Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell testified before a Senate committee Tuesday and warned that the Fed may raise rates higher later this month to curb inflation. On "The Faulkner Focus" Wednesday, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., responded to Powell's testimony, arguing Powell understands the cost of President Biden's inflation to the job market but "can't say it."
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JOHN KENNEDY: Chairman Powell is just doing his job. President Biden persists in saying that, my words not his, a honey bun costs $20 and your 401(k) is crashing because the economy is so good. No one believes that because it's not true and the American people aren't stupid. President Biden's inflation is pernicious. It is a cancer on the American dream, and we're not going to get it down without costing millions of people their jobs unless Congress helps on the fiscal side by reducing the rate of growth of spending and reducing the rate of growth of debt accumulation. And Powell knows that. He can't say it. And anyone who knows an economics textbook from an L.L. Bean catalog knows that.
Powell stressed on Tuesday that central bank policymakers are prepared to raise interest rates higher than previously expected and pick up the pace of increases in the face of hotter-than-expected economic data.
"The latest economic data have come in stronger than expected, which suggests that the ultimate level of interest rates is likely to be higher than previously anticipated," Powell said in remarks prepared for delivery before the Senate Banking Committee. "If the totality of the data were to indicate that faster tightening is warranted, we would be prepared to increase the pace of rate hikes."
Central bankers are in the midst of the most aggressive campaign since the 1980s to crush persistently high inflation. Although the consumer price index has slowly fallen from a high of 9.1% notched in June, it remains about three times higher than the pre-pandemic average.
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Officials voted in February to raise the benchmark interest rate a quarter percentage point to a range of 4.5% to 4.75% and signaled that a "couple more" increases are on the table this year. That followed a half-point increase at their December meeting and four consecutive 75-basis-point moves before that.
FOX Business' Megan Henney contributed to this report.
