At the Oklahoma Farm Bureau Leadership Conference, Associate Farm Editor, Reagan Calk, had the chance to talk with Congressman Tom Cole about the way the current administration is tackling the rising national debt and inflation, and what he would like to see for the oil and gas industry.
Oklahomans have many concerns, Cole said, but their biggest concerns are inflation, security at the southern border, scrutiny of oil and gas industry, and the war in Russia and Ukraine.
“Why in the world are we the bad guys when we are giving the country energy security and providing reasonably priced fuel, and even though it is higher than it was, the reality is, it is cheaper than any place else in the world,” Cole said.
As Americans are being faced with inflation, Cole talked about his concerns with the way this administration is handling the issue.
“I think they started a fire,” Cole said. “When this administration came to office, inflation was running at 1.4 percent. It peaked at 9.1 and it is still running between six and seven percent and doesn’t look like it is coming down fast anytime soon.”
The problem with the rising inflation, Cole said has been overspending.
“They were warned when they passed the American Rescue Plan- 1.9 trillion dollars in February of ’21,” Cole said. “The next year followed up with 750 billion dollars in the Inflation Reduction Act.”
In between the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act, Cole said the administration overspent in many additional areas.
“This was going to spark inflation,” Cole said. “It wasn’t just Republicans that said that. Economists, like Larry Summers, former Secretary of the Treasury for Bill Clinton and Jason Furman, the former Chairman of the National Economic Advisors to President Obama- those people both said, ‘Hey this is a mistake. We are spending so much, and that is going to be a tax on every family because when prices go up, wages may not keep up with them.’”
While it is good that the unemployment is low, Cole said the average American has fallen behind economically over the last two years as wages have not gone up as fast as inflation.
“Every farmer I know can tell you how much fertilizer has gone up, how much fuel has gone up to operators’ equipment, how much land value has gone up, which is a very mixed bag when you pay property taxes if you are not selling,” Cole said. “If you want to buy and expand, it makes it that much more difficult.”
While Cole believes this Congress will be able to gain control of things again, the Senate and President are Democratic and their tendency is to overspend.
Cole also talked about achieving reform with the national debt higher than it has ever been.
“We are going to have to do what neither party wants to do and start talking about social security Medicare and Medicaid,” Cole said. “That is not necessarily in terms of cutting benefits. Certainly not for people that are on, but you can reform the process and you may need to increase the revenues, but you have got to do something because those are the real drivers of the debt.”
Cole is a well-known advocate for the oil and gas industry in Oklahoma and said he would like to see an administration that is a friend to that industry and one that will approve their infrastructure needs as there are many pipelines that need to be built in the United States.
“It is an overly regulated business in my viewpoint, and this administration is pretty hostile to carbon-based energy,” Cole said. “We need reasonable regulation numbers.”
Lasty, Cole said the Federal Government controls a large portion of the surface of the United States, making it more difficult for companies to explore and produce in those areas.
“That needs to stop,” Cole said. “We need to be energy independent, and we need to do business with people like Canada on something like the Keystone Pipeline. They are our friends. They would never hold us up, they would never shut off supply. Why in the world would we want to talk to the Iranians and the Venezuelans who will do both of those things to us as opposed to work with our friends that have the resource, and frankly refine their product in the United States?”
