Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2021

Floor Speech

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Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, I know normally Congressmen take this opportunity to talk about some hot-button issue; therefore I feel a little regret that I am going to have to delve into what the great English historian Thomas Carlyle called the dismal science. I am going to have to address economics.

I am going to talk about two issues. I am going to talk about the monetary supply, and I am going to talk about inflation. It is a little bit boring, but they are both very important.

First, the monetary supply. If you wonder where I get these numbers, Mr. Speaker, you can google John Williams' ``Shadow Government Statistics.'' I am going to talk about M1 and M2.

M1 is a narrow definition of the monetary supply. We are now up rocketing at over 65 percent increase. You can go back 20 years and the highest prior increase is under 20 percent. So when you have this much of an outlier, look out.

Some people would say M2, which is a more narrow definition, including things like certificates of deposit, is better; but even that amount is shooting up 25 percent a year. The previous high in the last 20 years was 18 percent in 2008. And you remember what happened after 2008.

As the great James Garfield, Republican President--oh, how we wish he had a full 4 years--said: ``He who controls the money supply of a nation controls the nation.''

Please, I beg the chairman of the Budget Committee, before proceeding forth here, hold a hearing on the money supply.

Secondly, I want to talk about inflation a little bit. Sometimes it is forgotten that in both 1980 and 1990, we changed the definition of inflation. But I am old enough to remember the Jimmy Carter years and how devastating it was when we used to have inflation of over 15 percent.

Right now, if you had that definition back then, inflation would already be running at about 10 percent a year. Even if you looked after 1990, when, again, the definition changed, we ran inflation at about 5 percent a year. Now, you can only imagine what would happen if we throw another $2 trillion of money and the amount of inflation will go up.

Look at the cost of housing in the supposed economic downturn. Already the cost of housing is going up. That should be a danger sign for everybody.

I was critical of the past administration on a variety of things. I was opposed to President Trump's $2,000-a-person thing for this reason. I think there is still time to turn back before we have a huge problem with the money supply and the overall stockmarket, and we can still show that this Congress has a little bit of fiscal responsibility.

I again beg: Please have a hearing not just on the monetary supply, but a hearing on inflation.

As Herbert Stein, an economist of some fame and even more famous as Ben Stein's dad, said: ``If something can't go on forever, it won't.''

I ask the chairman to please have a hearing on monetary supply and inflation.

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