(TheRedAlertNews.com) – In a new report titled “The Hidden Tax,” Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) detailed the impact of inflation on low and middle-income households and small businesses.
The Republican ranking member on the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship warned that rising prices would only “get worse” while blaming Congress COVID-19 relief spending for the 7% inflation.
Speaking on Fox News Digital, Paul reiterated the overall sentiment in his report, mentioning how everything from gas to rent and basics like food, clothing, and electricity had increased, adding that Congress had to realize that “further spending at this time of rapidly rising prices is only going to continue the trend of rising prices on this nation’s already vulnerable businesses and families.”
The 18-page report, which relies on publicly available price indexes, exposes the extent to which essential goods have surged in price over the last year.
The report also references a public opinion study by Gallup revealing households earning less than $40,000 have been impacted most by inflation. In contrast, households with an income of $100,000 haven’t been as severely affected.
Paul also highlights how small businesses –– with thin margins –– would suffer a “fatal blow” from “sustained inflation” compared to larger corporations that can rely on their “economies of scale.”
The Kentucky Republican also notes that the government’s “$4.9 trillion in COVID-19 stimulus spending” caused this inflation, before remarking that initially intended as “a form of relief” for lower and middle-income families and small businesses, the packages have resulted in Americans “paying a ‘hidden tax.’”
As a long-time and outspoken critic of Congress’s pandemic spending, Paul has now criticized how the unity in 2020 surrounding the massive congressional spending would not guarantee “virtuous outcomes.” Writing in his report that in this instance, the agreement to spend $4.9 trillion in COVID-19 relief has “left Americans with the most difficult economic conditions in recent history,” before adding that “This crisis is one of our own making.”
