Inflation is A Tax on All of Us

Floor Speech

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Mr. CLINE. Mr. Speaker, skyrocketing prices are eating away at family budgets across the country; 8.3 percent, 8.6 percent, and now 9.1 percent--those were the inflation rates for April, May, and June of this year. Year over year, energy prices are up 34 percent; gas, 48 percent; fuel oil, 106 percent; electricity, 12 percent; meat, poultry, and eggs, 14 percent.

But worse is the majority's answer: Double down on Build Back Better and a tax-and-spend agenda that raises taxes on local businesses and farmers as our country enters a recession.

While targeted stimulus during the COVID pandemic may have been appropriate, the plodding reaction of the Federal Reserve, combined with the typical reaction of the Democratic majority to spend trillions on Green New Deal projects and blue State bailouts, have caused paychecks to shrink and a lack of faith in the economic future of Americans to rise.

Inflation is a tax on all of us. This 40-year high inflation rate is a wake-up call to return to fiscal sanity. Unfortunately, no one needs a crystal ball to see that my friends on the other side of the aisle are busy hitting the snooze button once again on addressing this inflation crisis.

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