[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 194 (Wednesday, December 14, 2022)]
[House]
[Page H9745]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            INFLATION HURTS

  (Mr. MEUSER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MEUSER. Mr. Speaker, the latest inflation numbers are in. 
Inflation has increased 7.1 percent in the last year, and in my home 
State of Pennsylvania, it has increased 12 percent.
  Despite the Biden administration celebrating, nobody in my district 
is celebrating. There is no celebrating when my constituents go to the 
grocery store, the gas station, and when they pay their home heating 
bills. They feel this pain every day.
  This inflation has primarily been caused by the assault on our 
domestic energy and excessive government spending. We are now in 
discussions on our appropriations bill.
  Mr. Speaker, not only is the plan to add over 7 percent to compensate 
for inflation--which was originally created by such excessive 
spending--we are now going to double down and spend hundreds of 
billions of dollars in excess of pre-COVID levels. In fact, the 
Government funding bill being discussed is 25 percent more than 
prepandemic levels and 10 percent more than last year.
  There is no merit to this continued spending spree. It will only 
further drive inflation and grow our deficit which, in turn, incurs 
more interest to be paid on our debt. All the while the Fed is 
increasing interest rates to further burden my constituents and to also 
dampen our economy.
  This is absolutely ``gas backwards'' policy.

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