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Why Transparency Matters
00:15:23
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unidentified
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| Joining us this morning is Congressman Mike Haradopoulos, a Republican on the Financial Services Committee. | ||
| Congressman, thank you so much for being with us this morning. | ||
| Great to be back. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| All right. | ||
| You serve on that important Financial Services Committee, which of course has oversight over the Federal Reserve. | ||
| Can you just tell us your thoughts about the now criminal federal investigation into the Fed chairman, Jerome Powell? | ||
| Well, it's something that we all have to look at. | ||
| As you know, there's been about a billion dollar cost overrun with the Fed building. | ||
| He was asked multiple times, you know, give us more information. | ||
| We want to understand why we go over a billion dollars over budget on this particular building. | ||
| It seemed like he didn't want to respond to those questions. | ||
| And, of course, they're putting a little more pressure on him to say, look, we need more transparency in general in government. | ||
| And I think that's the direction where the president, I should say, the attorneys chose to go. | ||
| But in general, we are frustrated with Powell because we think interest rates should be lower. | ||
| As you know, the inflation rate has been cut dramatically in the first year. | ||
| And we've also been frustrated, as he admitted in the committee, the very question I asked. | ||
| I asked, did you make some mistakes during the Biden years of not adjusting the rates accordingly? | ||
| And what was the reason for inflation? | ||
| And he said point blank in the committee, he said, overspending the last four years caused inflation by the government. | ||
| Now, let's run through some of what's involved in this investigation. | ||
| According to the New York Times here, it's what to know about the criminal investigation into the Fed chair. | ||
| And it says that the probe revolves around Jerome H. Powell, who has led the central bank since 2018 and his oversight of a $2.5 billion renovation of the Fed's headquarters in Washington. | ||
| As you said, the project is running roughly over $700 million over budget. | ||
| It's expected to cost $2.5 billion. | ||
| Prosecutors are looking into whether or not Powell misled Congress when questioned last June before the Senate Banking Committee about the project, as well as spending records they say that they requested from his staff. | ||
| Do you believe that these allegations are credible? | ||
| You have someone who you just said have spoken to Powell before. | ||
| And one, are they credible? | ||
| And two, is there a place for your committee to do something more on this matter, requesting more documents in tandem with the federal government? | ||
| Well, I think you answered the question that we should give information. | ||
| I mean, the trust in government is way down, and partially because it's not transparent enough. | ||
| I come from the great state of Florida. | ||
| We have what's called the sunshine laws. | ||
| Everything is in the sunshine, including the budget, how we spend dollars, even the companies that get government dollars. | ||
| We need a lot more transparency. | ||
| And as I understand it, they've asked multiple times for the Fed chairman to provide the information. | ||
| And look, there are cost overruns, especially as after COVID, the supply chains went up, et cetera. | ||
| I think he should just be transparent on why we have the cost overruns. | ||
| At this point, it seemed like he's ignored the request over and over to just answer the basic questions of why there are cost overruns. | ||
| And that causes great frustration given some of the craziness we're seeing in places like California and Minnesota, where people are really fraudulently using money or lying on applications to spend those important taxpayer dollars. | ||
| So do you view these allegations as credible? | ||
| Well, I think you have to. | ||
| I mean, we're talking about the United States government, and we're talking about the Fed Board. | ||
| And anytime that any allegations like that, you have to take it seriously. | ||
| But I think this problem would be alleviated quickly if Powell would just come forth and say, here are the numbers. | ||
| This is why we're spending so much over budget. | ||
| I think we'd solve the problem overnight. | ||
| And on the Financial Services Committee, who has oversight over the Fed? | ||
| You guys, you're saying that you don't have that information. | ||
| We do, but I mean, I think this has gone beyond that. | ||
| Again, they asked them over and over again: where are the records? | ||
| And why would you ignore an investigator who's, again, it's not your money, it's the government's money. | ||
| We want to know how it's being spent. | ||
| It's that simple. | ||
| Now, I want to point you to a tweet from the U.S. Attorney Janine Pirro, who, after that video that Powell released, she said that the United States Attorney's Office contacted the Federal Reserve on multiple occasions to discuss cost overruns in the chairman and congressional testimony, but were ignored, necessitating the use of the legal federal process, which is not a threat. | ||
| The word, quote, indictment, has come out of Mr. Powell's mouth, no one else's. | ||
| None of this would have happened if he had just responded to our outreach. | ||
| I believe that a source told the Washington Post in the last few days that they did receive these emails, but it didn't include anything about an indictment or a deadline, I believe is what they told the Post. | ||
| But I wonder, just not responding to an email from a U.S. attorney, is that a legal basis to start an investigation? | ||
| Well, again, as I think she put very well, multiple times they ask. | ||
| This has been an ongoing situation. | ||
| As you know, the president, Mr. Powell, had a very unique conversation mid-part of last year, literally at the building, saying, you know, why are these costs overruns taking so why are they so radically high? | ||
