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Even fellow Republicans are not convinced Donald Trump ideas on how Federal Reserve During his first term and during the campaign, Trump made it clear that he wanted some control over the Federal Reserve, America’s central banking system. completely independent from the politics that control most of the government.
Economists have warned that it’s a bad idea, and even members of the GOP have expressed concern, albeit quietly.
“Trump has made it clear that he wants cheap, easy money,” said former Sen. Pat Toomey Politico. “Everyone in Congress is painfully aware of how disastrous that policy can be.”
“You have to put the greater good ahead of looking at politics,” Dan Musser, a Republican from Pennsylvania. said Politico in September when Trump said the Fed should not cut interest rates until September.
The Fed, which is the nation’s financial regulator, is deliberately separated from politics to prevent the current administration or political party in power, as well as elections, from influencing decisions.
“We should achieve maximum employment and price stability for the benefit of all Americans and stay completely out of politics,” said Jerome Powell, chairman of the Federal Reserve. The New York Times DealBook Summit on Wednesday.
But Trump said otherwise. In October, the newly elected president he told Bloomberg News he believes he should have a “say” on whether interest rates go up or down.
And while the institution will face some questions from Congress on both sides of the aisle — from Republicans who believe regulations are too prescriptive for national banks to Democrats who feel the Fed hasn’t done enough to strengthen the financial system — many Republicans are stopping short of Trump’s demands.
For example, GOP Rep. Frank Lucas of Oklahoma, who sits on the House Financial Services Committee, said the Fed “has been doing very well.”
Lucas said the board would “consider” the Trump administration’s proposals, but that “some degree of independence is necessary.”
Republican Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota, a member of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee said Politico“I like the way it’s set up right now.”
Other Republicans have made comments that clearly articulate their support for an independent Fed.
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri previously said, “I don’t want to [the Fed] to behave in a political way, I want them to just do their job.”
That was said by Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who also sits on the Senate Finance Committee Politico The Fed should operate by its own legal standards – without regard to politics.