U.S. Sens. Steve Daines (R-MT) and Todd Young (R-IN) joined more than a dozen of their Republican colleagues in calling for a federal assessment of policies signed into law by President Joe Biden that the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says will add $4.8 trillion in additional deficit spending to the national economy before 2031.
“We write to obtain CBO’s assessment of the effects of rapid acceleration of interest rates on net interest costs of servicing the $31 trillion-plus, and growing, federal debt, and effects of the runaway 40-year high consumer price inflation that has been hammering American families and eroding workers’ paychecks,” the lawmakers wrote in an Oct. 26 letter sent to Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Director Phillip Swagel.
Among the 13 lawmakers who joined Sen. Daines and Sen. Young in signing the letter were U.S. Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), John Thune (R-SD), Mike Rounds (R-SD), and Tim Scott (R-SC).
The senators pointed out that during the upcoming two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee on Nov. 1 and 2, it is widely expected that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates by at least 75 basis points.
With that in mind, they requested that Swagel reply as soon as possible after Nov. 2 to several questions they posed that would give them the most accurate data possible for making policy decisions.
For instance, they asked what effects there would be on a middle-class American worker from consumer price inflation rates that remain above 8 percent, and from persistently high-interest rates, such as the 10-year Treasury rates being at or above 4 percent over the next two years, according to their letter.
And they asked what the CBO’s most current projections are for GDP growth, and if GDP growth stalls or turns negative over the ensuing year, what the effects would be on the federal budget, among other questions.
“With the evident unsustainability of the nation’s fiscal course, and with the rapid acceleration of both inflation, which persists at 40-year highs, and interest rates, which continue to rise,” the senators wrote, “we must take action to reduce excess and unsustainable spending and limit inflationary pressures.”