[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 104 (Tuesday, June 15, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S4527]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              THE ECONOMY

  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, where did that land us? Well, as I said, 
last week, the Department of Labor announced that inflation had climbed 
to the highest rate since 2008. Core inflation surged to the highest 
level in nearly three decades. Families are feeling the pinch of higher 
prices as they pay higher prices for everything from housing to cars to 
gasoline to groceries.
  This is really sort of a silent and hidden tax on their income, when 
the dollar that they earn is worth less and less as prices go higher 
and higher. But, unfortunately, this is the exact scenario economists 
expected when our Democratic colleagues rolled out this $2 trillion 
spending bill at the beginning of the year. And they are currently 
proposing to spend trillions of dollars more.
  Even Larry Summers, who once served as Treasury Secretary under Bill 
Clinton and Director of the National Economic Council under President 
Obama, warned about inflation. He penned an op-ed in the Washington 
Post in February, cautioning the administration about the risks of 
inflation, making himself persona non grata among our Democratic 
colleagues. But he wrote another one last month saying that ``the 
inflation risk is real.''
  You might think that would serve as a cautionary tale to our 
Democratic colleagues, that partisan legislation does not give way to 
sound and stable policies. But that is not the case.
  When the majority leader said all options are on the table for 
eliminating the filibuster, he didn't mention the fact that he would be 
setting the table and setting the agenda trying to make that case.
  Absent Republican obstruction that he and other members of the media 
forecasted, the majority leader is now teeing up a series of designed-
to-fail votes so he could explain or justify--try to justify--why the 
filibuster should be eliminated

                          ____________________