| And so I think that's the frustration. | ||
| He knew these questions were coming. | ||
| And it's like anything else. | ||
| I'm a person who used to not only be a college teacher but also a business person. | ||
| People, clients expect transparency. | ||
| And when you're spending that much money, I mean, think about the number, two and a half billion dollars on a Taj Mahal for the Federal Reserve Board. | ||
| They want to know why we're spending almost a billion dollars more than expected. | ||
| And he chooses just to ignore a request from an attorney from the Justice Department. | ||
| I mean, if I get a call from the Justice Department, I think I'd be responding to those questions. | ||
| Now, before we continue our conversation, Congressman, I want to invite our audience to join in on the conversation. | ||
| Democrats, your line is 202-748-8000. | ||
| Republicans, your line is 202-748-8001. | ||
| Independents, your line is 202-748-8002. | ||
| Congressman, I want to play you a clip from Tuesday with Senator Kevin Kramer talking about what could happen if Jerome Powell says that he would resign. | ||
| Take a listen here. | ||
| Maybe pulling back, but maybe the point should be: if you're the attorney for Jay Paul and you want to avoid an indictment, how about you go to Gene Piero and say, I'll make a deal. | ||
| I'll step down today if you'll drop the investigation today. | ||
| To me, that would be a win-win for everybody. | ||
|
unidentified
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Well, I'd love that. | |
| I mean, we've all talked about getting him out of there. | ||
| I mean, doesn't this give credence to the criticism that this investigation is one that is meant to pressure the chair to step down? | ||
| Well, it might be. | ||
| But again, I think you look at Powell's tenure, it's not exactly been a world of success. | ||
| He admitted in our committee that he had made mistakes with interest rates that allowed the inflation rate to get to about 9%, as you know. | ||
| This affects all of us across the board. | ||
| And he admitted that in committee, and he also admitted that the government overspent in the Biden years and it caused inflation. | ||
| And so I think the president's looking to make a change. | ||
| Hopefully, that'll happen sooner than later. | ||
| Should Mr. Powell choose to stay, it's his decision. | ||
| But again, all he had to do was simply comply and say, we were spending too much money. | ||
| I need to show you why we're spending too much money. | ||
| Why would he ignore a simple request from a United States attorney? | ||
| It just doesn't make sense to me. | ||
| But his term is up in May. | ||
| Why not just wait for him to leave? | ||
| I think it's also about accountability. | ||
| If you went in and you and I said to you just said that if it was him and he would tell his attorney just to step just to say that he's going to resign for the investigation to go away. | ||
| So is that really about accountability? | ||
| This is a senator saying, this is what I might do. | ||
| This is not the attorney who called him over and over again and said, please provide the information. | ||
| We allocated X amount of money for you. | ||
| You spent a lot more than we thought you would. | ||
| Tell us why you spent so much money. | ||
| And instead of saying, you know what, you're right, I shouldn't have spent so much, or this is why we spent too much, he chose to ignore a United States attorney. | ||
| And we all know the power that United States attorneys have. | ||
| A lot of people went to jail for not complying in years past. | ||
| And I think Mr. Powell would solve a lot of problems if he would just be transparent and put out where they spent the money. | ||
| That's what I'd like to see as a new member of Congress. | ||
| And remember, that's what I'm used to. | ||
| In Florida, we put it all out in the sunshine. | ||
| And in Washington, we need more sunshine so we can make better decisions. | ||
| Because when you see how they spent money with USAID, some of these problems in Minnesota, the train program in California, all people want is transparency because people are working incredibly hard right now with higher prices and high taxes. | ||
| And they're saying, why am I giving all these tax dollars when these people spent it like it doesn't matter? | ||
| I want to ask you one more question on this before we turn to the economy. | ||
| But your chair of the Financial Services Committee chair, Representative French Hill, also a Republican from Arkansas, I want to read you what he wrote. | ||
| He said, pursuing criminal charges relating to Powell's testimony on building reservations at a time when the nation's economy requires focus creates an unnecessary distraction. | ||
| The Federal Reserve is led by strong, capable individuals appointed by President Trump, and this action could undermine the future of the administration's ability to make sound monetary policy decisions. | ||
| We must stay focused on our work to foster more opportunities with higher wages and faster economic growth for the American people. | ||
| That at the same time as there's been a lot of reporting that Treasury Secretary Scott Besson was unhappy with this investigation and he told the president directly. | ||
| I mean, I wonder if you can kind of square those comments with yours because you seem to be saying that not only are these allegations credible, but they're warranted because the Fed didn't respond. | ||
| Well, I think that everyone answered the question correctly. | ||
| If Mr. Powell will just turn over how they spent the money, all these problems go away. | ||
| He's not been indicted. | ||
| They're just looking at information. | ||
| There's a big difference between someone looking at something and actually having an indictment. | ||
| He has not been indicted. | ||
| And so what I'd like to see as a new member of Congress, again, I don't pretend to know the inside baseball of everything in Washington, D.C. after one year, but I do know this. | ||
| Mr. Powell takes away a lot of pressure if he says, here is the information you requested. | ||
| After all, again, it's not Mr. Powell's money. | ||
