Democrat Cindy Axne Calls on Pelosi to Address Inflation After Claiming There Was No Problem

Rep. Cindy Axne, the lone vulnerable congressional Democrat from Iowa, reversed course on inflation Thursday, calling for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to pass legislation addressing the ongoing supply chain problem, which has caused a massive spike in inflation.

Axne joined a group of vulnerable Democrats in a letter calling for the Democrat party leaders in the House to address the ongoing supply chain crisis and spike in inflation by quickly passing legislation. The vulnerable House Democrats wrote that they are “concerned about the ongoing disruptions to our nation’s supply chain, which are causing delays and increasing inflation for our constituents.”

Axne, before trying to appear as a champion on the supply chain crisis, has for months argued that inflation is a “false advertisement”:

• In June, when asked if Republicans were wise to warn about inflation if the federal government continued to spend during a live television appearance, Axne said, “we’re not even remotely close to a point to say that we’re at rising inflation, so no, I wouldn’t agree with that.”
• In July, during a town hall, she claimed the “economy is on a great track” and talking about inflation is bringing up “false advertisements.”
• In September, Axne then claimed that “things will get better day by day” when referring to the rise in gas and food prices.

While this was happening, Axne voted for the American Rescue Plan in February, which former Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers said was “poorly targeted and risked overheating the economy,” in addition to research from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco that indicated that passage of the bill played a roll in the rise in prices.

The letter Axne signed onto argued that Congress should act to help families across the country seeing higher prices and touted their passage of the disastrous $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill — which President Biden signed into law — and the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better Act, also known as the Democrats’ reconciliation infrastructure bill. Axne voted in favor of both of them.

However, the letter, reported by Punchbowl News, appeared not to mention the $1.75 trillion bill that was widely considered to be the “marquee legislation” for Biden’s legislative agenda, would indeed increase taxes on the middle class by “roughly 20 percent to 30 percent” according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center and expand and prolong the effects of inflation. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) revealed that Biden’s “marquee legislation” would add $750 billion to the American deficit over five years.

“After months of falsely claiming inflation wasn’t real and taking votes to worsen the crisis, Cindy Axne is now pretending to care about rising prices by writing meaningless letters,” National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Spokesman Mike Berg told Breitbart News. “Instead of meaningless letters, Cindy Axne should stop voting like a full-blown socialist.”

Republican candidate for Iowa’s Third Congressional District and state Sen. Zach Nunn (R), who is running against Axne in the midterms next year, told Breitbart News Saturday that Axne is only loyal to Pelosi and not Iowans.

Nunn argued that Axne has never received more than roughly 48 percent of the popular vote during an election, adding that “she’s not even showing up in certain places in Iowa anymore, because she doesn’t have a single friend here but also because she doesn’t care,” indicating that she’s more loyal to Pelosi and the California Democrat donors.

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter.