Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts told Newsmax Friday that the record inflation Americans are experiencing right now is “something that the administration and the Fed have really been too slow to respond to.”
“Inflation is probably one of the most regressive impacts we have on low-income people because, for example, they spend more of their income on food,” the Republican governor said during an appearance on Newsmax’s “The National Report.” “I'll tell you right now, when you see that inflation hits this kind of thing, and gas prices go up — you know in my state many people travel 60 miles round trip — and when gas is up as much as it is, that impacts their pocketbook.”
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported Thursday that U.S. inflation reached another 40-year high last month, accelerating to a 7.5% annual rate as strong consumer demand combined with pandemic-related supply interruptions.
Prices for food, shelter, electricity, and vehicles all rose sharply in January, according to the WSJ.
“It makes an impact on how they can take care of their families,” Ricketts said. “When lunch goes from eight bucks a day to 12 bucks a day, people notice.”
Record-high inflation is also making it a lot more difficult for Americans to own a home, the Cornhusker State governor said.
“I mean, maybe all the folks sitting in the White House don't understand how impactful this is to everyday Americans, but I'll tell you, we feel it here in Nebraska,” he said. “It's making homeownership much more out of reach for Americans because the cost of building a home is going up.”
In a tweet on Thursday, Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel said President Joe Biden lied about inflation.
"Inflation has soared by the highest amount in 40 YEARS," she wrote. "Biden lied - #Bidenflation is not 'transitory.'"
Biden pitched the transitory inflation theory last July, Forbes reported.
"The reality is you can’t flip the global economic light back on and not expect this to happen," he said then.
Ricketts said that Biden is partly to blame.
“This is something that the president is contributing to with all the spending that they're doing,” he said. “And the Fed is not moving fast enough to address inflation.”
The governor also talked about the recent decision of many blue states to lift their mask mandates, specifically in schools.
“I have been against mask mandates from the get-go,” Ricketts said. “If people want to wear a mask, that's certainly their business to do so. But I am 100% against requiring anybody to wear a mask, and that especially means our children in schools because we have seen that it is so damaging in other ways.”
He added, “I think if you start looking at a lot of the data right now, what you see is schools that have masked up versus schools that haven’t masked up — there's no difference."
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