The government should combat inflation by using taxpayer funds to subsidize basic household expenses for Americans, such as child care, housing and medicine, contends Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Buttigieg spoke Sunday with “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos, who suggested the administration should go even further and seize the historic price hikes as an opportunity for the government to take some ownership of fuel and food and resell it to Americans at a lower price, noted the popular blogger Conservative Tree House.
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Stephanopoulos, the former political strategist for Bill Clinton, cited a New York Times op-ed by Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California calling for Biden for form “an emergency task force empowered to lower prices and address shortages.”
Buttigieg said in response to the Khanna plan that the president is open to ideas proposed in “good faith” to accompany his own plan.
To cushion the effect of inflation, Biden has proposed pouring $1.75 trillion over the next decade into government programs, including subsidizing basic goods.
In March, Cato Institute tax policy expert Chris Edwards warned that Biden’s plan “to increase all kinds of subsidies would just add more fuel to the inflation fire.”
“When the government subsidizes industries, it bloats industry costs, as we see in education, health care and other areas,” he told the Washington Times.
Stephanopoulos, focusing on the price of gas, said Sunday that Biden’s tapping of the Strategic Oil Reserve hasn’t made a difference.
Buttigieg disputed that, blaming oil companies for the high prices.
“When an oil company is deciding hour by hour how much to charge you for a gallon of gas, they are not calling the administration to ask what they should do,” he said. “They’re doing it based on their goal of maximizing their profits.”
See the interview:
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