Coloradoans Hurt by Deficit-Fueled Inflation

Press Release

Coloradoans Hurt by Deficit-Fueled Inflation

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO) warned Colorado consumers that today's Labor Department report that inflation soared in September is a preview of potentially worse news to come.

"September's skyrocketing inflation should be a warning to Coloradoans that the federal budget deficit and soaring energy prices have real consequences. With wages stagnant and our economy still shaky, we risk the same type of debilitating inflation that hit Colorado - and our entire nation - so hard in the late 1970s. Unfortunately, this is the result, in part, of the reckless deficit spending that the Administration and Congress have engaged in for the past five years," said Rep. DeGette. "They need to get serious about reducing the budget deficit by cutting spending and eliminating the reckless tax cuts and we need to do it now."

In September, consumer prices jumped 1.2 percent - the largest one-month increase since March 1980. Over the previous twelve months, prices rose 4.7 percent, the highest rise since 1991. Much more troubling for consumers, energy prices rose 12 percent in September, the biggest one-month increase since the government started collecting this data in 1957.

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