Sunshine Sentinel

WASHINGTON, D.C. –On January 31, 2024, ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell’s press conference following this week’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting, Senator Rick Scott released a statement slamming Powell’s failure to meet the Fed’s target of reducing its massive balance sheet. If the Fed had kept its promise and met its target, the balance sheet would be $400 BILLION lower today. Senator Scott has previously made similar requests, but the Fed has failed to be accountable to the American people and address this serious problem. 

Senator Rick Scott said, “Thanks to Jay Powell’s failed leadership, the Fed has overseen a massive misallocation of capital and grown its balance sheet to an unsustainable $7.68 trillion. Today, Powell must uphold his promise to the American people that he will continue to pay down the balance sheet and do everything possible to combat President Biden’s inflation crisis that continues to hurt American families with high prices that have skyrocketed 17% since he took office. Powell’s failure to meet his own goals of balance sheet reduction and implement meaningful accountability measures at the Fed is purposeful and unacceptable. Today, I am again demanding that the Fed honor its mission, put American taxpayers first and pay down the balance sheet before even more taxpayer money is lost.” 

BACKGROUND…

As Chair, Jay Powell has overseen a wildly unaccountable Fed, which has grossly mismanaged U.S. monetary policy and unsustainably grown its balance sheet, hurting millions of hardworking American families with skyrocketing interest rates and inflation. The Fed’s continued mismanagement of its balance sheet has caused a massive misallocation of capital and caused it to lose $1.3 TRILLION of taxpayer money. 

Earlier this Congress, Senator Scott introduced a legislative package aimed at forcing accountability on the Federal Reserve. This package includes:

• The Regular Order for Investments (ROI) of the Federal Reserve Act to end the Fed’s bad practices and force the Fed to consider the impact of its decisions on hard-working American families so this never happens again;
• The Right-Size the Federal Reserve Act to ensure an unwinding of the Fed’s massive balance sheet by mandating that it remain at or below 10% of U.S. GDP; and
• The Rein in the Federal Reserve Act to interject much-needed scrutiny and accountability of the Fed’s actions by establishing a statutory process for more strict oversight by Congress.

MORE…

• Sen. Rick Scott Urging Accountability From Powell Missing Goal of Reducing the Fed’s Balance Sheet
• Sen. Rick Scott Pushes for Accountability from New Federal Reserve Appointees
• Sen. Rick Scott Slams Fed Chair Jay Powell for Trillion-Dollar Loss, Disgraceful Leadership

Original source can be found here.