[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 118 (Monday, July 18, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3320-S3321]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Inflation

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, last week, American families' pain 
was confirmed by yet another round of awful statistics. Year-on-year 
inflation set a new 40-year high in June. The painful fallout of 
Washington Democrats' 2021 spending binge continues to spread. A loaf 
of bread costs the American consumer 10 percent more than it did a year 
ago. A dozen eggs will run you 33 percent more. The price of a gallon 
of gas, of course, rose more than 100 percent on Democrats' watch.
  Across the board, the American people's hard-earned dollars are not 
going nearly as far as before Democrats' inflation. Even as nominal 
wages rise, millions of families have seen their real income decrease; 
a net pay cut for workers, courtesy of Washington Democrats' runaway 
spending. No wonder three out of four Americans--three out of four--say 
inflation is causing them financial hardship. Seventy-five percent of 
the country is in a tough spot.

  Of course, it is not affecting everyone equally. The lowest earning 
Americans consistently spend larger portions of their incomes on the 
sort of essentials that are most expensive right now, from housing to 
fuel, to groceries. And workers in blue-collar industries are among 
those having the hardest time

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keeping up. U.S. manufacturing workers are seeing their lowest average 
earnings--adjusted for inflation--since 2014, while the overall 
private-sector workforce is seeing wages at 2019 levels.
  Unfortunately, these hardships show little sign of slowing anytime 
soon. Last month's core inflation, when compared to just a few months 
earlier, is actually accelerating. So we have got the worst inflation 
since 1981. The vast majority of Americans are saying it has them in a 
bind financially. And it is low- and middle-income families who are 
actually bearing the brunt of it.
  This, Madam President, is the landscape as Washington Democrats keep 
trying to force even more party-line liberal bills with even more new 
Washington spending and--for a bonus--a bonus--massive new tax hikes. 
For the better part of a year, our colleagues have been trying to cook 
up legislation that would make life harder for small businesses, attack 
affordable American energy, and hike income taxes on families in every 
single tax bracket.
  Apparently, for most Washington Democrats, spending the country into 
inflation actually wasn't enough. Now, for a second act, they want to 
tax us into a recession. The response for Democrats robbing American 
families once cannot be for Democrats to rob American families a second 
time.