[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 200 (Wednesday, November 17, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8320-S8321]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Biden Administration

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, a lot has gone wrong since this 
unified Democratic government took the reins back in January.
  Let's take a look at foreign policy. The Biden administration's 
clumsy retreat from Afghanistan left Americans behind, who wanted out, 
and handed the country to a government staffed with terrorists that 
used to be locked up at Guantanamo Bay.
  Let's take a look at energy independence. Or should I say energy 
dependence? President Biden canceled our own Keystone XL Pipeline but 
cleared the path for a new pipeline for Vladimir Putin. The amount of 
Russian oil that America has to import has already nearly doubled on 
the Democrats' watch.
  Look at the border. Illegal crossers are flooding across our southern 
border at an all-time high. The Democrats have interior enforcement 
arrests down to a decade low.
  But there is no question what crisis is at the top of the minds of 
middle-class Americans. There is no question what is keeping working 
Americans awake at night. It is inflation. Inflation. The runaway 
prices and unpredictability that Democrats' policies have fueled.
  Ninety percent of Americans told one recent survey that they are 
somewhat or extremely concerned with inflation. We are a huge and 
diverse country. It is hard to get 9 in 10 Americans to agree on almost 
anything, but less than 1 year under Democrat policies, 90 percent of 
America is worried about inflation.
  And it is no wonder. Year on year, consumer prices have risen faster 
than they have in over three decades. Last month marked the fifth month 
in a row that inflation has topped 5 percent.
  These across-the-board numbers can sound a little abstract, so let's 
make it very tangible. In the past year, buying meat, fish, and eggs 
has gotten 12 percent more expensive. A gallon of gas costs the average 
American $1.31 than it did a year ago. And heaven forbid anyone having 
to replace a family car this year; used auto prices are up 26 percent.
  Even getting family and friends together for Thanksgiving is a much 
pricier prospect than it was last year. Turkey alone is an extra 25 
cents per pound. Factor in all the fixings, and some estimates project 
a feast next week will run families up to 15 percent more than it did 
last year.
  For a while, the White House tried to downplay the problem. President 
Biden and his team told American families that costs weren't really 
rising as much as it seemed; or that, OK, costs were rising, but it 
would only last a few months; or, as some liberals argued, that if you 
remove food costs, housing costs, and transportation costs from the 
equation, inflation really wasn't all that bad.
  Some have tried to argue that rampant inflation is actually a high-
class problem to have because at least we aren't in a recession. I am 
not kidding. I guess they think working Americans should stop 
complaining and be grateful things aren't even worse.
  But a sad irony is that inflation is exactly the opposite of a high-
class problem. Inflation is like a huge, regressive tax hike that hits 
the middle class, the working class, and the poor far more than it 
hurts wealthy people.

  The three biggest drivers of the staggering 6.2 percent inflation 
rate we

[[Page S8321]]

logged last month were housing, transportation, and food. These are not 
luxuries, they are essentials, and they take up a much bigger share of 
families' budgets from the middle class on down.
  The Democrats' inflation is functioning like an ultrapunitive tax on 
American families who can least afford it--exactly the opposite of a 
``high-class problem.''
  It didn't have to be this way. The inflation spike wasn't just 
predictable; it was, in fact, predicted. This past spring, I warned my 
Democratic colleagues right here on the floor that their unbelievably 
expensive and poorly targeted spending bill that masqueraded as COVID 
relief would turn our strong economic recovery into an inflationary 
mess. Many of my Republican colleagues said the same thing. But 
Democrats didn't have to take our word for it; even their own favorite 
liberal economists, like President Clinton's Treasury Secretary Larry 
Summers and President Obama's CEA Chairman Jason Furman warned that 
liberal bill might supercharge inflation.
  Now, our Democratic colleagues want to ram through another, even 
bigger, reckless taxing-and-spending spree that would make inflation 
even worse. Many of those same liberal economists support this new 
spending spree because of all the leftwing goodies that are packed into 
it, but even they largely admit--these who support this new leftwing 
proposal--even they admit the package would make inflation even worse 
next year.
  Steven Rattner, a senior economic adviser to President Obama, just 
wrote in the New York Times that ``The original sin''--the original 
sin--``was the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. . . . That has 
contributed materially to today's inflation levels.'' He goes on to say 
that Democrats' new taxing-and-spending spree ``can be deemed `paid 
for' only if one embraces budget gimmicks, like assuming that some of 
the most important initiatives will be allowed to expire in just a few 
years. The result [is] a package that front-loads spending while tax 
revenues only arrive over [the course] of a decade.'' Mr. Rattner cites 
an outside estimate that ``the plan would likely add $800 billion or 
more to the deficit over the next five years, exacerbating inflationary 
pressures.''
  Now, the person I just quoted is a former top adviser to President 
Obama--by definition a liberal Democrat--explaining that the Democrats' 
new proposal as currently constituted would make inflation worse--
worse. He says it is the Democrats' proposal itself that needs to be 
built back better.
  President Biden and his party have already brought needless pain on 
American families with their reckless spending. Ramming through another 
multitrillion-dollar, partisan wish list would only compound the 
damage. The hard-working men and women of this country cannot afford to 
be guinea pigs in a socialist experiment where Democrats try to inflate 
their way out of inflation.