After 13 terms in Congress representing the 8th Congressional District, U.S. Representative Kevin Brady (R) says this will be his last term but plans to go out with a bang on his House Ways and Means Committee.
As the only guest on this week’s Houston Newsmakers with Khambrel Marshall, Brady says one goal is to pass regulations that will be a companion to earlier legislation that helps the American people with pocketbook issues.
“The first one helped workers save earlier and longer throughout their careers,” he said. “Our focus now is helping people who never saved you know get into that category of having control over your life, so we still have items on our plate to do.”
Unemployment rates are down but what is the inflation impact?
Some recent good news for the Biden administration has been the jobs reports that show unemployment in the United States near pre-pandemic lows, but Congressman Brady says the numbers don’t tell the real story.
“That 3.5% in February 2020 was the lowest rate in 50 years but here’s the difference. The economy then was growing,” he said. “It’s shrinking now. At that time paychecks were going up much faster than prices. Today prices are still crushing wages so families are losing more and more each month .”
Brady says the inflationary problems being felt now are being caused by Biden policies.
On a previous Houston Newsmakers program John Diamond, Ph.D., the Director of the Center for Public Finance at the Baker Institute at Rice University said 80 percent of the inflation issues would have happened no matter what party was in power. Here is a Houston Newsmakers EXTRA segment from that program where inflation was the main topic of discussion.
The political parties seem as divided as ever and Congressman Brady talks about why the GOP was united in opposition to the recently passed “Inflation Reduction Act,” why the drug price component of that bill is a false promise, and his thoughts on whether former President Trump should run for office again.
“I leave that up to him.,” he said. “Should he run, he’s going to be in a very strong position within the Republican party and in a strong position to win back the White House after that.”
Houston Newsmakers with Khambrel Marshall Every Sunday at 10 a.m. right after Meet the Press.
· U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady (R), 8th Congressional District