GOP Senate candidates say they’re focused on inflation
[ad_1]
You can see the US Capitol building being enclosed as work begins to build the stage in the Capitol building, for Inauguration Monday, November 9, 2020, Washington, DC.
Kent Nishimura | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images
Pennsylvania is home to one of the largest economies in the United States.
The state’s agricultural sector and chocolate giant Hershey Co. have helped Pennsylvania become home to over 2,000 food processing sites. The state’s manufacturing sector employs over half a million people, while energy production from Marcellus Shale regularly makes Pennsylvania one of the top natural gas producers in the country.
According to Jeff Bartos (a Republican who is running for a U.S. Senate seat in 2022), it’s this economic diversity that makes Pennsylvania campaigning so interesting.
Bartos stated that “if you have ever spent any time in Pennsylvania, there are so many diverse industries throughout the state.” He was reached by telephone on Thursday. “So it’s interesting to run or cycle in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is a fascinating place to visit.
Bartos, along with dozens of Republicans, will be on the campaign trail starting in March as Republicans attempt to win both the Senate (and House) of Representatives in 2022’s midterm elections. According to strategists, the most competitive races in states such as Pennsylvania and Georgia will determine whether Democrats retain their tight hold on Congress.
CNBC spoke to Jim Lamon from Arizona, and Bartos about their perspectives on the future of the economy in 2022. They said that both men would focus on the areas they see as reckless federal spending and wild inflation.
Bartos is the founder of a Philadelphia-based contractor company as well as some Philadelphia-based real estate development companies. He says that every single person he meets on campaign trails, including business executives, complains about this one thing.
He said, “I’d say inflation is the tax currently crushing working families.”
“We have traveled through all 67 of the Commonwealth’s counties many times. “And my Pennsylvanian friends are saying that the higher gasoline prices at the pump and in grocery stores are killing them,” he said. These rising prices are making it difficult for families to make decisions.
Inflation is a constant.
Inflation reduces the buying power of every dollar. This means that people who don’t have a pay raise won’t be able to buy as much gasoline or milk with their earnings as they did one year ago. This was the Labor Department’s latest consumer inflation report. prices rose 6.8% in NovemberThe fastest rate recorded since 1982.
Jeff Bartos, candidate for Lt. The Governor of Pennsylvania speaks to the people at the Berks County GOP Fall Dinner, Stokesay Castle, Lower Alsace on Monday October 15, 2018.
MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images| MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images
Bartos’ Republican counterpart Jim Lamon is echoing those thoughts on the opposite side of the nation. He hopes to defeat Sen. Mark Kelly from Arizona in November. Bartos’ ideological similarities with Lamon are a sign of the GOP’s larger blueprint for 2022, which relies heavily on inflation and the economy as the key points in the campaign trail.
Lamon, Bartos and others blame Democrats for inefficient spending and say they are happy for less government spending. Bartos is an American Republican senator who was born and raised in Berks county, Pennsylvania. Pat ToomeyHe will retire at the conclusion of his current term.
Bartos acknowledged Toomey’s leadership in economic matters, but he stated that he is different from the incumbent when it comes to whether Toomey was the former President Donald Trumpought to have been sentenced for inciting insurrection on January 6, 2021. Toomey voted for Trump earlier in the year with Democrats.
Already, the Pennsylvania race is generating its own political drama. Trump’s chosen to win, Sean Parnell dropped out following a bitter custody battle against his wife, who had accused Parnell of child abuse and spousal abuse. Bartos is up against a variety of primary contenders, including Dr. Mehmet Olsen, a famous physician.
Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman, the Democratic ticket’s leader, is currently leading any Republican, even though it is early. polling available on FiveThirtyEight. Fetterman is a populist Democrat and was once mayor of Braddock (Pa.), a town close to Pittsburgh. He seeks unionization between the party’s progressives and Rust Belt voters that backed Trump.
Fetterman’s campaign refused to comment on this story.
Dems are the target
While it’s been decades ago that inflation has caused political backlash due to its high level of heat, current price increases could endanger Democrats’ grip on Congress in key midterm elections 2022.
Democrats argue — with good evidence — that the current inflation is the unsurprising and temporary result of an economy bouncing back from the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic. As the Covid-19 pandemic rages on, President Joe Biden and others from Democrats predict that there will be fewer supply-chain disruptions in the months ahead as people get back to work.
Republicans have an easy argument against the ambitious legislative agenda of the Republican Party: The party is adamant that big government spending increases inflation and prolongs price rises for months.
This argument appears to persuade everyday Americans who are increasingly blaming Democratic leadership for the mismanagement of America’s economy.
CNBC’s latest All-America Economic survey revealed that Biden’s economic approval fell at 37%. That compares to 56% of those who disapprove. It was down from 40% to 54% during the second quarter survey.
Gallup’s recent poll found that the majority of respondents agree with this conclusion. 45% of American households sayRecent price increases have caused financial problems for their families. Ten percent of respondents said that inflation causes them severe hardship and affects their quality of life.
