WASHINGTON – In today’s Senate Finance Committee hearing, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) called out Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on the administration’s failure to rein in reckless spending and address inflation. Excerpts are below, and video can be found here.

“When you testified before this Committee almost two years ago, you were asked whether inflation was transitory.”

“You predicted our economy was on track to get back to more normal operation and that inflation would decline over time, something we all hoped for.”

“We now know that inflation rose to a level not seen in more than 40 years, and that inflation accelerated, particularly following the enactment of the partisan American Rescue Plan Act in 2021, and then with the so-called Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, which together added $2.6 trillion to our national debt.”

“When you look at the confluence of concerning economic factors, there is one unavoidable truth: we need to get our fiscal house in order, something that the administration pays lip service to, but which seems uninterested in working with Republicans to try to address. And the President’s budget proposal, of course, just makes that clear because it offers more taxes, more spending, and more debt.”

“There is no proposal from the President to deal with these impending disasters.”

“Last year, the administration pushed through an $80 billion blank check for the IRS without a spending plan.”

“Now the administration wants another $29 billion.”

“This, of course, is going to mean more audits, more red tape, and violate the President’s promise that no one paying less than $400,000 in taxes would pay any more.”

“The President’s budget misses the mark, which is disappointing, but unfortunately pretty consistent with what we’ve seen from this administration.”