[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 152 (Wednesday, September 21, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4880-S4881]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Inflation

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on Sunday's edition of ``60 Minutes,'' 
President Biden made a bizarre attempt to deny the American people's 
pain from Democrats' runaway inflation. After the latest nationwide 
data reported that consumer prices are rising at 8.3 percent year-on-
year, the President suggested the country should

[[Page S4881]]

be celebrating that they weren't rising even faster.
  Working Americans aren't buying that insulting spin. Middle-class 
families aren't rejoicing that their daily life costs 8.3 percent more 
than it did a year ago and--listen to this--13.2 percent more than when 
President Biden took office.
  In Parma, OH, one local grocer is working hard to keep her prices 
competitive but admits that ``[w]e have been getting hit with all of 
our suppliers with chicken, ground meat, everything.''
  And in Fairfield County, the head of one organization that helps feed 
folks experiencing economic hardship put it this way:

       I think things are going to get a whole lot darker and more 
     bleak before they get a lot better. We're desperately worried 
     about food.

  Across the border in West Virginia, in Fayette County, persistent 
high prices have one retired grandmother worried about how the rest of 
her family is making ends meet.
  She said:

       I'm already stressed and stressed and trying to figure out 
     how [my daughter is] going to pay to keep the lights on, get 
     groceries, get school clothes on her kid's back.

  In Perryopolis, PA, one shopper told a reporter that besides cutting 
back at the grocery store, she had taken on a second job of working 
nights at a warehouse to help feed her family of four.
  This is what she had to say:

       Clothing, gas, just about everything has gone up, and food 
     is a large part of it.

  Meanwhile, the head of a small manufacturer in Big Bend, WI, reports 
that amid price spikes and backed-up supply chains, ``trying to source 
products has been very difficult.''
  In each of these States' cases--West Virginia, Ohio, Wisconsin, and 
Pennsylvania--one Senator tried to spare working families from all of 
this preventable pain. Each of those States has one Republican Senator 
who warned about inflation, who voted against inflation, and who voted 
for amendments that would have reduced inflation.
  But, unfortunately, each one of those States also has a Democratic 
Senator who decided to vote in partisan lockstep to plow ahead with the 
trillions of dollars in reckless, inflationary spending. One Senator 
each from West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin cast the 
tie-breaking votes to bring this pain down on their citizens' heads. 
Now, sadly, they are all paying the price.
  Working families in West Virginia are paying Washington Democrats' 
inflation tax to the tune of an extra $563 a month. Ohioans are paying 
$661 more. In Pennsylvania, inflation is squeezing folks for an extra 
$605; and in Wisconsin, it is $673. Families in these States are paying 
a painful price for the deciding vote that their Democratic Senators 
chose to cast.