[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 143 (Wednesday, September 7, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4453-S4454]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Inflation

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, sometimes around here, in what a lot of 
people refer to as the ``ivory tower,'' we talk about issues like they 
are abstract issues, like they don't have any real world effect. And I 
just wanted to touch on something, before I begin on my other subject 
here today, which is related to recent information that has been put 
out by the Department of Agriculture, the USDA's Economic Research 
Service, which is the arm that does projections on the economy and the 
farm economy, generally. What they are now concluding is that in 2022, 
there are going to be record cash receipts--record cash receipts--crop 
production, livestock production--record levels, 14-percent higher year 
over year. But what they go on to say is that even with record cash 
receipts up by 14 percent, net cash farm income is going to be down. 
Net cash farm income is going to be down by 1 percent.
  Why is that? Well, because if you look at what has increased, 
increased costs on farmers in this country, they have reached some 
record levels. If you look at, for example, fertilizer. Farmers will 
spend 84 percent more, or $21 billion more, on fertilizers than they 
did in 2020; 65 percent, or nearly $8 billion, more on fuel and oil; 
and more than $18 billion more on feed for livestock. Then you add in, 
on top of that, debt, which, for a farm operation, obviously, they are 
a very debt-intensive operation. So with higher interest rates and 
record farm debt of $496 billion, that is expected to increase interest 
payments by 37 percent, or more than $7 billion, from 2020, or 2 years 
ago.
  So my point, simply, is that, at least in my part of the country, 
with corn, soybeans, wheat, livestock, and cattle prices expected to go 
up in record numbers in terms of overall gross farm income--gross cash 
receipts--that you would think would lead to good times in American 
agriculture, because of inflation, a 14-percent increase in gross cash 
receipts is going to result in an actual loss, a reduction year over 
year from 2021, when it comes to inflation-adjusted net farm income.
  So I make that point simply to illustrate how critical it is that, as 
policymakers, we acknowledge what is happening in the real world, 
because I think around here the Biden administration tries to downplay 
this inflation issue like it is a nonissue.

[[Page S4454]]

  It is a real issue. It is hitting the pocketbooks of every American 
in this country to the tune 8\1/2\ to 9 percent for a family. I said 
this before, but the analysis is out there. For an average family in 
this country, you are talking about, year over year to buy the same 
basket of goods you bought last year, an additional $9,000 over last 
year--$700 and some per month, year-over-year, month-over-month 
increases in costs for average families in this country. That is a 
$9,000 tax increase on every family in this country.
  Now, it is borne arguably more easily by people in high-income 
categories, but if you are a working family who is trying to make ends 
meet and is putting more and more on your credit card or dipping into 
savings--and there are more and more people in this country. I just saw 
this number yesterday where one out of every six Americans now is 
behind in their utility payments. There are people living paycheck to 
paycheck, and inflation is killing them. And it is like this 
administration has a blind eye to that and wants to talk about a lot of 
other issues. And I can see why, because this is an issue I would not 
want to have to take responsibility for.
  In many respects, all the spending--all the spending pushed through 
here, advocated by the President--the $2 trillion last year, the 
American Rescue Plan, and just in the last month, another $750 billion 
in spending and taxes, and the heavy-handed regulation, the shutdown of 
oil and gas production in this country, which drives up the cost of 
energy and which is reflected, as I pointed out, in a lot of these 
numbers--if you look at the fuel costs year over year, you actually 
have a situation in American agriculture today where you have record 
gross cash receipts and a reduction in inflation-adjusted net income. 
That is the impact of inflation.