[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 31 (Wednesday, February 15, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S407]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               INFLATION

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, now on an entirely different matter, 
last week, President Biden spent part of his State of the Union Address 
celebrating what he seemed to think was a victory over inflation. 
Yesterday, however, another wave of official figures confirmed what 
working families already knew: The President was simply wrong. The 
Democrats' football spiking was premature. The American people are 
hurting badly. The CPI rose another half a point last month, even 
faster than predicted, for an overall price hike of 6.4 percent year on 
year.
  Now, mind you, that is not 6.4 percent inflation since President 
Biden was sworn in. That is an additional 6.4 percent just since 
February of last year--since February of last year--a baseline that 
already had an entire previous year of historic and unacceptable 
inflation already baked into it.

  The overall Biden inflation rate is 14.4 percent. The overall Biden 
inflation rate is 14.4 percent from January 2021 to today. Rents are up 
12.7 percent since President Biden took office. Grocery prices are up 
19.6 percent. Energy prices are up 38 percent after 2 years of total 
Democratic control here in Washington.
  Prices are still rising out of control. And, even worse, the rate of 
increase is speeding back up again. This past month was the hottest for 
inflation since last October.
  We have now had 21 straight months above 5 percent annual inflation--
a mind-boggling policy failure.
  And what does the White House have to say about it? Well, yesterday, 
the President's press secretary claimed:

       The President's economic plan is indeed working.

  So I guess the official White House position is that Democrats caused 
all of this crushing inflation on purpose. This is the kind of insanity 
that has left just 16 percent of Americans saying they are in a better 
financial position than they were 2 years ago. That has nearly two-
thirds of Americans saying they are living literally paycheck to 
paycheck. So much preventable pain, because Democrats gambled away 
families' security on their radical plans and their reckless spending.

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