What is she thinking?
Speaking at the 2022 House Democratic Issues Conference on Saturday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reiterated that Putin was to blame for rising inflation before touting government spending on social programs as a way to reduce the national debt and decrease inflation.
During her remarks, Pelosi referred to soaring gas prices in the U.S. as “Putin’s tax” and “Putin’s gas hike” while emphasizing the importance of passing segments of President Joe Biden’s cornerstone multi-trillion-dollar Build Back Better bill.
Pelosi said the bill, which has been annihilated by moderates, would result in new investment in workplace development and education, resulting in lower prices. However, she failed to mention how the two were correlated.
But, Pelosi’s announcement doesn’t consider that gas prices were rising at a record pace long before Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Russia would be invading Ukraine.
For the last year, since Biden announced he was canceling the Keystone XL pipeline and pausing federal oil and gas leases, gas prices have been on a steady incline. This is despite the Biden administration releasing 50 million barrels of oil from the National Strategic Reserve on November 23, 2021, in an effort to alleviate pain at the pump.
Russia invaded Ukraine three months after this event, on February 24, 2022.
Pelosi also pointed to remarks by Nobel laureates to back up claims, legislation 一 in particular government spending 一 would result in inflation.
“One other point that we’ll make about it is that we are doing in our legislation, what we would do in the Build Back Better 一 seventeen Nobel laureates in economics said that legislation does not increase inflation,” Pelosi said in her remarks.
She continued, “So when we’re having this discussion, it’s important to dispel some of those who say, ‘well it’s government spending [causing rising inflation].'”
“Government spending is doing the exact reverse, reducing the national debt. It is not inflationary.”
