[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 215 (Tuesday, December 14, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S9129]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Inflation

  Now, Mr. President, on a totally different matter, Washington 
Democrats' printing, borrowing, and spending addiction is directly 
hurting American families.
  Two-thirds of the American people, a supermajority, are worried about 
inflation. About half the middle class and 70 percent of low-income 
families say soaring prices have personally hurt their household. And 
it isn't getting better, like the Biden administration promised it 
would. It is actually getting worse.
  Last Friday, the Labor Department released a jaw-dropping report: The 
consumer price index has shot up 6.8 percent over the past year; 6.8 
percent inflation, the worst inflation--listen to this--the worst 
inflation in 40 years.
  Now, it is true that the average American worker has gotten a pay 
increase since 2020, but rising prices have more--more--than wiped that 
totally out.
  We have a remarkable situation where American workers are earning 
raises, but their bigger paychecks buy their families even less than 
what their smaller paychecks bought before the Democrats took power. 
The net effect is a nearly 2-percent pay cut for the average American.
  Now, our citizens do know what is happening. Sixty-seven percent of 
the country says Washington needs to ``cut back on spending and 
printing money.'' Let me say that again. Sixty-seven percent of the 
country says Washington needs to ``cut back on spending and printing 
money.''
  But here in Washington, leading Democrats want to plow ahead and 
double down on the reckless taxing-and-spending spree that got us here. 
They want to respond to this stunning inflation report by printing, 
borrowing, and spending trillions upon trillions more on new 
entitlements and far-left programs.
  If that weren't bad enough, on Friday, a new report showed their 
socialist shopping spree could cost the country trillions more than 
Democrats are willing to admit.
  You see, as one of our Democratic colleagues explained last month, 
his party's bill is packed full of ``shell games'' and ``budget 
gimmicks''--``shell games'' and ``budget gimmicks.'' For example, their 
bill pretends that major new entitlements would simply expire after a 
few years.
  Of course, that never happens. As a wise man once said, ``Nothing is 
so permanent as a temporary government program.'' And Democrats aren't 
even pretending they think the spending would stop. They are boasting 
about a permanent transformation. The fake expiration dates are just an 
accounting trick so the pricetag looks artificially low.
  And last Friday, the Congressional Budget Office announced that if we 
acknowledge the permanent entitlements would be permanent--in other 
words, tell the truth--their bill would actually cost $4.9 trillion in 
the first decade alone. That is the truth of the situation. It would 
explode the deficit by $3 trillion in that same 10-year period.
  Democrats are trying to reassure their alarmed Members that they 
would find new ways to offset future extensions. But let's think about 
it. They have just spent months shoveling every possible pay-for into 
this existing bill. They already burned through huge permanent tax 
hikes just to partially offset the bill with the gimmicks. Extending 
these programs further would either explode our national debt or it 
would take even further trillions and even further gigantic tax hikes 
that Democrats are simply unwilling to specify.
  So which is it, historic deficits or trillions more in secret tax 
hikes? The right answer for the country is neither.
  Later today, every Senate Democrat is going to vote along party lines 
to raise our Nation's debt limit by trillions of dollars. If they jam 
through another reckless taxing-and-spending spree, this massive debt 
increase will just be the beginning: more printing and borrowing to set 
up more reckless spending, to cause more inflation, to hurt working 
families even more.
  What the American people need is a break.