[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 150 (Monday, September 19, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4809-S4810]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Inflation

  Mr. McCONNELL. Last week, the American people received yet another 
absolutely crushing--crushing--inflation report. More than a year after 
Washington Democrats' policies set off the worst overall inflation in 
40 years, the prices of some of the most essential items for working 
families are skyrocketing at their fastest rates in a generation.
  Electricity costs are rising faster than they have since 1981, and 
grocery inflation has eclipsed a high from 1979. Parents trying to put 
food on the table are now contending with annual price hikes of 16.2 
percent for a loaf of bread, 17 percent for a gallon of milk, and 40 
percent more for a dozen eggs.
  Now, the very same day this painful news broke, just a few hours 
later, Washington Democrats threw a party for themselves on the White 
House lawn, celebrating their economic policies.
  You really can't make this stuff up.
  The official numbers had just confirmed that American families have 
seen the single worst year for both food and electricity inflation 
since the fallout from Jimmy Carter. And the Democrats' response was to 
throw themselves a party--a party--for spending hundreds of billions of 
dollars more, raising taxes, and making working-class Americans pay off 
the loans of doctors and lawyers.
  You might think the Biden administration couldn't possibly get any 
more out of touch. You would think that kind of display would have to 
take the cake. But alas, last night, on ``60 Minutes,'' President Biden 
gave an almost comically out-of-touch interview on the inflation 
crisis.
  The President argued--with a straight face--that the American people 
ought to be grateful for last month's terrible inflation report because 
it could have been even worse. Here was a quote:

       Guess where we are? We're in a position where, in the last 
     several months, [inflation] hasn't spiked.

  Struggling Americans are supposed to be grateful that we have 
plateaued at a steady ongoing inflation rate of more than 8 percent? 
The President wants a round of applause for steadily clocking month 
after month after month of the worst inflation in 40 years?
  The inflation rate plateauing does not mean that prices themselves 
have leveled off. It means that prices are

[[Page S4810]]

still steadily climbing all the time, at a historically fast pace, the 
worst in a generation.
  Month after month after month, Democrats' policy failures are 
continuing to add inflation on top of inflation. The inflation rate 
plateauing above 8 percent does not mean that families are catching a 
break. It means exactly the opposite. It means that families are 
continuing to see prices go up and up and up all the time.
  Simply surviving, just getting by, in Washington Democrats' economy 
costs 8.3 percent more than it did a year ago, but remember, the 12-
month numbers now dramatically understate the damage the Democrats have 
done because it only looks back 1 year, when Democrats' inflation 
spiral was already up and running.
  Here is the number that really matters. Since the day that President 
Biden was sworn in, since the day that this one-party Democratic 
government took power, our country's inflation rate has been--listen to 
this--13.2 percent. And according to President Biden, if you are angry 
about that, if parents are upset, if workers are frustrated, they just 
aren't putting things in proper perspective.
  Considering the American people give President Biden a 38-percent 
approval rating on his handling of the economy, I would say it is the 
White House that needs to get some perspective, not the working people 
of this country.
  And get this: When President Biden was asked how we can avoid a 
recession, since Democrats' policies have forced the Fed to raise their 
rates sharply, the President doubled down on his fantasyland. He 
suggested:

       [W]e're growing the economy . . . it's growing in . . . a 
     way that it hasn't in years and years.

  But, of course, that is complete nonsense. You measure real GDP 
growth after inflation. From early 2017 until the beginning of the 
COVID pandemic, Republican policies had the economy humming along with 
robust growth, low unemployment, and low inflation--a great trifecta 
for the American people.
  But now, with President Biden's policies in place, we have seen two 
consecutive quarters of real GDP actually falling. Once you account for 
the inflation that Democrats have caused, our economy is not growing at 
all. It is, in fact, shrinking.
  Families talk about the term ``shrinkflation'' at the grocery store 
or the big-box store. That means not only have prices gone up, but the 
size of the package has gone down so you are both paying more and 
getting less. Like the size of a bag of chips or a box of cookies or 
the number of sheets in a roll of toilet paper or the weight of a bag 
of fertilizer--higher prices, smaller quantities.
  And this is basically what President Biden and Democrats have done to 
the entire U.S. economy. Everything costs more, even as the GDP is 
shrinking in real terms. Just like American families have seen their 
real wages plummet after inflation, the same thing has happened to the 
country as a whole for two quarters and counting.
  So the President might want to talk to a couple of working Americans 
who are trying to survive under his policies before he sits down for 
his next TV interview.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.
  The Senator from Illinois.