The US Federal Reserve has been actively working to get inflation under control in the US, but some lawmakers are worried that the continued interest rate hikes could cost Americans their jobs and trigger a recession. On Tuesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testified before the Senate Banking Committee on monetary policy actions, and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren was quick to ask him how he planned to protect working Americans from the effects of rate hikes.
Powell responded that he was taking “the only measures we have to bring inflation down” and that inflation is “hurting the working people of this country badly.” He added that he expects inflation to decline by 2023, although the process may be “bumpy.”
However, Warren and other Democratic lawmakers are pushing back against Powell’s aggressive tactics, arguing that the hikes will only make it more expensive for small businesses to fund their operations and put a drag on consumer spending. Sen. John Hickenlooper even sent a letter to Powell last month urging him to pause the hikes, saying that they “will only make it more expensive for small businesses to fund their operations. It will also put a drag on consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of the economy.”
At the same time, Warren has criticized Powell for gambling with people’s lives and argued that the Fed should be fighting for families, not laying off millions of workers. Warren wants to see the Fed take a more cautious approach to tackling inflation so that working Americans don’t have to pay the price.
