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Chairman Smith: Families Need Tax Relief To Fight Bidenflation and High Prices

March 29, 2024

“The best chance to deliver real assistance to families and American job creators as quickly as possible is the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) released the following statement after the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure, the Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) index, showed inflation remaining above the Fed’s publicly stated target of 2 percent:

“Bidenflation is so bad that after hiking interest rates 11 times to the highest levels in 23 years, the Federal Reserve has not yet lowered interest rates. Today’s report is more evidence that high prices will continue to impact small businesses and working families. President Biden’s failed leadership is responsible for high prices, and instead of stopping and changing course, the $7 trillion tax hike in President Biden’s latest budget would take even more from workers. Families need relief from the almost 20 percent spike in prices since Biden took office and small businesses need more help staying afloat and growing. The best chance to deliver real assistance to families and American job creators as quickly as possible is the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act.”

Key Background

  • Prices have increased 18.6 percent since President Biden took office.
  • Real wages and benefits have fallen 4.2 percent since President Biden took office.
  • Inflation has become so deeply ingrained in the economy that core inflation (2.8 percent) is even higher than headline inflation.
  • Inflation outpaced wages for 26 straight months of Biden’s presidency.
  • Mortgage rates reached a 23 year high of 7.8 percent in October. The average monthly mortgage payment has increased by $970 and is 85 percent higher than when President Biden took office in January 2021.
  • Credit card interest rates are at the highest level in nearly three decades, while consumer credit debt has reached an all-time high of just over $1 trillion and the number of Americans struggling to pay credit card bills has increased sharply.