Sen. Mitt Romney talks inflation and economy

SALT LAKE CITY — High home and gasoline prices, plus rising inflation, are generating “real hardship” for Utahns, said Sen. Mitt Romney.

“Inflation is not going to disappear anytime soon,” Romney, R-Utah, said while speaking with Inside Sources host Boyd Matheson.

Romney said the coronavirus pandemic continues to disrupt China, which is a global supplier, adding the worldwide supply chain is also “badly broken.”

To slow inflation without stalling the U.S. economy in a recession, expect the Federal Reserve to inch up interest rates, the senator said.

“Whether they’re able to do that now or not is very much up in the air. I hope they can, but nothing like that is 100% guaranteed,” Romney said.

Hey, big D.C. spenders

“We always go back to spending and what’s happening in Washington,” Boyd said. “Left, right and center have been spending a lot for a long time now. How does that factor into where we are with inflation and the overall economic outlook?”

“Well, the president’s $1.9 trillion spending bill — that so-called American Rescue Plan — was a very badly timed piece of legislation and a bad idea,” Romney said. “He sent out $1.9 trillion into an economy that was already running at full speed.”

“That’s one of the things that contributed to the high level of inflation you’re seeing today,” Romney said of the American Rescue Plan of 2021.

But about a year earlier, former President Donald Trump signed the CARES Act — a $2.2 trillion economic stimulus bill as a result of economic damage inflicted by COVID-19. Most single U.S. adults received $1,200 and families with children received more.

How big is a trillion?

Romney used a time analogy to illustrate how large a trillion is:

“A million seconds ago was, let’s see, March… A billion seconds ago, George W. Bush was president. A billion seconds ago, Neanderthals were on the Earth. Excuse me, a trillion seconds, that’s when Neanderthals were on the Earth. We say a trillion dollars. That’s a heck of a lot of money. And we spend a trillion more than we take in every year.”

Romney said the federal government needs to balance the programs citizens don’t vote on, such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

Voters get their say

Boyd pointed out that the 2022 midterm elections are drawing ever closer. “How do you see the politics of all this playing out?”

“Well, I wouldn’t want to have Democrat after my name and be running for office in 2022,” Romney said.

With Democrats controlling the Senate — Vice President Kamala Harris casts the tie-breaking vote — House and White House, the senator added they will be blamed “for stuff that’s going wrong.”

Romney said Mr. Biden shoulders the “terrible disaster” of exiting the war in Afghanistan. And with that, Democrats should lose seats in both the House and Senate, he predicted.

“But as the old saying goes, Republicans do have the history of, from time to time, snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory.”

Republicans are for not spending

“I mean this sincerely — name me something the national Republican Party is for,” Mr. Biden said at a recent Democratic National Committee meeting, according to the Associated Press.

“I thought, What in the world is he talking about? And then I realized, Oh, my Democrat friends feel that you’re only for something if it’s for spending more money,” Romney said.

He added the easy part is spending; the hard part is cutting government spending.

“And that’s hard work,” Romney said, “and that is being FOR something. Thank you very much.”

Inside Sources with Boyd Matheson can be heard weekdays from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on KSL NewsRadio. Users can find the show on the KSL NewsRadio website and app.