[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 79 (Wednesday, May 11, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2441-S2442]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Inflation

  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about 
America's inflation crisis. And it is a crisis.
  Today, Americans woke up to basically two gut punches: One, they 
found that gas prices are the highest they have ever been--ever--in the 
history of this country and, the second, that the inflation number is 
still incredibly high and actually higher than was anticipated by the 
government's so-called specialists.
  Well, last week, the senior Senator from Illinois came to this floor, 
and he said Republicans want the midterm elections to be about 
inflation and the border. I think the Senator intended his comments to 
be a criticism of Republicans, but I would point out to the Senator 
from Illinois, that is exactly what the American people say this 
election ought to be about: inflation and the border. It is not 
Republicans who are making that the election issue for 2022. No, it is 
what the American people say they want to vote on.
  Frankly, it is also the Democrats because they created both of these 
crises. So this is going to be an up-or-down vote on how well the 
Democrats have done with the border and with our economy and the 
inflation that is crushing so many families at home all across the 
country.
  Nobody forced the Democrats to vote to cram a $2 trillion spending 
bill through Congress last March. Oh, no. Party-line vote--the 
Democrats in this body, Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats in the House, 
and Joe Biden only 2 months into his Presidency. Democrats said: Oh, 
no, no. It is coronavirus.
  That is what they said it was for, but when you take a look at that 
bill, only $1 out of every $11 actually went for medical care. The rest 
went to a big Democrat wish list that includes government checks to 
illegal immigrants. These are criminals behind bars who received checks 
from the government in the name of coronavirus relief. Nobody forced 
the Democrats to open the southern border. So the crisis that we have 
of inflation and the crisis that we have on the border are both crises 
of choice by the Democrats.
  Now, here we are, 15 months into the Democrats' administration. The 
No. 1 issue in America today is inflation--40-year-high inflation 
numbers. Nine out of 10 Americans--Mr. President, I would just point 
out 9 out of 10 Americans hardly ever agree on anything, but 9 out of 
10 Americans are concerned and upset about inflation. It is really not 
hard to see why.
  This week, just like last week, terrible economic news for working 
families: gas prices, again, at an alltime high. The price of a gallon 
of gasoline today is $2 higher for each and every gallon when people go 
to fill up than the day Joe Biden became President. This morning, a new 
alltime high. Yesterday an alltime high. Higher yet this morning for 
gasoline. Inflation, a 40-year high.
  The prices are going up much faster than wages. In fact, this gap 
between prices and wages continues to grow. People are falling further 
and further behind. The average family is poorer today than they were 
the day Joe Biden took office in terms of their ability to buy goods 
and services in our economy from the dollars they have in their 
pockets. This is even for people who have gotten raises.
  People can't afford necessities like baby formula, if they can find 
baby formula--a hard time finding that all across the country. It 
finally made the national news last night, but I have been hearing 
about it in Wyoming now for a number of weeks.
  Credit card debt is also near an alltime high. Why? Because people in 
the Biden economy are having to borrow more and more money just to get 
by. And the interest rates on these credit cards are also at an alltime 
high. So people are being punished again and again and again in so many 
ways that they turn in the Biden economy. People are paying more and 
more and getting less and less, and people are not happy.
  People have been pushed to the breaking point, and they are angry. 
And they are angry at the Democrats, who put us, as a Nation, into this 
mess. Americans haven't been this pessimistic about the economy since 
the great recession. When they look at Washington, DC, they see a 
Senate with Chuck Schumer claiming to be in charge, a majority in the 
Senate; they look at Nancy Pelosi claiming to be in charge of the House 
and Joe Biden in the White House saying he is in charge there.
  Yet the President spoke yesterday and spoke today, and for the people 
in charge, he wants no responsibility for what is happening in this 
country with this economy. He said it yesterday. He said it again 
today. He was full of blame, full of excuses, full of not telling the 
truth to the American people. He blamed somebody else.
  It took him just 30 minutes in his speech. Joe Biden blamed--let me 
go through this whole list of the folks he blamed in just 30 minutes. 
He blamed coronavirus. He blamed Russia. He blamed meatpacking. He 
blamed shipping. He blamed Republicans. He blamed oil companies. He 
blamed everybody but himself.
  At the same time, he actually admitted in the speech that Democrats 
are in power. They don't have power to do anything other than blame 
other people. He admitted that Democrats control the White House and 
the House and the Senate.
  We do not have a Harry Truman moment here, who said, ``The buck stops 
here.'' Oh, no, no. Joe Biden keeps trying to pass the buck. He has 
been finger-pointing at Republicans, and in doing so, he earned three 
Pinocchios from the Washington Post. Those are the people who look into 
this and say, Is the President really telling the truth? No, no, no. 
Three Pinocchios.

