Casey, McCormick debate Bidenflation in final duel for Pennsylvania Senate seat

Tu♓rning down inflationary pressure remain🐼s front of mind for voters in Pennsylvania.

The two US Senate candidates vying to represent them for the next six years both want to fix it, 🌌;but don’t even agree on why it exists.

For incumbent Democratic Sen. Bob Casey Jr., the correlation between corp๊꧑orate profits – up 75%, five times the rate of inflation, he says – equals causation.

Republican challenger Dave McCormick said bad economic policy from the Biden adminisꦑtration deserves all the 🦹blame.

“Corporations were engaged in price gouging, taking▨ advantage of the pande𒈔mic and the inflationary pressures and I think we should do something about it,” Casey said.

“We shou🌄ld point it out 🐠like I have, issue reports on it.”

Then there’s legislation he supports, alongside Vice President Kamala Harris, that fine☂s companies accuse🌱d of price gouging. 

According to a recent Voters’ Voice Poll, 46% of൩ respondents support the idea, though views are mixed about how it would impact prices.

McCormick is far more certain abou✤t the con꧋sequences.

“This legislati༺on? It’s saying the government should decide,” he said.

“This is socialism.”

Under Harris’ plan proposed in August, the Federal Trade Commission would impose “harsh penalties” on companies that break limits on price gouging, though it’s unclear what those limits or fines could look like.

Critics, including McCormick, say price cღaps have been tried before – by the Nixon administration in the early 1970s in the U.S. and by Communist regimes worldwide – and they cause more harm than good.

The Republican nominee said $5 trillion in new spending authorized by the Biden administration helped drive up rent, gas, groceries and utilities🐎 prices by double digits.

McCormick 🌺added that Casey voted for the a﷽ppropriations, too.

“The one thing w🌳e learned in the Army Day 1 is you’ve got to take responsibility for your actions,” he said.

“He’s not taking responsi꧋bility for his actions. These votes were obviously going to drive this inflation problem. It’s killing middle-class families, and we need to change.”

Casey said McCormick’s support for the 2017 tax cuts eಌnacted under former President Donald Trump won’t help those same famili🃏es and will increase the deficit by more than $4 trillion.

“It will explode 🗹🍒the deficit,” he said. “It makes no sense to do that.”

Instead, the government should expand the federal child care tax c💜redit, he said, as was done temporarily during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

 chil༺dhood poverty reduced by half, reaching record lows for Black, Hispanic, Asian and Native American families.

McCormick said Casey and t﷽he Biden administration “don’t understand the economy,” noting that tꦜhe 2017 law gave a family earning $50,000 annually a $2,500 tax break.

He also pointed to a Democrat-led effort to undo the $10,000 caꦐp on state and local tax deductions, which is set to expire at the end of 2025.

Before 2017, taxpayers who itemized could deduct the amount of properꦿty, sales and income taxes paid to the state. Critics say high-income filers primarily benefitted from the break.

, a conservative policy group, before the cap, 91% of SALT beneficiaries reported inc🍰omes over꧑ $100,000 and primarily lived in six states: California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Texas and Pennsylvania.