Trump’s Fed threats meet a firewall: GOP lawmakers

GOP lawmakers — who often showed little restraint in lambasting the Fed for near-zero interest rates in the Obama era — are signaling publicly and privately their intent to keep politics out of the central bank. They generally support Chairman Jerome Powell, and many have expressed opposition to serious political meddling in setting rates. The lawmakers plan to press Trump nominees about their allegiance to the Fed’s data-based approach, amid concern that the president wants the central bank to pursue policies that will goose the economy…

Both Moore and Cain have close ties to the president. Moore was an adviser to the Trump campaign and regularly defends the president’s agenda on TV, including his accusations that the Fed is standing in the way of economic growth. He once suggested the central bank be abolished and has called for Powell to be fired. Cain last year launched a pro-Trump super PAC and has praised the president’s “bold and transformative trade policies” for boosting the economy…

Both men strongly supported increasing interest rates during the Obama administration to “normalize” monetary policy, even when economic growth was slower than it is now. Both now ardently back Trump’s call for lower rates.