Inflation
Floor Speech
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Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, inflation has hit a staggering 8.5 percent on Democrats' watch as a result of Democrats' policies.
Last week, the Commerce Department announced that personal consumption expenditures climbed at their fastest rate this past year since 1982--40 years ago. Americans are paying 10 percent more on groceries than they were a year ago and about $1.25 more for a gallon of gas. In every aisle of the supermarket, in every big box store, the prices families pay for essentials have skyrocketed.
As the owner of a coffeehouse in my hometown of Louisville put it, ``We are trying not to pass on too much to the customers, but it comes to a time when you just have to.''
The owner of a longstanding butcher shop nearby said:
``We're all holding our breath.'' That goes for small business owners and shoppers alike.
One new poll found that 94 percent of Americans are upset or concerned about inflation, and they are overwhelmingly not happy--not happy--with what the Biden administration is doing about it. Just 28 percent of the country approved of President Biden's handling of inflation.
The worst part is that this pain was certainly not inevitable. American families could have been spared all of this.
Last spring, Democrats inherited an economy that was ready for a historic comeback. Even top liberal economists such as Larry Summers and Jason Furman--both senior advisers to the Obama White House-- warned--warned--that Democrats' $2 trillion spending binge was completely out of proportion to the remaining output gap. The country didn't need anything like it.
Summers warned of ``inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation.''
Furman said:
It's definitely too big for the moment.
But Democratic politicians didn't listen. Here in the Senate, the Democratic leader said:
I do not think the dangers of inflation, at least in the near-term, are very real.
That was Leader Schumer last March.
So they spent all that money anyway, and, sadly, for the American people, the rest is now history. Democrats spent $2 trillion of the American people's money and purchased the worst inflation in more than 40 years.
Well, actually, that is not all it purchased.
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