Americans are being crushed under the weight of 9.1 percent inflation — a burden that will only become heavier if Cheri Beasley (D) is elected to the U.S. Senate, Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC) told Breitbart News.
The congressman and Trump-endorsed North Carolina U.S. Senate candidate spoke with Breitbart News in an exclusive phone interview on Wednesday, reacting to the release of new 40-year-high inflation numbers and calling out his opponent for aligning with President Joe Biden’s economic policies.
“She’s essentially ignoring the issue. She is thinking that the way you solve this is more government spending, more Biden tax increases. She supports Biden’s war on American energy… and she’s completely in line with Green New Deal thinking,” Budd said of Beasley, who is a former chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court.
Budd said the Democrat-led destruction of the American economy “sure looks intentional” when asked if inflation and high gas prices are premeditated or the result of negligent leadership.
“I mean, Joe Biden said this is just a transition, right? He is trying to get everyone into electric cars, so he flipped American energy off on day one and killed 10,000 jobs on the Keystone XL Pipeline. We’ve seen prices continue to escalate since then,” Budd said.
“So what Joe Biden’s done — he has failed North Carolina’s working families. And you know, it, it sure looks intentional because you have to work really hard to make something like this happen. This is beyond incompetence here, and Cheri Beasley is right there with it,” he continued. “I’d say the only way that we can stop this economic pain. — we have to put the breaks on Joe Biden’s agenda. One of the ways you can do that is take the Senate away from him, and you have to stop Cheri Beasley because she is a rubber stamp for Joe Biden.”
Republicans are introducing legislation in the hopes of easing inflation, though bipartisan agreement on how to handle the economy is hard to come by in a Democrat-controlled House and Senate, Budd said.
“It’s the radical AOC people, and Chuck Schumer is afraid of AOC [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)], and they have essentially taken the Democrat Party hostage,” he said. “I think there are some people over there that want work with us as reasonable Republicans, but they’re afraid. We’re going to keep reaching out too, but right now it’s time for a few of the Reagan Democrats and folks that realize their party has become radicalized to come across the line and support an agenda that will actually lower the cost of energy and make their lives better.”
For months, inflation and the economy have trumped every other issue as a top concern ahead of the November general elections. That concern is easily justified considering that the cost of everyday necessities like food, gasoline, housing, transportation, and utilities continue to increase beyond economists’ expectations. Annually, grocery store prices are up 12.2 percent and one percent for the month of June. Energy prices are up 41.6 percent annually and 7.5 percent since May. Gasoline prices jumped 11.2 percent in June compared with May for a 59.9 percent year-over-year increase.
“People are getting crushed by these high prices: if it’s the grocery store, if it’s the gas pump — we’ve got back to school coming up next month, and parents are going to be deciding between new clothes, new school supplies or whether they’re going to put groceries on the table,” he said. “It’s affecting people in a very real way in all 100 counties that we were able to visit. Everything that Joe Biden is doing is making life harder for them,” Budd said.
The congressman said he does not Americans’ prioritization of the economy to change ahead of his U.S. Senate race, despite Democrats’ attempts to fear-monger about the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“When I’ve traveled to all 100 counties, the thing I’m hearing about is inflation and crime — and that’s crime from things coming across the border and 72 hours later ending up in our 100 counties in North Carolina.” he said. “That’s fentanyl, the loss of life between those 18 and 45 years old. But number one factor is fentanyl, and it’s devastating. We’re all only one or two degrees away from a tragedy in North Carolina, and it’s heartbreaking.”
Recent polling shows Budd ahead of Beasley four months out from the race to fill retiring Sen. Richard Burr’s Senate seat (R-NC). A Trafalgar Group poll released in early July shows Budd 2.5 percent ahead of Beasley, 47.6 percent to 45.1 percent with 3.2 percent undecided. A Cygnal poll released by the John Lock Foundation on June 23 showed Budd with nearly a five-point lead over Beasley, 45 percent to 40.3 percent, with 11 percent undecided.
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