  Yet Joe Biden, after receiving that grade, the failing grade from the 
Washington Post, he repeated the same lie yesterday, finger-pointing 
again and again. He is telling people that he cut spending. He hasn't. 
In fact, Joe Biden has been the most economically reckless President in 
the history of this country--reckless.
  The American people remember that Joe Biden took $2 trillion on the 
credit card with a bill that he had passed by the House and the Senate 
and signed in March. He was gleeful at the signing ceremony. He signed 
the single most expensive spending bill in the history of the country.
  Inflation started soon thereafter. The crisis mounted month after 
month after he had signed the bill. Oh, you remember when the President 
said: Oh, it is transitory. Forget about it. Don't look over there. Go 
away quickly.
  Month after month after month, the President dismissed it, ignored 
it, denied it. The American people remember that, just 6 months later, 
Joe Biden tried to pass another massive spending bill. Joe Biden has 
never cut a dime of spending in his life, but he has added trillions of 
dollars to our debt.
  What did he get us? The worst inflation in 40 years and a stagnant 
economy. There are still a million fewer Americans working today than 
there were before the pandemic struck.
  Under Joe Biden, we have created a lot fewer jobs than the economists 
expected. The economists have gotten it wrong again and again. They got 
it wrong in terms of how many jobs they expected to be made, and they 
got it wrong today when they thought what the inflation rate would be. 
And, in both cases, their projections were more optimistic than the 
actual results turned out to be.
  Last year, we created fewer jobs in America than were projected 
without the spending bill, and he said the

[[Page S2442]]

spending bill was going to get us more jobs.
  Economists' projections of our economy just keep going lower and 
lower and lower. Now the experts are predicting a recession. A 
recession is when the economy shrinks for 6 months. We are already 
halfway there. In the first 3 months of this year, the economy did 
shrink. Why? Well, because of inflation.
  As former Obama economic adviser Austan Goolsbee said on Friday, it 
is an awful situation. Oh, yes, it is. High inflation is going to lead 
to higher interest rates, which will slow down our economy even more.
  Last week, the Federal Reserve issued the biggest hike in interest 
rates in 22 years. The Fed also indicated that it is just the 
beginning; we are going to have more rate hikes coming. This will slow 
down the economy even further.
  And on top of all this, this may be too little, too late by an 
administration that is very slow on the trigger. The damage of 
inflation has been done. The average American family today is paying 
$100 a week more just to buy the same things that they bought last 
year. That is $5,200 a year more this year than last year because of 
the way Joe Biden has mishandled and mismanaged our American economy.
  Prices are going up. Interest rates are going up. The economy is 
slowing down. What is Joe Biden going to do? Regrettably, he is trying 
to double down.
  So to the senior Senator from Illinois, the midterm elections, as he 
said, will be about inflation and will be about the crisis and the 
chaos at the southern border, whether the Senator likes it or not.
  The American people are suffering. They feel stuck. They feel 
stressed. They feel squeezed. They are begging and pleading with 
Democrats in Washington: Stop the reckless spending. Unleash American 
energy. We have plenty of it in the ground. Let us get it out and bring 
this Democrat inflation nightmare to an end.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. TOOMEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.