Call it “Correaflation.” Because blame for higher prices has to go to those who caused it.
Rep. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, just tweeted, “Today’s inflation data shows the U.S. consumer price rose by 7% over the past year. We must work to bring inflation down. My constituents cannot afford to pay for necessities as food and gas with increased prices.”
But Correa voted for every dollar of the trillions in federal spending binges driving inflation, such as $1.9 trillion for the misnamed American Rescue Act – which should have been called the Waste and Inflation Act.
And he wants even more. In December, he voted for President Biden’s $2 trillion Build Back Better bill of unprecedented additional waste – and better named Build Back Broker.
But it’s really worse. The Committee for a Responsible Budget estimates the real cost would be $4.9 trillion. – more than double the announced number.
Reported Fox 5 San Diego on Dec. 8, “Rep. Lou Correa, D-Calif., joined protestors outside the Capitol demanding the Build Back Better Plan building a pathway to citizenship for millions of undocumented [illegal] immigrants.”
Coming from Orange County, Correa has advertised himself as a “moderate” Democrat. But it was a real moderate Democrat, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who halted the incredible waste of the BBB scheme. Correa just joined the inflationist herd.
He isn’t alone: Correa’s fellow Democrat Congressmembers from Orange County – Mike Levin and Katie Porter – have marched in lock-step with him in voting federal spending on a scale not seen since World War II.
At least Correa had the chutzpah to complain about inflation. Porter and Levin haven’t uttered a peep. Levin managed to completely ignore record inflation levels during a long, detailed tweet looking back at 2021.
And it really is this extravagant federal spending that is driving prices up. It’s Economics 101: If the federal government spends too much money, the money flows into the system, increasing demand for goods and services. Increased demand for a limited supply drives up the price – in this case, of everything.
And remember, this extra money all is borrowed. The U.S. federal deficit tripled in 2000, to $3.1 trillion. In 2021, it was another $3 trillion. Total federal debt now: $28 trillion – and counting. That’s $28,000,000,000,000.00. Correa voted for all that wild spending.
There had to be a cost, and the cost is the 7 percent increase in consumer prices – Correaflation. Plus a new number: According to the U.S. Labor Department, wholesale prices soared 10 percent in 2021, the highest rate in 40 years.
Wholesale prices are what companies charge one another. The higher prices eventually are passed on to consumers. So you’re going to get walloped again.
Inflation is a cruel tax that falls hardest on those furthest down to socioeconomic ladder – the very people Correa, Porter and Levin always claim they are “fighting for.”
To be sure, the federal spending binge began under President Trump. But keeping it going is economic madness. Even Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell – who bears heavy responsibility for enabling the federal spending tsunami – testified on January 11 that “high inflation is a severe threat to the achievement of maximum employment.”
To “cool” the Correaflation, the Federal Reserve Board is talking about as many as four hikes in interest rates. That means higher costs for home and car loans. It means higher credit-card interest charges.
And the last time the Federal Reserve boosted rates that much, it “cooled” the economy so cold we suffered the Subprime Recession of 2007-10. Remember that one? It was a doozy. Unemployment in California soared above 12 percent. Ouch.
And older folks will remember the “stagflation” – stagnation plus inflation – of the 1970s, under President Jimmy Carter. The interest rate hikes necessary to squeeze it out of the economy precipitated the most severe downturn since the Great Depression. Does anyone want to go through that again?
Americans are being hit with the highest inflation rate in 40 years. And it’s no mystery what is fueling it. Correa’s complaints about inflation are like a drunkard going on a bender and being surprised he wakes up the next day with a hangover.
