McCormick: “It’s Not Greedflation…[by] Business People, It’s Not Because [They’re] Greedy, It’s Not Because [They’re] Price Gouging.”
Sen. Bob Casey: “I Call It Greedflation, I Don’t Care What You Call It, It’s Wrong. We Got To Do Something About Families [Who] Are Suffering.””
PENNSYLVANIA — This weekend, Connecticut hedge fund executive David McCormick came to the defense of corporations that are jacking up prices on working families, according to a new report. Mega-millionaire McCormick defended the corporate greed and price-gouging that is making it harder for Pennsylvania families to afford their groceries. McCormick also called to make the 2017 tax cuts permanent — legislation which has overwhelmingly benefited the ultra-wealthy and big corporations over working people.
While David McCormick shills for greedy corporations, Sen. Bob Casey is fighting back against corporate greed and delivering for working families.
Pennsylvania Democratic Party spokesperson Maddy McDaniel issued the following statement:
“Choosing corporate greed over working people is nothing new for Connecticut hedge executive David McCormick, who spent his career selling out working people, investing billions in China, and shipping Pennsylvania jobs overseas. Pennsylvanians want someone in their corner who’s going to lower costs for them, not someone who only cares about his own bottom line and enriching his Wall Street friends.”
ICYMI: Pennsylvania Capital-Star: In remarks from PA Society gathering, Casey and McCormick disagree on ‘greedflation’
- U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and his GOP challenger David McCormick offered different views on who bears responsibility for price increases.
- According to a recording of his remarks during the Pennsylvania Society gathering in New York City that were obtained by the Capital-Star, McCormick attempted to shift the blame for inflation and an overall rise in prices onto President Joe Biden.
- “And with all due respect, there’s a number of Democrats that are talking about greedflation, as the source of that,” McCormick said. “It’s not greedflation [by] you in this room, business people, it’s not because you’re greedy, it’s not because you’re price gouging, it’s because the Biden administration spent $5 trillion [and] has distorted our economy and created this inflationary problem.”
- Casey released a pair of reports last month based on research from the Federal Reserve and from corporations’ financial disclosures and quarterly reports, to illustrate how, as he put it, “corporate profits contributed a large percentage to inflation in the first year and contributed much less in the second” after the pandemic.
- According to the first greedflation report, corporate profits accounted for all the inflation in the first year of the pandemic recovery — roughly July 2020 to July 2021— and 41% of inflation overall in the first two years of the post-pandemic recovery period of July 2020 to July 2022.
- Casey added that the “inconvenient fact” is that companies have and will continue to “jack up their profits.” Between 2020 and 2022, he said, corporate profits were up 75% while inflation was up 14% over the same time period.
- “And while they’re jacking up their prices, their profits are going through the roof,” Casey said. “ I call it greedflation, I don’t care what you call it, it’s wrong. We got to do something about families [who] are suffering.”
- “We know what to do,” [McCormick] said. “We need to make this a more business friendly commonwealth and more business friendly country. We need to make permanent the tax cut and Jobs Act.”
- According to Casey, however, companies had benefited from a “bonanza of tax benefits in the 2017 tax code,” providing permanent tax relief, but then turned around and increased prices despite record profits.
- Casey also repeated his call to “reinstitute a much more generous child tax credit that is in place right now,” and go back to the Child Tax Credit monthly payments from the American Rescue Plan. The payments, which were credited with bringing child poverty to its lowest level on record, ended in December 2021.
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