Most Expensive Thanksgiving in History

Floor Speech

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Mr. CURTIS. Madam Speaker, I rise today to join my voice with my Utah colleagues, vocalizing our great concern about the runaway inflation impacting Americans across the country.

I remember the inflation of the 1970s. When I bought my first home, we assumed a loan at 12 percent interest and thought that that was a bargain at the time. I remember what it is like to lose 15 percent of the value of a savings account in just 1 year.

I saw firsthand the devastation to our senior citizens and those on a fixed income with runaway inflation.

Here we are, 40 years later, pretending that trillions of dollars of wasted government spending is okay and that it won't impact inflation.

Madam Speaker, in the simplest terms, inflation is financially handcuffing the American people and their families, which is further evidenced by the fact that the Consumer Price Index is now showing the highest level in over 30 years. That is not okay.

The White House tells us not to worry about inflation; it is all under control. I think Utahns know better. They see the gas prices, and they see the difference they pay at the grocery stores.

Utahns, specifically, have seen their gas prices rise by over 70 percent this last year. What is the response from Washington, D.C.? We can fix this. All we need to do is spend trillions of dollars more.

Seriously? Employers can't find employees to do the work, and the President touts his $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill as job-creating.

We also know that inflation is an unlegislated tax on hardworking Americans, most notably some of our most vulnerable communities, like low-income communities and rural communities with less access to goods and services.

But instead of focusing on finding ways to address critical supply chain shortages, to lower our energy costs through policies designed to generate more independence on energy, and to address the growing behavioral healthcare crisis, we are doing just the opposite. We shut down U.S. pipelines and then ask our enemies to produce more dirty oil.

Here are the facts: 40 percent of all the money printed in the history of this country was printed in the last 20 months. Forty percent of all the money printed in the history of this country was printed in the last 20 months.

Congress has already authorized, just this year alone, $3 trillion of additional spending in addition to our normal spending, and we are about to spend another $2 trillion.

It is hard to get your arms around what is a trillion dollars. Let me put this in perspective. This $5 trillion of spending is approximately $25,000 for every man, woman, and child in the United States. It gets worse. Thirty years from now, unless we pay that money back--and I don't think anybody believes we will have paid it back--that is now three-quarters of a million dollars for every man, woman, and child just in extra spending this year. That is not okay.

It is simply time to stop the bleeding and time to earnestly focus on bipartisan solutions that will address the growing needs of the American people.

We literally cannot afford to play partisan politics at the expense of our constituents and, more importantly, our children and grandchildren and our future generations.

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