[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 34 (Monday, February 26, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S978-S979]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Bidenomics

  Now, Madam President, on another matter, since President Biden took 
office, consumer prices have risen 17.9 percent. On his watch, our 
economy has seen inflation grow at its fastest rate in four decades. As 
prices soared, wages failed to keep up. Paychecks have risen just 14.5 
percent. In other words, the Biden economy has effectively imposed a 
pay cut across the board.
  The effects of Washington Democrats' reckless spending have forced 
working families to do more with less. As the American people struggle 
to make ends meet, they are carrying record-high credit card debt--34 
percent more than they were just 3 years ago.
  Polls continue to report that the country isn't very bullish on the 
prospects of undoing the Biden administration's damage anytime soon. By 
one recent survey, fewer than 3 in 10 Americans rate today's economic 
conditions positively, and barely 1 in 4 expects things to improve over 
the coming year. So this President's economy is leaving workers feeling 
suffocated.
  The effects of historic inflation are inescapable. Even after paying 
the rent or the mortgage and footing steep utility bills, families 
still have to put food on the table in the face of a food price surge 
that is making the wrong sort of history. Since January 2021, 
nationwide grocery costs have increased 21 percent. The cost of dining 
out has increased nearly the same. By the USDA's own figures, grocery 
budgets are now taking up a larger share of disposable incomes than at 
any point since 1991.
  As one woman in suburban Chicago recently told reporters, her 
family's food costs alone were rising faster than their incomes. 
Surveys indicate that fully 94 percent of Americans share her concerns 
about the prices of food and other consumer goods.
  This is the Biden economy. This is Bidenomics in action. Bizarrely, 
this is what the Biden administration has decided to spin as a roaring 
success. Both the White House and the President's reelection campaign 
continue to insist he is proud of his economic record. Imagine telling 
anyone who will listen that today's economy has you and your family in 
a bind, only for the President of the United States to declare a job 
well done.
  Don't get me wrong--the Biden administration is quite keen to assign 
blame for our economic hardships. They are just looking everywhere but

[[Page S979]]

in the mirror. On Super Bowl Sunday and in the middle of the worst food 
budget crisis in a generation, the President himself cut an ad, warning 
that the real problem in American families' pantries was bags of potato 
chips with fewer chips inside. President Biden calls shrinkflation a 
rip-off, but the American people know the real rip-off is the historic 
inflation that has shrunk their paychecks and forced them to make tough 
choices about tomorrow and get through today. In fact, they say so 
repeatedly. The only question at this point is when Washington 
Democrats will start listening.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The senior Senator from Illinois.