to see you.
TULSI GABBARD, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (D): Nice to see you, Neil.
CAVUTO: What do you make of what’s been happening here: the inflation issue that’s just not stopping, the supply chain disruption that also isn’t stopping? The President appears caught flat footed here. What do you make of it?
GABBARD: Well, you know, you mentioned that their answer to this crisis that everyday Americans are facing across the country is to pass this massive multi trillion dollar bill. But the reality is that this bill is only going to make the problem worse, our government is already too powerful, it is already too bloated. And what this bill is going to do is make inflation worse, it’s going to increase the national debt, it’s going to make things harder for small businesses. And ultimately, it’s going to make people more dependent on a government that already is encroaching too much in every, almost every part of our lives. So, I think it’s more important to actually start to look at how do we actually solve the real problems here, rather than the direction they’re taking, which is, hey, let’s just throw more money at it and think that government is going to be the answer to everything when we know for a fact that it’s not.
CAVUTO: You know, there’s a, I don’t know if the battle is a fair word, congresswoman, but this battle, if you will, or disagreement between progressives in your party and those more moderate, I think, I would probably put you in that latter camp, who are worried that this is just going to create more problems than it solves. But progressives are still pushing for package closer to $2 trillion, they’re still pushing for this, think they have the votes to pull it off. Let’s say they do. What is your worry?
GABBARD: Well, those numbers, those numbers are almost meaningless. Those numbers have shifted, is it $1 trillion, $2, $3, $7? And you look at them trying to manipulate the language in these bills to try to cover the fact that we don’t know how much this is going to cost. We don’t know still, as we sit here today, what is actually going to be included in this bill. And the language that they have put forward in this framework is so vague, that ultimately what will happen is, you’ll end up with a bunch of bureaucrats who are unaccountable to the American people making decisions about how our taxpayer dollars are being spent. This is, this is a fundamental problem that we’ve seen with all of these ideas that they’re putting forward, unaccountable bureaucrats being more empowered to put their noses into our everyday lives. Meanwhile, taxpayers, we end up paying them, for them actually taking away our autonomy and micromanaging us.