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Floor Speech
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Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I come to the floor today to talk about the Biden economic crisis that the American people are facing every day.
Last week, Democrats threw a big party at the White House; even Hollywood celebrities flew in to celebrate. If you take a look at what was going on, on the split-screen television all across the country, they saw Democrats celebrating and the stock market collapsing; people's savings, retirements evaporating; Democrats dancing.
It was the worst day on Wall Street since the pandemic, and by the time the party at the White House was over, $1.6 trillion was erased from the value of those who hold American stocks.
So why did this happen? The reason that this happened was because just hours earlier the world found out that inflation in America went up once again.
Prices people have to pay for things are up more than 13 percent since the day Joe Biden took office. Costs which economists predicted would go down last month, actually went up instead.
Well, the economists made a prediction, but the American people know what they are facing every day when they go to the grocery store, pay their rent, pay their energy bills, try to buy back-to-school supplies for their kids.
Inflation is now going up after the Democrats passed a reckless tax- and-spending bill. This is nothing to celebrate even though they were down at the White House celebrating. The American people aren't celebrating; they are suffering. They are suffering the worst inflation in over 40 years.
Prices have risen faster than wages for 17 consecutive months--17 months in a row, prices rising faster than wages. With each passing month, the American people can afford less and less. Now people have cut into their savings, borrowed money, just to get by.
Credit card debt is climbing. Reports across the Nation are more and more people are buying on layaway. People on fixed incomes cannot keep up; they are falling further behind. And it is no wonder then that many seniors are delaying their retirements.
Rising costs are hitting our troops. Right now, our troops are watching their paychecks disappear, melt away. According to a recent report, the Army is now recommending our troops sign up for food stamps.
The U.S. Army--can you imagine such a thing?--is recommending troops sign up for food stamps. After the deadly and disgraceful evacuation of Afghanistan, people knew Joe Biden had very little respect for our men and women in uniform. What we are seeing today is a national failure by Joe Biden and the Democrats. Our heroes in uniform should not have to rely on welfare in order for them to serve the Nation.
Our soldiers should not have to find themselves in a battle against Joe Biden's inflation.
Now, the U.S. Senate still hasn't passed a defense bill this year. We are waiting to go. Senator Schumer says, well, we will do that next month. It just shows that Democrats do not prioritize our national defense. It always goes to the bottom of the list--leave it for last. Democrats have other priorities like their James Taylor concert last week at the White House on the lawn.
Democrats have been too busy paying off the climate activists to pay our troops. The Senate ought to get to work on a defense bill immediately. We should ensure that our troops, whether they are serving at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming, Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, or Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, or Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado, that they get a raise so they won't further be hurt by Joe Biden's inflation.
Now, many Democrats seem oblivious to the pain and suffering that they have caused American families. When Joe Biden took office, inflation was essentially nonexistent. A gallon of gas was $2.39. In today's prices, it is almost $3.70 a gallon, higher in States like Nevada, Washington State, and others.
When Joe Biden took office, economists were predicting an economic boom. Now our economy continues to shrink, and just in a matter of months, Joe Biden took us from recovery to recession.
And recovery right now is nowhere in sight. Consumer confidence is worse today than it was during the lockdowns of 2020, hard to believe but true. This summer, we saw the lowest consumer confidence ever recorded in the history of polling for these sorts of things.
Families feel very stressed about the future, and prices continue to climb. Now, ultimately, this means that we are going to have layoffs at a time when people are running out of savings.
A poll last week showed that people across the country are cutting back on spending on just about everything just to keep up, just to avoid falling further and further behind. Some are cutting back on groceries. Some are growing their own, trying to grow their own food instead of going to the grocery store.
At the same time, the Federal Reserve is getting ready to raise interest rates again, maybe as soon as today.
This year, we have already seen the largest rate hikes in 40 years. Rates are going higher and higher and higher as the Democrat-caused inflation wildfire continues to burn.
There is no end in sight and no relief for the pain being caused to American families. Mortgage rates have almost doubled this year. They are the highest they have been since the great recession, and they are going to go even higher.
At the same time, mortgage applications have dropped significantly. More and more people are giving up on the American dream of even owning their own home. To make matters worse, it doesn't look like interest rates are coming down any time soon.
You know, it is very easy to cause inflation, very difficult to get rid of. Last March, Joe Biden caused inflation with the stroke of a pen on a bill that every Democrat in this body voted for, and working families all across the country have suffered ever since.
Interest rate hikes are designed to slow down the economy. And yet we have an economy that is already shrinking, and they want to slow it down some more. It shrank for the first 6 months of this year. That has always been the definition of a recession. The administration is even trying to redefine recession while we are in the middle of one because they don't want to own it, but they do.
The pain and suffering that people are being subjected to has no end in sight, and the policies of this President and the policies of the Democrats who have all voted for it--every one of them--have brought us inflation and recession.
The wealthy elites that run the Democratic Party are doing just fine. It is the hard-working men and women all across the country who are suffering. Republicans are committed to help lower prices for working men and women all around America.
Certainly, in my State of Wyoming, it is a major concern, major discussion. It is what I hear about. What I heard about Friday at our Victoria's football game and the tailgate party is what things cost, trying to just stay ahead, trying to keep ahead, trying to fall less far behind.
We are committed to getting the economy back on track. It is time for the Democrats to get their priorities straight. We need to pass a defense bill to take care of our troops. We need to stop the reckless spending and the tax hikes.
These are the policies that have caused the cost of everyday items to continue to go up. The Democrats need to stop strangling American energy. That is what is driving up the price, not just at the pump but electric bills, home heating, natural gas, all of the things that the American people need and want, energy that is affordable, available, and reliable.
The American people deserve much better than what we have been getting from the Democrats, and the Democrats--let me point out--are in full control of the House, the Senate, and the White House.
It is their policies and their positions that brought us 40-year high inflation, food going up faster and faster, 13 percent inflation since the day Joe Biden and the Democrats took over. It is time for a change.
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