[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 25 (Tuesday, February 8, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S549-S550]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Biden Administration

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the Biden administration spent the end 
of last week boasting that our economy added back more jobs in January 
than some economists had predicted, but American families aren't buying 
their spin.
  The working men and women of this country know painfully well that 
the Biden administration's economy is failing them. One typical recent 
survey showed a majority of Americans disapprove of the President's job 
performance, and Democrats' poor handling of the economy is a major 
factor.
  So let's be clear. The country was always--always--guaranteed to add 
back jobs following the 2020 COVID recession. The Biden administration 
did not create the vaccines, it did not create this milder variant, and 
it is not owed particular credit for the fact that our economy is 
continuing to climb out of the crater caused by the 2020 lockdowns.
  Our trajectory of adding back jobs has stayed remarkably consistent 
from late 2020 up through today. Job growth under President Biden has 
just kept bumping along the trajectory that he inherited--
notwithstanding that Democrats blew trillions of dollars on supposedly 
job-creating policies in the meantime.
  There has been no noticeable acceleration in job growth relative to 
the baseline that was forecast before Democrats took power, but 
inflation, on the other hand, has absolutely soared relative to those 
forecasts. Consumer prices exploded by 7 percent in 2021--the worst 
inflation in 40 years. More than 80 percent of Americans say the cost 
of everyday goods have shot up, and two-thirds disapprove of the job 
President Biden is doing to help their wallets.
  Even though American workers have been earning pay raises, inflation 
is leaving them with less purchasing power than they had in the first 
place. Once you factor in inflation, the average American has gotten a 
2-percent

[[Page S550]]

real pay cut--cut--under Democratic policies. According to one 
calculation, only in one single sector across the entire economy did 
wage growth outpace inflation last year. That was leisure and 
hospitality, as those incredibly hard-hit sectors rebounded from their 
especially nightmarish 2020. Everyone else, on average, got a pay cut.
  The average retail worker got an inflation pay cut; same with miners 
and loggers--inflation pay cuts. Construction workers, manufacturing 
workers, and transportation workers got inflation pay cuts, and on and 
on. Americans know that Democrats' failed policies are the reason.