(The middle square) – A rail standstill, which experts believe could have caused billions in damage to the economy, was prevented by a Senate vote on Thursday.
The Senate voted 80-15 in favor of an agreement that would give rail workers a 24% pay rise over the next five years. A second bill that would have added seven days of paid sick leave was rejected.
Sen. Kevin Cramer, RN.D., and Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., had urged their peers not to pass the second law. You said in a Letter that passing the alternative would set a precedent.
“Other unionized workers in regulated industries in the future would likely take the same risk and let Congress arbitrate these types of labor disputes instead of the National Mediation Board,” Cramer said. “It is in the best interest of all parties that the railroads, and not Congress, work through issues like paid vacations directly with their employees.”
President Joe Biden is expected to sign the law.
The rail strike would have exacerbated supply chain problems already plaguing the economy, costing up to $2 billion a day, according to Cramer. Supply chain problems are improving but consumer prices are rising, according to the November Beige Book of the US Federal Reservecompiles economic data from the Fed’s 12 regional districts.
The nation’s economic woes can be traced back to “free money” being thrown into the market, Cramer said in an interview with The Center Square.
“It’s kind of airplane construction while we’re flying and the kind of lockdown shutdown uncertainty of a disease that we don’t know, don’t know or have experienced much about, and Republicans and Democrats have passed many permits almost unanimously in trying to get around the economy.” sort of staying afloat while the economy was dying,” Cramer said. “The problem is that when we got out of this, the Biden administration put a couple trillion dollars more on the economy when the economy came off the funk and people went back to work. They spent a whole heap more money, which was unnecessary in my opinion and predictably led to inflation.”
Cramer said he supports the Federal Reserve’s recent moves to slow demand for goods and services, but wishes the moves hadn’t been so dramatic. The Fed has hiked rates by 0.75 percentage points this year. But the other part of the formula that has led to the economic problems fueling the supply needs work, Cramer said.
“What the Biden administration has done, instead of encouraging supply, is they have shrunk supply and discouraged supply through over-regulation,” Cramer said.
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