fuhrman, harvard university professor, served as the chair of the white house council of economic advisers. stacey stevenson, economics professor at the university of michigan. these numbers look fantastic. how can they help us understand where our economy is right now? our economy, stephanie, is in much better shame than i would have thought, than almost anyone would have thought a year ago. i looked at dozens of forecasts that were made a year ago for gdp growth this year, and they generally expected it to be in the range of 3% to 4% for the year as a hole. instead, we ended up at 5.5% for the year as a whole. there s a lot of challenge we still face. inflation is a big challenge, but in terms of the biggest test for the economy, how much it s making, it s making quite a lot. betsy, here s the thing. the pandemic is the reason the economy isn t going at full blast. it s holding us back. but is the pandemic also the
time for money, power, politics, and the growing push to limit or completely ban lawmakers from trading stocks. 27 house members from across the political spectrum sending this letter to speaker pelosi urging her to bring a ban to the floor. it comes weeks after she publicly said she was against it, but now it could become a midterm issue. the cnbc reporting that alison kartevold kevin mccarthy wants to campaign on it as the republicans try to take back the house. 54 members of congress, both sides of the aisle, violated a law designed to prevent conflict of interest, including my next guest, pete sessions. he s a republican from texas and a member of the house oversight and financial services committees. first, thank you. i ve been talking about this ban a lot on the show and i said anybody who is opposed to changing the rules i old love to understand why, so i appreciate you coming on. explain this to me. why do you think we should leave the rules as they are?
for long-term growth, and, you know, i think anyone who says this is a social spending program and not good for business or that business doesn t subpoena port it, they re just dead wrong. we have dozens of leading ceos who went on the record to urge the president, let s get this done as fast as we can. our businesses need it and we ll be better for it. take on child care and climate. ceos across america are behind that. secretary, thank for joining me. always good to see you. have a great day. you too. coming up, spotify agreeing to remove neil young s music after he told them to make a choice, get rid of his music or get rid of vaccine misinformation on their podcasts. they went with misinformation. podcasts they went wi mthisinformation. a. we re talking just two great ingredients. for your tastebuds.
thank you very much. i was surprised to hear i violated the ban. there were two or three weeks reporting something, but essentially the law is now passed by louise slaughter, a dear friend of mine, from the rules committee, and it says that within 30 days all stock transactions need to be reported. and i believe members of congress do that. it may be ten days late, perhaps it s a christmas or something. it is important that we have the confidence of the american people and follow the law for this country, and it is important that we follow the rules of the house of representatives. but i think that this is a populist move just like when there s a government shutdown, people pop up and say we shouldn t take a paycheck. if you don t want to take a paycheck, don t take a paycheck. if you want to put it in a blind trust, put it in a blind trust. i think what we re doing works.
populist move? no. look, i think mccarthy is doing a job to win back the majority. i m sure that it s just like i was asked by a reporter, and i did say, i think it s of all the things that we have to consider, i think we have enough rules and regulations. i think mr. mccarthy would understand as well as tom emmer, held of the campaign committee, the national republican congressional committee, let s talk about inflation. let s talk about the border. let s talk about the lack of support for our law enforcement. to bring this in as an issue when it s not one of the top 50 would be an unremarkably silly idea in my opinion. we can talk about all of those things, but as far as how much members of congress are paid, limiting what you can invest in doesn t necessarily impact that, right? like, you could put it in a blind trust. right now the way the rules are written, you have access to information that the public does not. why is it okay for you to use