Self-Inflicted Crises of the Biden Administration

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. CLINE. Madam Speaker, I want to thank my friend for yielding and for sponsoring this evening's Special Order.

Madam Speaker, this week the Labor Department's consumer price index jumped 6.2 percent in October from a year earlier, reflecting an increase in the cost of goods and services as well as energy and food. Fuel costs surged 30 percent.

I have a quote from someone here in Washington about that. This politician said, ``By all accounts, the threat posed by record inflation to the American people is not transitory and is instead getting worse. From the grocery store to the gas pump, Americans know the inflation tax is real and DC can no longer ignore the economic pain Americans feel every day.''

Now, that wasn't my colleague, Congressman Johnson. That wasn't Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy or Congressman Jim Jordan. No. That was Senator Joe Manchin who said that just today. He is recognizing that not just West Virginians, but all Americans are feeling the pain at the pump, at the grocery store, and all across the economy.

It is coming from legislation that our President pushed earlier this year and that House Democrats helped get behind--the so-called American Rescue Plan. No less than our President himself said this about public frustration, ``And people are feeling it. They're feeling it. Did you ever think you'd be paying this much for a gallon of gas? In some parts of California, they're paying $4.50 a gallon.

``That's why it's so important that we do everything in our power to stabilize the supply chain.''

But what he did through passage of this American Rescue Plan is actually cause inflation to jump that much further forward, and he conceded on Wednesday that inflation is at a three-decade high because people have more money now as a result of the $1.9 trillion stimulus legislation.

And what has he proposed to do now?

Double down and spend an additional $2 trillion.

What does he think that will do to inflation in this country, Madam Speaker?

He has already said, ``And the irony is: People have more money now because of the first major piece of legislation I passed. You all got checks for $1,400. You got checks for a whole range of things. . . . It changes people's lives.

``But what happens if there's nothing to buy and you got more money? . . . It creates a real problem.''

He did say that, and it did create a real problem. It creates a problem to the tune of inflation rates at a 30-year high and gas prices up 61 percent from last year.

So if the President recognizes that his last multitrillion-dollar bill caused the economics peril we are facing, then why is he proposing spending an additional $2 trillion on social programs we don't need and we can't afford--150 new government programs?

Propping up the Green New Deal won't solve the economic crisis. Weaponizing the IRS against Americans won't lower inflation. Taxing middle-class families won't put more money in the people's pockets.

Do you know what would actually help get this country's economy back on track, Madam Speaker?

Fiscal responsibility. Americans want a Thanksgiving meal that won't be the most expensive in the history of the holiday, not a progressive wish list that will only make the situation worse.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source