That argument seems to be popular with Sen. Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat from West Virginia who declared over the weekend that he would support Republicans. oppose the administration’s $1.75 trillion Build Back Better legislation.
Manchin’s announcement is an affront to the bill, as he is one of 50 Democrats who make up 50 percent of the Senate. If the leadership of the party is not available opts to move forward on the billThis will most likely mean significant cuts to many of its climate, family, and worker protections.
Others, such as Manchin, have attempted to persuade Americans that BBB legislation wouldn’t aggravate inflation, and that infrastructure improvements could ease the price pressures in time.
Recent weeks have seen a decline in public support for this legislation. Morning Consult and Politico discovered that the House passed the bill. 49% voters supported Build Back BetterIt was opposed by 38%. An NPR/Marist Poll conducted between late November and early December found that 41% of adults supported the bill, while 34% said they opposed it.
Record for the most recent track
As a result, some of the GOP’s successes in relieving inflation anxiety has been evident on the campaign trail.
In part, Republican Glenn Youngkin’s victory in Virginia’s gubernatorial elections has been seen as an endorsement for his inflation-focused strategy.
The voters are reeling from our initial focus on runaway inflation as well as the growing supply chain crisis. After the Virginia election results, Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana wrote in a memo that he needed to continue to work and bring solutions to their concerns. Banks chairs the Republican Study Committee (a group representing the most conservative House Republicans).
Youngkin’s triumph over Terry McAuliffe, a seasoned Democrat, is all the more impressive considering Biden won Arizona by a healthy 10 percent in 2020. Arizona Republican Lamon may be capable of replacing Democratic Senator Mark Kelly in states that Democrats lost by 10 percentage points in 2016.
CNBC spoke with a spokesperson from Kelly’s campaign, who said that retired NASA astronaut Kelly has made the reduction of inflation his number one priority. Kelly wrote a November letter to Biden urging it to do everything possible to lower gas prices. This included cracking down on price gouging, and increasing domestic oil production.
On Tuesday, he wrote to Tom Vilsack, Department of Agriculture Secretary and Pete Buttigieg, asking them to reduce supply chain disruptions in their respective industries.
Sarah Guggenheimer, spokeswoman for the Arizona Democratic Party said that the focus of the Republican Party in Arizona’s Senate Primary is on the 2020 election. “Meanwhile Senator Kelly continues to tackle the issues that really matter to Arizonans, such as reducing costs and tax cuts.
Lamon spoke Friday during the a protest contesting the 2020 election resultsThe office of Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich is located outside.
Brnovich is a Republican primary challenger for Lamon and helped to certify Arizona’s elections results for Biden. He has repeated that his office had not found evidence of widespread voter fraud. Trump’s supporters falsely claim that Trump’s election was rigged.
“Thanks for coming today. Lamon addressed a group of Arizonans and Trump supporters to which he said, “I stand beside you.”
Arizona businessman Jim Lamon talks to his supporters during an endorsement given by Phoenix law enforcement organizations on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021.
AP| AP
“Brnovich said [if]Lamon said, “We show him the evidence. He’ll prosecute.” Brnovich, do your damn work.
Lamon stated that should he be elected to the Senate, he will press Governor “to ensure that we follow up on and find out what happened, who needs prosecution, and who deserves to go to prison.”
Bartos’ description of inflation which he described as an “invisible tax” on Arizonans was shared by Lamon. He shared a list of some top economic priorities from his campaign.
“Number one: Learn to live within your means. This endless spending by the government is unacceptable. It’s basically fueling inflation,” said he. We send nearly $4 trillion to Treasury. That’s just enough, I think.
Arizona could still be one of the most close elections, as the state’s citizens voted to elect a Democratic President in 2020 for their first time since 1996.
Strengthening supply chains
Kelly isn’t the only politician worried about supply chains critical to semiconductors. Republican Lamon stated that he would focus his campaign specifically on trade and national security, including Washington’s dependence upon China to obtain a class of strategic metals called rare earths.
Metals can be used in a variety of products, including smartphones, electric cars and military hardware as well as weaponry and weapons. China continues to be the world’s largest producer of rare earths. This is a problem for Wall Street, but also a concern for the Pentagon.
China will not be treated as friend by me. They are an enemy for this country. “They have the goal to take over the country and they are doing so very slowly and subtly,” Lamon stated.
Lamon was an Army officer for six years, with three of those in Germany during WWII. He also has a history in energy and is the founder and CEO of DEPCOM Power. The engineering and construction company builds large-scale, solar power plants. It employs approximately 1,600 people across the country.
Koch Engineered Solutions was a Koch Industries division that Charles Koch owns. Last month, Koch Engineered Solutions announced its intention to buy DEPCOM.
We must get back to energy independence. Lamon stated Thursday, “I even suggest that we move towards energy dominance.” We have to make America open, and we must do so responsibly.
“It is not difficult: All you have to do to make it happen is get rid of all the government. This endless EPA Forest Service review is killing us.”
[ad_2]