On Friday’s broadcast of CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” House Minority Whip Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA) responded to a question on addressing affordability when the big issues are gas prices and interest rates, the latter of which will likely require decreasing government spending by saying that “The fastest thing we can do to lower costs for Americans right now is end this war and get to a resolution of it, open the Strait of Hormuz, and bring those gas prices down.”
Co-host Becky Quick asked, “How do you get at the affordability issue, though, when what’s — the biggest issues that are hitting most Americans right now are higher gas prices and then higher interest rates, and that’s an issue that it probably means that you’ll have to have less government spending if you want rates to come down on interest rates, which affects your mortgage, which affects your car payment, which affects your credit card payment?”
Clark responded, “The fastest thing we can do to lower costs for Americans right now is end this war and get to a resolution of it, open the Strait of Hormuz, and bring those gas prices down. But I talked to a mom in Phoenix, Arizona, a few weeks ago. She makes $100,000 a year. She said that should be enough. But when her husband lost [his] job, between her childcare payment, her mortgage, her student loans, her husband is now selling plasma in order to make their bills. And we’re actually seeing a lot of these plasma storefronts open up, because this is how people are getting by. So, we have to make sure that we are fighting for them. And when we have what happened last night, where they pulled down the war powers resolution at the last minute because they were going to lose it, because there’s tremendous pressure on the Republicans who are going along with this war and just seeing people at home who can’t afford that increase to fill up their tank, to get to work, to drive their kids to school, to do the basics. So, all of this, we just have to remain laser-focused, on them, on the American people, and what they need. And we have an administration who is, not only ignoring them, but almost showing contempt for them, building ballrooms and arches.”
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