[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 174 (Monday, October 4, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6881-S6882]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               INFLATION

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, now on an obviously related matter, 
speaking of Democrats' reckless taxing and spending, this unified 
government is behind closed doors brainstorming ways to make inflation 
even more painful for American families. Their next reckless taxing-
and-spending spree is packed with radical, leftwing policies and the 
biggest tax hike on the American people in half a century.
  So far, the bill is more than 2,400 pages long, but it can be 
summarized in just four words: hurts families and helps China. Hurts 
families and helps China.
  Wasting trillions and trillions of dollars on socialism would be a 
bad idea any day, but it is a uniquely bad idea at a time when American 
families are already being hammered by inflation and soaring costs.
  The government's own data continue to indicate that the historic and 
painful inflation that began to take hold of our economy this spring 
isn't going anywhere anytime soon. The Chairman of the Federal Reserve 
acknowledged last week that rising prices have become an increasingly 
broad and structural problem. Last week, the Commerce Department 
reported that inflation has continued to rise faster than at any time 
since 1991. The Democrats' inflation is so bad that even though the 
average American worker has gotten a multiple-percentage-point pay 
raise over the last year, their actual purchasing power has actually 
been cut. Their paychecks have gone up, but their buying power has gone 
down.
  Wholesale inflation just marked the steepest 12-month jump on record. 
Even dollar stores are having to raise their prices. Just ask any 
American family about the last few trips to the supermarket, the gas 
station, or the toy store. Heaven forbid if they have had to 
participate in the housing market or the auto market anytime lately.

[[Page S6882]]

And the Democrats are uniting around yet another multitrillion-dollar 
taxing-and-spending spree? I guess our colleagues think they can 
inflate their way out of inflation. That is going to be an 
extraordinarily painful experiment for the middle-class families of our 
country.

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