Newsweek
Sen. Rick Scott
May 15, 2026

Jerome Powell’s legacy as Chair of the Federal Reserve will be exactly as President Trump describes: too late. 

He failed at every level to deliver one of the central bank’s key metrics: stable prices. 

Under his watch, prices at the grocery store soared. Your dollar stretched thinner and thinner as time went on. Homeownership fell out of reach for millions of American families as interest rates soared. He failed to act. 

Powell rubber-stamped Joe Biden’s reckless spending, then called the resulting inflation “transitory.” He knew it was a lie then, and he should be held accountable now.  

He let the Fed’s balance sheet balloon to $9 trillion. He lost trillions of taxpayers’ dollars due to his gross mismanagement of our monetary policy. The Fed never lost money before Powell was Chair. 

He oversaw a luxurious $3 billion new Federal Reserve building. This new building, with its soaring atriums and garden terrace, is a monument to extravagance, and a staggering $1 billion over budget. 

It’s a testament to everything wrong with Washington and with the Fed. How can the man charged with keeping prices down oversee a 50 percent cost overrun on his project?  

After years of Powell’s failure, our economy needs to bounce back. President Trump took a major step forward to create jobs with historic tax cuts, but there’s an entire generation of Americans still on the sidelines. Families want to buy a home. Entrepreneurs want to start businesses, but borrowing money still costs too much. 

For many Americans, this debate might seem like nothing more than classic Washington grandstanding, but it has everything to do with price tags you see every day.  

Powell embraced the massive deficits that defined the Biden-era and caused the high inflation which devastated American families. The massive deficits caused interest rates to rise from the Fed.  

Higher interest rates mean the family taking out a mortgage questions if they can afford the monthly payment. They mean families watch their dream of homeownership slip away. They mean would-be small business owners unable to turn ideas into reality and create jobs. 

It’s a single mom who can’t afford to replace a car that keeps breaking down or sign her son up for Little League. It means businesses will have to pass along increased costs to customers. 

That started because of the inflation caused by the Biden administration, who borrowed trillions of dollars from working American families to pay for scams that the left-wing Democrat base demanded.  

But Powell, in his capacity as Chair of the Federal Reserve, failed to respond. At almost every opportunity, he made the wrong choice, and it kept prices too high for too long. Families needed relief, and Powell ignored the call. 

On the charge of failing to serve the working families of America, Jerome Powell is guilty. 

For context, a high cost of borrowing equals less economic growth. Less economic growth results in fewer jobs. Fewer jobs mean that American families put their American Dream on hold.  

That’s true for our government as well. 

With the higher interest rates he’s supported, Jerome Powell has been charging a premium to the American people that has put us into economic peril.  

President Trump has been clear: Americans need relief from higher interest rates, but Powell refused.  

America is nearly $40 trillion in debt. Every year, we pay $1 trillion of our budget on interest on our debt. Think of what we could give back to working families if we paid that off and balanced our budget. 

What does Congress do? Do they pay down our debt like I did as Governor of Florida? Of course not. They borrow more!  

This is unsustainable and I’ve been warning my colleagues in Congress about it for years. 

However, there is some good news: change is coming at the Fed. This week, we confirmed Kevin Warsh to replace Powell and become the next Fed Chair. He holds the opportunity to right the ship after years of Powell’s failure. 

For America to exit the high inflation and job losses induced by years of big government and Powell’s failure, we need someone like Kevin Warsh to take the helm. Powell and the Democrats dug our nation into a hole. Digging out will be a true challenge, and it will take time. 

But now we have a Fed Chair that is clear-minded and prepared to respond so America has a more affordable future and more jobs ahead.  

I believe Kevin Warsh has the vision and the leadership Powell lacks, and I believe he will deliver the results American families expect and deserve. Our country is counting on him.