Ted Cruz: Biden, Democrats Pouring Gas on 'Inflation Fire'
The Texas Republican appeared on CNBC’s "Squawk Box" and was asked about Biden’s massive Build Back Better social spending and climate legislation that Democrats are trying to pass.
"Inflation is raging across the country. The November numbers have inflation at 6.8% — that’s the highest this country has seen inflation since 1982, nearly 40 years ago.
"At the end of the day, it is not complicated. When you spend trillions of dollars you don’t have, when you print money, when you borrow trillions of dollars, when you expand the money supply, you drive up inflation. That cause and effect has been true from the dawn of time. It’s true now."
Cruz then was asked about Congress on Tuesday approving raising the federal government's debt limit by $2.5 trillion, to about $31.4 trillion, sending the bill to President Joe Biden to sign and avert an unprecedented default.
"The current debt (is) $28.9 trillion. Today, Joe Biden is preparing to sign a bill raising that by $2.5 trillion," Cruz said told CNBC. "[That’s] the largest increase in the debt ceiling in the history of our country. It is unprecedented — $2.5 trillion with the stroke of a pen, and that doesn’t pay for a penny of the [Sen.] Bernie Sanders socialist budget, what they call Build Back Better, what more and more Americans are calling Build Back Broke.
"[Democrats] want more of what’s causing inflation, and if they succeed with that, we’re gonna get a whole lot more inflation which is hurting the most vulnerable among us, particularly seniors. Seniors get hammered with inflation and this White House doesn’t seem to care."
Cruz also addressed Democrat accusations that tax cuts under former President Donald Trump weren’t paid for, and that Republicans are too tax friendly toward wealthy Americans.
"Well, sure, one’s good for the economy, one’s terrible for the economy," Cruz told "Squawk Box."
"If you look at the 2017 tax cut, that tax cut was focused on jobs. It was focused on reducing tax cuts on job creators. And the purpose of it was to create more jobs, to drive up wages, to bring manufacturing to America, and it worked extraordinarily well."
Cruz mentioned that 2018 saw the lowest rate of unemployment in 40 years and the lowest rates of both African American and Hispanic unemployment ever recorded.
"When we cut taxes in 2017, the next year federal tax revenue went up, and the next year federal tax revenue went up, and it went up every year after that," Cruz said. "So, it generated more revenue because of growth and economic productivity and more jobs."
Cruz added that the Build Back Better legislation does include tax cuts — for wealthy Democrat donors in blue states — because one of the most expensive parts of the bill is repealing the cap on the deduction of "state and local taxes."
"The 2017 tax cuts focused on job creators, more jobs for men and women," he said. "The Democrat’s repealing the SALT deduction doesn’t create a single job but I’ll tell you what it does, it pays off the rich Democratic donors in blue states No. 1. And No. 2, it encourages local politicians to raise taxes more."
After his appearance, Cruz tweeted: "Biden’s inflation fire is raging and the Democrats’ solution is to poor more gas on it."
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