[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 116 (Thursday, July 14, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3285-S3286]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Inflation

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, yesterday's CPI report told Americans 
what they already knew all too well: The disastrous effects of 
Washington Democrats' spending binge last year still have our economy 
in a vice grip.
  Year-on-year, inflation has hit 9.1 percent for the first time since 
the fallout of the Carter administration. And the signs are 
inescapable. Price hikes on everything from food to fuel to housing are 
setting new multidecade highs.
  A shopper out in Oregon told a reporter recently she doesn't buy beef 
anymore. Here is what she said:

       We kind of try to eat what we have while we have it.

  Yesterday, we learned exactly what she and millions of Americans are 
up against: the fastest rising grocery prices since 1979.
  In Nevada, the owner of a local diner says:

       My concerns are that my food costs have escalated 
     dramatically. I used to gut wrench about [raising menu 
     prices] 2 or 3 percent. Now it is way more than that just to 
     keep my doors open.

  Yesterday's report says he is not alone. Nationwide prices for food 
outside the home haven't risen this fast since back in 1981. And this 
new reality is especially frustrating for those working to help.
  As the head of one South Dakota food bank put it, ``The donation load 
seemed to lighten up. . . . When we give out food boxes, they're not as 
full as they used to be.''
  Right as working families are struggling the most, so are the 
organizations trying to help them. Just one more cruel twist of 
Washington Democrats' runaway inflation.
  One of the first and most painful consequences of the Biden 
administration's failed policies have been the soaring costs of energy. 
Remember, on their party's watch, the cost of heating a home rose by 
double-digit percentages last winter. Electricity prices climbed at 
their fastest rate since 2006. Prices at the gas pump have doubled 
since President Biden took office. One Pennsylvania woman said that 
ever since her heating bill skyrocketed last winter, she has had to 
scale back her spending big time. Here is what she had to say:

       I need to hide under my bed and save every dollar I can.

  And in Maryland, one retiree reports that ``skyrocketing gas prices 
mean that visits to the local library--about 5 miles round trip--no 
longer feel free.''
  From day one, the Biden administration has worked overtime to make it

[[Page S3286]]

harder to produce the most affordable and reliable forms of energy that 
Americans rely on at home. Now, as their radical climate agenda takes 
its toll on domestic production, millions of Americans are facing the 
possibility--listen to this--of summer blackouts.
  The heartland, the West, and the Southwest face the highest risks. 
The people of Arizona and Nevada, for example, are already at what 
experts call ``elevated risk'' for this summer.
  Are Arizonans and Nevadans clamoring for a new tax hike on natural 
gas electricity on top of everything else? I doubt it. Are they 
desperate to double down on the very unreliable green sources that set 
us up for these blackouts in the first place? I don't think so.
  Our electric grid is overburdened already, but Democrats apparently 
want to strain it even more by eliminating the most reliable sources of 
energy we have, all the while spending hundreds of billions on schemes 
that depend on Chinese minerals, components, and supply chains.
  Trading American energy independence for less reliable sources that 
depend on forced child labor and foreign producers with questionable 
environmental standards--really, is this what our colleagues think will 
usher in a big transition to green daydreams?
  Washington Democrats are the only ones who would define higher energy 
costs and lower reliability as a victory. Real-life Americans know that 
higher costs and rolling blackouts are just two more symptoms of a 
failed government with failed leadership pushing failed policies.
  Working families are still reeling from the time Democrats decided to 
spend us into inflation. They have got no appetite for being taxed into 
recession.