“President Biden’s recipe of outlandish spending and higher taxes is robbing the American people and hurting the economy.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – House 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 2 percent target, coming on the heels of the latest GDP report showing just 1.6 percent economic growth in the first quarter of 2024 which was far below expectations:

“President Biden’s recipe of outlandish spending and higher taxes is robbing the American people and hurting the economy. The soaring cost of gas and groceries keeps killing family budgets – leaving Americans struggling to either pay rent or buy a house. The latest GDP report shows an economy sagging under the weight of failed economic policies. With prices continuing to rise and the Federal Reserve likely to keep interest rates at the highest levels in over 20 years, the American Dream is slipping out of reach for more families.

“At a critical moment of high prices, high interest rates, and a weakened economy, the solution is to build on the success of the Trump tax cuts. That starts with passing the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act to secure immediate relief. But we also have to prepare to fight back against President Biden’s proposed $7 trillion tax hike and his plan for the expiration of the successful Trump tax cuts, which would only further damage the economy and harm working families. That is why Ways and Means Committee Republicans have stood up our tax teams so that we are proactively identifying ways to further improve tax policies that help workers, families, farmers, and small businesses thrive and bring an end to the failed policies of ‘Bidenomics.’”

READ: Ways & Means Chairman Smith and Tax Subcommittee Chairman Kelly Announce Tax Teams to Avert 2025 Tax Cliff

Key Background

• Headline and core PCE inflation for March were both higher than expectations. 
• Prices have increased 19.4 percent since President Biden took office.
• Real wages and benefits have fallen 3.9 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 and has increased at a rate of 4.4 percent for the past three months.
• 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 monthly mortgage payment for a median priced new home has increased by $1,181 and is 104 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.