On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Closing Bell,” Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) responded to a question on who should be blamed for inflation by stating that it’s “not my job here to blame people. You want to blame people, you’ll never get anything accomplished. I’m here to get things done.”
Host Sara Eisen asked, “You’ve been critical, Sen. Manchin, of the Federal Reserve in the past for being late and slow when it comes to the inflation fight. Do you think they’re doing a good job now?”
Manchin acknowledged his past criticism of the Fed, adding, “Well, they’re coming on now. They’re doing their job now. It took them a little while to get kicked in. But they’re doing their job. Let’s just see what happens. But we can do an awful lot more, basically, by producing, taking the chains off of production for energy, let our oil companies do what they do, let our natural gas companies — let’s build some pipelines, let’s get some things done here.”
After Manchin stated that inflation is harmful, Eisen asked, “Who owns that, who should get the blame for that? The Fed? The Biden administration? Congress? You guys passed $2 trillion of spending at a time [when] America was reopening?”
Manchin responded, “Sara, that’s not my job here to blame people. You want to blame people, you’ll never get anything accomplished. I’m here to get things done. My Republican friends are upset right now, for whatever reason, I don’t know. These are still my friends, they’ll always be my friends, and we work very well together. We did three things they told me to do. They’ve always said, can’t we produce more? Absolutely. Can’t we pay down debt? Absolutely. Can we streamline the permitting process? Absolutely. In a normal time that wasn’t this toxic because people hate each other so bad, I love them all. … This is an American bill. Let the American people have a win. One time, let them have a win.”
Back in April 2022, Manchin reacted to the inflation numbers released that month by stating that “The Federal Reserve and the [a]dministration failed to act fast enough, and today’s data is a snapshot in time of the consequences being felt across the country.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.