Boyle Slams OMB Director Russell Vought Over Trump Administration’s Economic Failures

Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Mr. OMB director. I didn't know how shy you were until the last 15 months when you weren't before a committee, but do appreciate you taking the time today. You know how bad this economy is when we hear Joe Biden being invoked. We hear trans people being invoked. I was waiting for Jimmy Carter to be blamed next, but, uh, apparently we, we didn't get quite there. Um, let me just do a reset and present to you a set of facts, a set of data. Um, right now, according to opinion polls, the approval of the economy of the American people is at its lowest level since 2008, the great recession. 29%, an average of the last three polls shows 30% approval. Disapproval over approval of this administration's handling of the economy, more than two to one disapproval over approval, the Michigan consumer data, uh, consumer confidence level, the lowest level ever recorded, even lower during COVID, even lower during the great recession, or even lower than during the great recession. If you look at the job creation over the last 15 months, there's one thing missing and that's job creation. We have been in a jobless economy over the last 15 months. Inflation, which actually, even though there's no question we had an inflation crisis, not just in the United States, but all throughout the world, uh, after the COVID pandemic in 2022, after the pandemic had ended every single month in 2024 inflation dropped over the preceding month, what happened around April of last year, liberation day, inflation was liberated. You saw inflation begin to increase. And every single month we've seen inflation increase and gas prices. Yesterday I was in Northeast Philly where I'm from and where I live, a working class, uh, part of the city of Philadelphia was in front of the gas station, the gas at that particular location was four 11, which is slightly lower than the average, uh, nationally. And in the United States of about four 15, a gallon, um, six weeks ago, that same gas station was under $3 a gallon. We've seen over the last month, the largest increase in gas prices. In my lifetime, in the lifetime of most people here, what's different about this economy, unlike the inflation crisis after the pandemic, unlike the great recession, unlike the recession of 2001, unlike the recession of 1992, the economic downturn that we're experiencing, no jobs, record inflation, gas prices through the roof, consumer confidence, plummeting, all of this is directly related to the policies of the Trump administration that you carry out. Mr. Vote, none of those previous examples that I cited, none of them could be directly attributed to the policies of the president at that time. We can debate about certain things that did influence them, uh, particularly going in to the Oh eight recession, but with this president, the change is so abrupt, the fact inflation was dropping month over month, the fact that we had an incredible jobs economy until it was lost a year and a half ago. You know, I'm from Pennsylvania, the biggest battleground state in the nation, also the nation's birthplace, which we're making a big to do about this year in 2026 and celebrating our semi-quincentennial, but Pennsylvania is really known over the last decade in our politics as the nation's biggest battleground state. So as a result, basically every day in 2024 in the fall, we had either Donald Trump or the democratic nominee Kamala Harris, uh, in our state, Donald Trump had, I have to say a brilliant campaign slogan said, your prices are too high. I will lower them. And I quote him, I will lower them on day one. Well, here we are about day 450. He hasn't lowered anything. The only thing he's lowered is his approval rating on the economy. He has lowered that Donald Trump and this administration have failed miserably on this economy. They failed to bring prices down. And in fact, they made the situation worse with that. We have a lot of questions on this side since it's been 15 months. You're the first OMB director ever to not appear before this committee last year. I appreciate you at least today taking the time. We have a lot of questions and I certainly hope after today, if we send to you questions in writing that you would respond finally, as you've ignored all of our previous requests to matter of basic respect for the Congress of the United States and for this committee. And with that, I yield back.