‘You were right.’ Rep. Thomas Massie says GOP shares blame on inflation
Rep. Thomas Massie said Republicans share some blame for the current inflation spike as a result of their support of the first $2 trillion coronavirus relief package signed into law by President Trump two years ago.
“They’re trying to put all the blame on Joe Biden, when in fact the blame belongs on Congress under both Biden and Trump,” Massie told McClatchy in a recent interview.
It’s a statement that could potentially undercut Republican messaging that rising inflation is squarely the fault of Democrats, who took full control of Washington 14 months ago.
In late March of 2020, the northern Kentucky congressman earned the ire of both parties and then-President Trump for trying to force a recorded vote on the Cares Act, rather than to expedite the funding through a voice vote.
Massie opposed the bill’s cost and believes the U.S. has spent far too much money on relief measures. He lost out at the time and the pandemic funding sailed through Congress, but the 4th District Republican congressman now claims the inflation crisis validates his lonely position.
“Now I have Republicans coming up to me in the House and say, ‘I should’ve stood with you then. You were right,’” Massie said. “I prefer to be right in the long run than be right in the moment.”
U.S. inflation has hit a 40-year high, increasing nearly 8% over the past year, sending the price of gas, food and housing higher just as the country looks to emerge from a two-year pandemic. But at the advent of the coronavirus outbreak, a broad swath of lawmakers, including Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, characterized the Cares Act as a necessary tool to keep the economy afloat through rolling shutdowns and widespread uncertainty.
The Cares Act included cash payments to individuals, extra unemployment benefits and support for businesses, hospitals, safety net programs and state and local governments.
Massie, who Trump labeled a “third rate grandstander” at the time, points out his opposition wasn’t politically advantageous.
Instead of blasting money into the hands of Americans, Massie said he would’ve engineered a Manhattan-like Project to fight the virus, empowering the country’s universities and scientific institutions to develop treatments and cures before the advent of the vaccines.
“Why we shut down all of the research institutions instead of having them all work on combating this virus is baffling to me,” he said.
Massie said he could’ve supported limited unemployment benefits to people who contracted COVID-19, so they wouldn’t have to work while infected. But he said the $6 trillion in COVID relief that’s been allocated by Congress over the last two years has only contributed to inflation that is now prompting higher interest rates.
“It didn’t make sense to pay healthy people to stay at home and not work,” Massie said. “And it was just way too much money.”
This story was originally published March 21, 2022 at 1:56 PM with the headline "‘You were right.’ Rep. Thomas Massie says GOP shares blame on inflation."
