[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 146 (Monday, September 12, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4528-S4529]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Inflation

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, tomorrow, the Labor Department will

[[Page S4529]]

release the latest monthly update on the Democrats' inflation, but, of 
course, the American people hardly need government statistics to 
explain to them that Washington Democrats' reckless spending has sent 
prices skyrocketing. Working families have been feeling this pain in 
their pocketbooks every single day. Nearly two-thirds of middle-income 
Americans say inflation is negatively affecting their finances. An 
outright majority say they are experiencing ``financial hardship.'' A 
third of the country says they are struggling to meet basic family 
needs.
  One parent shopping for school supplies recently told reporters:

       I had to start early because the prices are so high. . . . 
     Being a parent, I want to give them the world. Sometimes, I 
     wish I could give them more.

  But the back-to-school rush isn't the only headache facing working 
families. Since President Biden and this all-Democratic government took 
office, prices on grocery store essentials, from meat to produce, have 
seen double-digit percentage increases. Some household items, like 
furniture, are over 20 percent more expensive than they were on 
Inauguration Day. The diesel fuel that moves practically everything 
through the supply chain and onto store shelves is up nearly 80 percent 
since President Biden put his hand on the Bible. Households' electric 
bills are up an average of 20 percent since January of 2021. Commuting 
and running errands costs more, with gasoline up 70 percent. As fall 
and winter approach, homes that burn fuel oil are set to be more than 
75 percent more expensive simply to keep warm.
  The American people know who created this mess. They remember quite 
well how Washington Democrats spent the spring of 2021 dining out on 
leftwing spending and leaving taxpayers to pick up the bill. Poll after 
poll has shown they are overwhelmingly dissatisfied with what President 
Biden and his party have done since then.
  One survey found five consecutive times that more than 70 percent of 
Americans say our country is headed in the wrong direction. But that 
hasn't stopped Washington Democrats from calling the same disastrous 
play over and over and over again.
  For months--months--our colleagues' primary focus was on repeating 
the mistake they made in 2021. In August, on a party-line vote, they 
did it. In the teeth of the worst inflation in over 40 years, every 
single Democrat in Congress voted to ram through hundreds of billions 
of dollars more in liberal spending.
  The American people's top concern is runaway costs. And the supply 
chain crisis could get even worse--much worse--in the next few days if 
Democrats let their far-left, Big Labor allies engage in massive 
railway worker strikes that would hamper the economy even further. But 
Washington Democrats' top concerns appear to be something very 
different. They prioritized waging war on affordable American energy in 
a bill that will have no meaningful impact on global temperatures. They 
prioritized inflating the IRS with $80 billion to audit more American 
citizens without a word of accountability for when tax collectors allow 
confidential information to become a political weapon.

  Even the supposed reason for the spending package, ``inflation 
reduction,'' is utter nonsense. Nonpartisan experts have concluded that 
what Washington Democrats did last month will not meaningfully reduce 
inflation at all and will actually make it worse in the near term. This 
is what Democrats decided to put first for the better part of a year, 
and it is what they are now trying to peddle to the American people as 
a victory.
  But the American people don't want tens of billions of dollars in 
wish fulfillment for climate activists; they want affordable gas and 
electricity. The American people don't want a bloated IRS; they want 
stronger support for law enforcement at the southern border and in 
their communities. Washington Democrats have consistently misunderstood 
what the American people have asked them to do. They have repeatedly 
ignored the basic challenges they have created for working families.
  When the American people's priorities and Washington Democrats' 
priorities have diverged, this government has put the people last at 
every turn.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Iowa.