[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 78 (Tuesday, May 10, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2386-S2387]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               INFLATION

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, this all-Democratic government has 
managed a unique kind of economic turnaround. They took an economy that 
was ready to soar, turned it around, and drove it into the ground. 
American families are being crushed by 8.5 percent inflation. 
Democrats' policies have unleashed the worst inflation in more than 40 
years.
  Last March, the Senate Democratic leader said:

       I do not think the dangers of inflation . . . are very 
     real.

  At that time, the most recent inflation figure was 1.7 percent. 
Inflation has more than quadrupled since Leader Schumer said he wasn't 
worried.
  Now, remember, the same Democrats predicted the Republicans' 2017 tax 
reform bill would harm the economy and hurt working people. Instead, 
what it produced is the best economic moment for American workers in 
modern history. Falling unemployment, low inflation, and wages grew 
faster for the bottom 25 percent of earners than for the top.
  So Democrats' worldview has been proven absolutely wrong. But, of 
course, last year, they put it into action anyway. Democrats dumped $2 
trillion on a recovering economy and paid people a bonus to stay home 
from work, even after vaccines were available, and the American people 
are hurting as a result.
  American workers' real average weekly earnings declined 3.6 percent 
over the last year. Inflation has more than wiped out the average 
worker's wage gains. President Biden has handed the average American a 
big pay cut--a pay cut.
  The cost of the essentials that families need have been skyrocketing. 
Gas prices are now the highest they have ever been in American 
history--ever. Americans are now paying roughly $4.40 per gallon. That 
is up about 2 whole dollars from when President Biden put his hand on 
the Bible. Grocery prices have shot up 10 percent

[[Page S2387]]

over the past year. Housing costs are up more than 6 percent. Clothing 
is up nearly 7 percent. Each category is the worst it has been since at 
least the early 1980s.
  Remember, if and when the inflation rate begins to gradually slow, 
that does not mean all of these sky-high prices for goods and services 
will actually fall back down. In many cases, this painful and 
preventable inflation will be baked into prices going forward. These 
Democratic price hikes will likely be American families' new normal at 
the checkout counter, a permanent--permanent--direct result of their 
failed policies.

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