[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 114 (Tuesday, July 12, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3217-S3218]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              The Economy

  Mr. McCONNELL. We all know inflation and the economy are the biggest 
problems facing Americans today. The New York Times released a poll 
just yesterday showing a full 93 percent of working-age Americans are 
dissatisfied with the state of our economy. We are a big and a diverse 
country. Ninety-three percent of Americans hardly ever agree on 
anything, but Democrats are unifying the country in unhappiness at the 
dark path down which they have taken our economy.
  Monmouth University released some data explaining why Americans are 
feeling so sour. Forty-two percent of Americans are struggling to stay 
afloat financially at the highest rate ever--ever--in this poll's 
entire history, even higher than the darkest days, the days of the 
COVID pandemic.
  Sixty-three percent of Americans named economic issues as their chief 
concern. And they know who to blame for their misfortune: President 
Biden and congressional Democrats, who plowed $2 trillion into our 
economy last year and created the highest inflation in four decades.
  I am sure many of my colleagues heard heart-wrenching stories from 
constituents struggling with inflation during the past 2 weeks' State 
work period. I certainly did in Kentucky, where the average household 
now spends more than $500 more a month than they did before President 
Biden took office.
  At a meeting with homebuilders in Northern Kentucky, local employers 
told me their businesses were poised to slow down dramatically. For 2 
years, they struggled as Washington Democrats' exacerbated supply chain 
hiccups and worker shortages with freewheeling spending policies. Now, 
as the Fed tries to rein in inflation by hiking interest rates, home 
buyers have to contend with the most expensive borrowing environment in 
over a decade. Homebuilders foresee their industry literally stalling 
out.
  In Paducah, I sat down with some of Western Kentucky's barge 
operators. Like the homebuilders, they are concerned with ongoing 
worker shortages, inflation, and of course spiraling fuel

[[Page S3218]]

costs. They also rightly worry that power outages could hit the 
Commonwealth in the coming months.
  Washington Democrats pursued environmental goals crafted by activists 
with no sense of how the real economy functions. They sidelined 
powerplants that use cheap, reliable energy sources without 
acknowledging that shortages would occur when the wind doesn't blow or 
the Sun doesn't shine. Independent electricity reliability experts have 
been sounding the alarm that two-thirds--two-thirds--of the United 
States could endure electricity blackouts this summer.
  Then, Kentucky's ongoing labor shortage hit home during a meeting 
with bourbon distillers in our famous Bluegrass region. As the 
distillers explained to me, the programs implemented by Washington 
Democrats in their $2 trillion spending package last year encouraged 
workers to exit the workforce and stay on the sidelines. The 
Commonwealth still has 20,000 fewer workers--20,000 fewer workers--than 
we did before the pandemic. So hamstrung by a lack of employees, these 
Kentucky businessowners are watching apprehensively as Washington 
Democrats debate another dose of bad policies.

  This time, our colleagues are reportedly cooking up a trillion 
dollars in massive tax hikes on things like small businesses and 
domestic energy. When you tax something, you get less of it. That is 
the way it works. I don't know many Kentuckians who think America needs 
fewer small business jobs or less American energy. I am not certain 
about the good people of West Virginia either.
  One estimate has found that almost half of all the jobs in all of 
West Virginia are tied to small businesses, the vast majority of which 
are passthroughs. Half of all the jobs in the entire State are provided 
by passthroughs.
  I can't imagine the people of Pennsylvania or Ohio or a number of 
other States are especially keen to have fewer small business jobs, 
higher prices passed on to consumers or less American energy either. 
Yet each of these States and many others have a Senator apparently 
keen--keen--to champion these bad ideas.
  The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation has proven that the 
policies that Democrats are floating would completely break President 
Biden's promise not to raise taxes on the middle class below $400,000. 
The JCT says their bad ideas would create a tax hike for more than a 
quarter of all Americans who earn between $75,000 and $100,000 and more 
than half of the people earning between $100,000 and $200,000. They are 
taking President Biden's promise not to raise taxes on anybody below 
$400,000 and putting it through the shredder--putting it through the 
shredder.
  This all-Democratic government has already spent America into runaway 
inflation, and now--now--they want to tax us into a recession.