[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 90 (Tuesday, May 24, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S2638]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Biden Administration

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on the campaign trail, Candidate Biden 
made some big promises for America's economic recovery. His campaign 
published ``the Biden Plan to revitalize Main Street and invest in 
small businesses'' and another ``to give America's working families the 
tools, choices, and freedom they need to build back better.'' So just 
how have the working families and small businesses fared with President 
Biden and the Democratic Party calling the shots? Sixty-nine percent of 
Americans say our economy right now is bad. Even more--77 percent--say 
they are pessimistic about costs rising even more in the coming months. 
Just last month, one longstanding measure of optimism among small 
business owners reached its lowest level on record.
  Month after month, the historic high inflation Democrats helped 
unleash with runaway spending last spring is taking its toll on 
Americans' hope for the future, but more immediately, it is taking its 
toll on their wallets. More than a third of Americans say they are 
having difficulty paying for usual household expenses.
  Just last month, the price of a gallon of milk was 16 percent higher 
than the year before. Gas prices are scraping the stratosphere. In 
Kentucky, the average price for a gallon of regular reached an alltime 
high 2 weeks ago. Today, it is 20 cents higher than that.
  In Lexington, one resident who drives a rideshare put it this way:

       I'm not trying to be a billionaire, I'm just trying to pay 
     some bills.

  She is facing more pain at the pump, and so are the folks paying even 
more to fill up trucks, tractors, or delivery vans with diesel.
  The costs behind small business owners' headaches are behind 
consumers' hardship.
  But somehow, as our Nation reaps the effects of their first year of 
one-party control, Washington Democrats are operating as if the exact 
opposite conditions were afoot. After their spending bonanza helped 
kick off historic inflation, they want to pile on the biggest tax hikes 
in history. After their radical day 1 climate agenda hammered the most 
affordable forms of American energy, they want to double down on far-
left fantasies.
  As the Biden administration passed its 100th day in office, I urged 
the President to ``recommit to solving our nation's actual problems.'' 
Well, here we are, approaching his administration's 500th day in 
office. By now, America's working families have figured out for 
themselves that the so-called ``Biden Plan'' for them is just a fast 
track to historic hardships.