CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Wednesday said that Congress’s two behemoth spending bills have him worried about inflation’s trajectory.
“I’m still a bull — I’ve felt bullish since June when I saw commodities were going in the right direction. And I’d be very confident about wage inflation, too, if not for Congress,” the “Mad Money” host said.
“If the re-branded stimulus bill doesn’t pass, we’ve got nothing to worry about, but if it does, we can only hope that it takes years and years for the government to put that money to work,” he added, referring to the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
The bill represents a move from Democrats to reform the tax code, battle climate change and reduce health care costs. The bill, which is a revival of President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better bill, will invest over $400 billion and reduce the deficit by $300 billion over a decade-long period.
Cramer said that he’s also worried about how the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 could heighten inflation, stating that its higher-than-expected price tag raises concerns about the Fed’s next moves.
Congress passed the bill, aimed to boost domestic production and research of chips, in late July. While the star of the show is the $52 billion in subsidies for U.S. companies producing computer chips, the package in total costs $280 million.
Complicating Cramer’s concerns about inflation are hawkish comments on inflation from Fed leaders on Wednesday, suggesting that the central bank needs to continue taking aggressive action to slow down the economy.
“I don’t want others to lose their jobs or their homes. … I have no idea how [Fed Chair] Jay Powell can stop the trillions of dollars in spending just when we have the lowest unemployment rate in decades,” Cramer said.
