Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, told Newsmax that the Federal Reserve made the "right decision" on Wednesday to raise interest rates 25 basis points, bringing the benchmark federal-funds rate to a range of 4.75% to 5%.
Responding to a question from "The Record With Greta Van Susteren" on if the move will help curb inflation to the Fed's goal of 2%, Crapo said, "Well, I do think it was the right decision by the Fed. They were faced with a real problem. If they raised the rate, they would help fight inflation better, but they would have put a little more pressure on the interest rate risk being faced in our banking sector. If they didn't raise the rate, then they would have basically slowed the fight against inflation. And I frankly think that inflation is the bigger problem."
The senator added, "Our inflation rate today is 6% — and remember, that's over last year. If you look at compared to the beginning of the Biden administration, we're still at about 14% total inflationary impact that's slamming the American people.
"We don't need to see these higher interest rates, but we have to keep looking at them, in my opinion, as long as the administration continues pushing this inflationary policy.
"And I'll just add to that, the budget that the president sent to us just a week or two ago has $4.8 trillion of new taxes and trillions of dollars in new spending — more inflationary pressure. So I think the Fed did what it had to do."
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