| It's the money of the United States government because people have worked hard to pay taxes. | ||
| I think what French Hill is saying is accurate. | ||
| We all want to focus on the economy. | ||
| And what alleviates all these pressure points, Mr. Powell, turn over the information and all these problems go away because we can look and see how we can better spend your hard-earned tax dollars. | ||
| Do you think that this one undermines the financial markets or will have an effect on monetary policy decisions? | ||
| I think if it would have undermined the financial markets, we would have seen a big problem this week. | ||
| Clearly, that's not the case. | ||
| The Dow is there actually at record numbers right now. | ||
| As you know, your 401k is up probably about 15 or 20 percent versus one year ago. | ||
| So the markets are in very good stead, especially in comparison with the last four years. | ||
| We've not made a full recovery yet, but we're a heck of a lot better off than we were a year ago at this time. | ||
| All right, let's turn to some phone calls. | ||
| Jessica from Cocoa Beach, Florida, a Republican. | ||
| Home District. | ||
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unidentified
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I love it. | |
| You're on the line. | ||
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unidentified
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Hi, Congressman. | |
| My concern is that you have compromised your office in order for your wife to get and keep her job as acting chief of staff for the Surgeon General, which she got after you took your seat in Congress. | ||
| This is nothing to say anything negative about your wife's capabilities. | ||
| It just seems very improper to me as one of your constituents hoping that you would make me 100% your your focus instead now you have to worry about what you do in order to keep your wife in her job. | ||
| And my concern is because you show no understanding of one of the key aspects of your job, which is to check and balance the executive branch. | ||
| You vote 100% of the time with President Trump, and you often go on Fox, and now you're coming on C-SPAN to push his agenda. | ||
| Well, first of all, I'm insulted by the fact that you would even question my integrity, letting my wife's on this situation. | ||
| You might want to know is that my wife is actually a medical doctor. | ||
| She's a person who was on the Florida Board of Medicine, unpaid. | ||
| She was also what's called Florida Healthy Kids, which is a great program which provides low-cost health insurance for kids. | ||
| She's got an incredible resume, and she was approached by the Trump administration because of that incredible resume. | ||
| And she is doing great work with the Secretary of HHS, RFK Jr., as well with Dr. Oz and others. | ||
| And I'm so proud of the work she is doing to make America healthy again. | ||
| And as far as where I'm voting, I'm very transparent. | ||
| I hope you're getting my newsletter every week. | ||
| I tell people exactly how I vote and what I stand for. | ||
| And the great news for the Space Coast is that we actually got a budget passed for NASA, which includes $10 billion additional dollars for the space program. | ||
| We're going around the moon for the first time since 1972. | ||
| And in a few weeks or at least the next couple of months, we're excited about that. | ||
| And we made sure that NASA's funding was fully in place. | ||
| And so the Space Coast is booming. | ||
| I'm proud to be the chairman of that committee to make sure we continue to win the space race. | ||
| And I could not be more proud of my wife. | ||
| She does amazing work. | ||
| And you might want to check your facts sometimes a little more succinctly. | ||
| Edward from New Jersey and Independent, you're next. | ||
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unidentified
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Yeah, thank you. | |
| So yeah, I want to know if you guys have been briefed on the oppositional groups in Venezuela. | ||
| It seems pretty ridiculous that you can't even get a caravan of ICE agents to drive down the road without committing atrocities. | ||
| And now you're going to be guaranteeing these flows of oil for people who are not going to want to be giving up their rights and their land. | ||
| And also, have you guys pulled the record on ICE and see what these guys have been wasting any of our money doing all the nonsense that they're running around chasing toilet scrubbers around the country? | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Well, I'm not exactly how you want me to answer that one, Edward, but look, ICE's job is to remove people here illegally, especially criminal aliens once they came to America. | ||
| What's incredibly disappointing in my mind is that persons who came to this country illegally, one, breaking the law, two, once they got here, they broke the law, in many cases, violent crimes, that they should be removed from the country. | ||
| And sadly, a lot of folks in what they call sanctuary cities would not only let these people out who should be in jail, they're enticing or trying to get people to get in the way of these officers in a very difficult situation. | ||
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Tense Situations and Violent Arrests
00:00:47
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| Again, just to give you my background, again, my dad is a former FBI agent. | ||
| He's a person who was part of law enforcement. | ||
| And when you go into a situation where you need to arrest a violent criminal, which is happening across the country because of a lot of people who came in overseas were violent criminals, it's a very tense situation. | ||
| And the last thing you need is to involve yourself in a very tense situation. | ||
| And what happened in Minnesota is tragic. | ||
| But as my parents taught me, when you see a police operation going on, the last thing you want to do is get into the middle of it. | ||
| But this never should have happened in the first place. | ||
| All they had to do when they arrest a violent criminal is to keep them in jail. | ||