To Beat Inflation, Republicans Must First Beat Democrats and ‘Stop as Much of Biden Spending as We Can’: Trump Economic Adviser

President Joe Biden (L) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) (R) listen as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) speaks at an event at the White House in Washington, on Aug. 9, 2022. Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Stephen Moore, former senior economic adviser to President Donald Trump, blamed soaring inflation on the Biden administration’s massive spending packages and said the only thing that will cool price pressures is a GOP win in the midterm election so they can “stop the spending.”

Moore made the remarks in a recent interview with The Epoch Times’ sister media NTD, in which he laid out a simple inflation-beating strategy for the GOP.

“Certainly what Biden wants to do is tax more, spend more, and regulate more, and the Republicans now—and in the majority in the House and Senate—would spend less, tax less, regulate less,” Moore said.

Much like the Republican-led Congress worked to curb spending when they held both chambers during part of former President Bill Clinton’s term, potential majorities in the upcoming midterm election would allow Republicans to go “toe-to-toe” with Biden on spending, Moore said.

“A lot of the spending that Biden and the Democrats are promising has to be voted every year, and the Republicans—as they did with Bill Clinton when he lost the House and the Senate after two years—they basically said, ‘All of those spending plans you have, they’re gone,’” Moore said.

“Spending slowed and we ended up with a balanced budget,” he continued, adding that with a GOP victory in November, “I think you'll see a very serious reduction in spending levels from what Biden had hoped to get.”

‘Force as Much Spending Reduction’ as Possible

Moore acknowledged that there are limits to what a Republican-controlled Congress could do to rein in spending, as some of it is on “automatic pilot” and can’t be stopped by a vote.

“Republicans should not overpromise,” he said. “They can stop new spending, they can—in a fight over the debt ceiling—pull back some spending, as we did with [Former President Barack] Obama.”

He said a GOP win would likely mean more political friction in Washington.

“Neither side is going to be very happy,” he said. “But the more the Republicans can bring spending and regulations and taxes down, the stronger the economy.”

In order to tame soaring inflation, Republicans should “force as much spending reduction” as possible, Moore argued.

‘Inflation Is Going to Get Worse’

President Joe Biden, meanwhile, claimed at a recent event in Los Angeles that if Republicans win in the midterm elections, inflation would increase.

“If Republicans win, inflation is going to get worse. It’s that simple,” Biden said on Oct. 13, arguing that Democrats “are working to bring down the cost of things” while Republicans “are campaigning every day on an agenda to raise your costs.”

The president touted the Inflation Reduction Act for capping the cost of prescription drugs and reducing Medicare premiums, while announcing that Social Security benefits are going up by an average of $140 per month.

Biden said that Republicans want to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act and eliminate those cost-reducing benefits.

In more recent remarks, Biden said that much of what the Democrats have done in regard to the economy will kick in with a lag, which dovetails with GOP claims that inflation will get worse as some of the inflationary impacts of the administration’s big spending bills have not yet fully filtered into the economy.

Biden made the remarks in an Oct. 21 interview with MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart at Delaware State University after being asked to comment on polls showing Americans trusting Republicans over Democrats on economic matters.

“A lot of what we’ve done and we’ve passed has not kicked in yet. For example, we have all this money to rebuild the highways, bridges, Internet, etc., but it’s going to take time,” Biden said. “It’s not all happening overnight.”

A recent CNBC poll gave Republicans double-digit leads over Democrats on key economic issues ahead of the midterms. The biggest spread was on inflation, with 42 percent saying the GOP would do a better job of bringing down inflation, compared to 27 percent pointing to Democrats.

A number of Republicans have said that the Democrats’ big spending packages make inflation worse, with some of the spending effects still to be felt.