[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 20 (Tuesday, January 31, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S161-S162]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               INFLATION

  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about 
our economy.
  The President has been doing a lot of bragging these days about the 
economy. Last week, it was Virginia. Later this week, it is 
Philadelphia. He is in New York City today. He is going to be here on 
Capitol Hill, down the hall, in the House, next Tuesday night, for the 
State of the Union.
  You know, the American people that I talk to--and looking at 
statistics and poll numbers from around the country--the American 
people just don't believe the President has anything to brag about, not 
when you look at the economy that is facing our Nation today. Two-
thirds of people in polls out this weekend say that they disapprove of 
the way Joe Biden is handling the economy--disapprove, doing a bad job, 
the country heading in the wrong direction. And it is really a problem 
when 70 percent of the people think the country in which they live, the 
county they love, is heading in the wrong direction.
  Why would they say it? Well, they took a look at their own personal 
situation, because the average American family has lost more than 
$10,000 to higher prices since Joe Biden took office just 2 years ago, 
and, now, what we are seeing across the country is more and more signs 
of the economy slowing down.
  Last week, we found out that the economy had slowed down at the end 
of last year. Last year, the economy grew at only a rate of 2.1 percent 
for the entire year. The White House predicted that it would be 3.8 
percent, so much below what the President and the White House had 
predicted. Actually, they missed it by almost half. And this is just 
the latest in a long list of disappointments that have affected the 
people all across the country over the last 2 years.
  We found out Friday that consumer spending has dropped again. This 
week, working families are now getting another punch to the gut. 
Economists are predicting that the Federal Reserve is likely going to 
raise interest rates again in just 2 days. More rate hikes are going to 
make it even more expensive to borrow money. It is going to slow the 
economy down even further.
  Over the last year, we have seen the largest rate hikes in 40 years. 
The average rate of new mortgages doubled since Joe Biden became 
President. Credit card interest are at an all-time high. Higher rates, 
harder to buy a home, harder to buy a house, harder to pay off credit 
card debt--it is no surprise that mortgage applications recently hit 
their lowest level in 25 years. They say they can't afford it at these 
rates.
  This is very bitter medicine for the American people to take because 
they have been living through the worst inflation in 40 years. So why 
do we have the worst inflation in 40 years? Well, it is obvious. It is 
the massive spending done by the Democrats on a strictly party-line 
basis and the fact that the Democrats shut down American energy. You 
talk about a one-two punch--trying to kill the American energy industry 
and massive amounts of spending on top of it, inflation at a 40-year 
high, people suffering all around the country.
  Now, economists are predicting another recession coming this year. 
What does that mean? Well, it means more pain for people, more 
punishment for families who are just trying to get by or trying to put 
food on the table, and food prices have skyrocketed again.
  The American dream is moving further and further out of reach for 
many, many American families. According to the Gallup poll group, faith 
in the American dream recently hit an all-time low. How could that 
happen? Record numbers of people, surprisingly, believe that their 
children will have a lower standard of living than they have had. That 
is not the way my parents looked at me when I was growing up or your 
parents did, Mr. President, when you were growing up. The American 
dream was about a better next generation. Parents today don't see that 
for their kids because they see what they see going around their 
communities and this country.
  Many young people are giving up on their hope to buy a home someday. 
Families trying to get ahead are having a harder time, and many are 
falling behind.
  It didn't have to be this way. Oh, no, this is the result of the 
decisions that Joe Biden made and the inflation that Joe Biden and the 
Democrats have brought about this country.
  Remember, when Joe Biden took office just 2 years ago, inflation in 
this country was virtually nonexistent. A typical 30-year mortgage went 
for less than 4 percent. The lockdowns from the pandemic were coming to 
an end. The economy was ready to take off. And then in March of 2021, 
with every Democrat voting for it and every Republican voting against 
it, Democrats printed $2 trillion and added it to the national debt.
  Republicans warned the Democrats: Don't do it. Don't do this. Don't 
put the money. Don't spend the money. Don't add it to the debt.
  We said it would cause inflation, and it wasn't just Republicans who 
were saying it. Democrats' own economic experts warned them: Don't 
spend the money. It is going to jazz up the economy to the point of 
more money in. Prices are going to go chasing it, and prices will go 
up.
  Democrat advisers, like former President Obama's advisers--Larry 
Summers, Jason Furman, and Steve Rattner, to just to name a few--
Democrats in Washington, in this body, on this side of the floor, 
ignored the whole thing, refused to listen. Nancy Pelosi and the 
Democrats in the House said we don't want to hear it. They put their 
fingers in their ears.
  A month after President Biden signed the bill, inflation climbed. We 
have been suffering the consequences ever since.
  President Biden said: No, no, it is transitory. No, it is not 
inflation.
  He had a hundred excuses. It was here, and it was here to stay, and 
the Democrats caused it.
  To add problems on top of this, Democrats also raised taxes on nearly 
every tax bracket. Of course, this was a direct violation of the 
promises Joe Biden made to the American people. Democrats raised prices 
anyway.
  Joe Biden went and gave an inaugural address where he talked like he 
was going to work together. It is not what happened.
  He went to the White House and killed the Keystone XL Pipeline and 
went far, far to the left, raising taxes on American energy, raising 
taxes on natural gas. Natural gas powers about half the homes in the 
United States. Taxes on coal went up a billion dollars. That means 
everybody is paying higher prices.
  It is strangling our economy. It is strangling our energy production. 
It is wrong for the Nation.
  You look at Joe Biden. He is smiling away like things are going well, 
completely out of touch with the families all across the country.
  We are still producing a lot less oil today than we were before the 
pandemic, and gas prices have gone up about 40 cents already this year. 
They are predicted to go to over $4 a gallon by March because of the 
attack on American energy by this administration and this President.
  Democrats have taken a sledgehammer to our economy on each and every 
side: higher taxes, higher spending, higher gas, less American energy. 
It is a Democrat policy in a nutshell. That is the Democrat economic 
policy: higher taxes, higher spending, higher debt, less American 
energy. It is a policy for failure, a policy for pain for American 
families.
  I guess that is why, right now, today, in the United States Joe Biden 
is the least popular Democrat President in the last 60 years--the least 
popular. So instead of bragging, instead of going to New York and 
pounding his chest, as he did in Virginia and he is going to do in 
Pennsylvania--instead of bragging, he ought to be apologizing to the 
American people. He does owe the American people an apology for the 
damage and

[[Page S162]]

the destruction that he has inflicted because of his radical leftwing 
policies.
  His policies caused higher prices, caused higher interest rates, 
caused slower growth, caused much pain and much stress. So the American 
people are taking a look right now at the Biden economy, and they are 
not liking what they see. People want their money back. They want their 
future back. They want a future for their family.
  So if Joe Biden won't apologize, which is what he should do when he 
comes to Congress next week for the State of the Union, then he should 
at least announce that he is going to change course, try to make things 
better, announce that he is going to stop this reckless spending that 
has brought us these problems, announce that he is finally going to 
unleash American energy so energy is affordable, available, and 
reliable.
  That is what the American public is asking for and demanding. Working 
families in this country cannot afford any less.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from West Virginia.

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