[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 99 (Wednesday, June 12, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4046-S4047]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Inflation

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I want to talk just for a few minutes 
this evening about my people in Louisiana.
  They are hurting. Inflation is gutting them like a fish. This 
inflation, like all inflation, is manmade, and that man's name is 
President Joe Biden.
  President Biden has proven to be an inflation machine. He has spent 
trillions and trillions of dollars that we do not have. He has injected 
so much money into this economy that we are practically drowning in 
liquidity.
  Unless you were in the quad playing frisbee during Econ 101, you know 
that, inevitably, that is going to cause inflation. And, indeed, it 
did.
  I realize there is a yawning disconnect between what President Biden 
says and what my people in Louisiana are experiencing. There is. 
President Biden says that the economy is just fine. He says the economy 
is just wonderful.
  I will tell you what my people say. My people say, with respect, Mr. 
President: You need to put down the bong because, in our State, we are 
paying more to live worse. And we are not going to be able to retire 
because of you, Mr. President, until 4 years after we are dead.
  Louisiana is not a wealthy State. Our median household income is 
about $58,000. That is mom and dad both working, two children--$58,000. 
It is about $4,800 a month. President Biden's inflation is costing my 
people an extra $900 a month. That is not a year--$900 a month; $11,000 
a year. My average family is making, once again, $58,000 a year. They 
have got to find, all of a sudden, an extra $11,000 a year.
  Since President Biden has been President, his inflation has cost the 
average family in Louisiana an extra $22,000. You don't have to take my 
word for it. You can see this chart. You don't have to be a senior at 
Caltech to see that the direction is up, and these extra costs were 
caused by inflation.
  The prices of consumer goods in my State, on average, are up 20 
percent since President Biden took office. Some are up a lot more; some 
are up a little less. But the average is 20 percent.

  Credit card debt is up 46 percent. The average credit card balance in 
Louisiana is now $5,800. When you are making $58,000 a year for a 
family of four, $5,800 is a lot. Delinquent credit card debt is up 11 
percent, the highest in 12 years. We have had a record number of people 
who have had to take early withdrawals from their retirement accounts.
  The average electricity bill in Louisiana is up 28 percent since 
President Biden took office; gasoline in Louisiana, up 53 percent; 
eggs, 69 percent; bread, 28 percent; coffee, 28 percent; rice, 29 
percent; flour, 30 percent; milk, 15 percent; ice cream, 22 percent; 
chicken per pound, 27 percent.
  If you are a mom and dad and you are both working and you have maybe 
two car notes--certainly one car note--and a mortgage and two children, 
how can you afford this? You can't.
  When you group these necessities that I have just talked about by 
category, what you see is that, on average, for my people in 
Louisiana--again, we are not a wealthy State--food is up 21 percent on 
average; housing is up 290 percent; clothing is up 11 percent; used 
cars and trucks are up 21 percent; new cars and trucks are up 19 
percent; and mortgage rates are up a breathtaking 156 percent.
  Now, President Biden has said, truthfully--and I agree with him on 
this, and I am very happy that it happened--that inflation is coming 
down, and it is. But let me tell you the difference between inflation 
and prices. When inflation starts to go down, we call that 
disinflation. That doesn't mean prices are falling; that just means 
that prices are going up less quickly.
  At one point, we were experiencing 9 percent inflation. Prices were 
going up an average of 9 percent a year. Now, it is somewhere in the 2 
to 3.5 percent range. That means that prices are only going up 2 to 3 
percent a year. Again, that doesn't mean prices are falling; that just 
means they are going up less quickly.
  That is a long-winded way of saying that disinflation, which I just 
described, is very different from deflation. Deflation is when prices 
fall. And these prices--the President leaves this part out. These 
prices, I am sad to say, are permanent. They may not go up any more if 
we can get inflation down to roughly 1 to 2 percent, but the higher 
prices are still permanent.
  And don't take my word for it. I can refer you to the testimony of 
both Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Federal Reserve Chairman Jay 
Powell, who both testified in the Banking Committee on which I sit. 
These prices are permanent.
  Mr. President, my people are really getting good--they are really 
getting good at barely getting by. And it hurts; it hurts deeply. 
President Biden's inflation, in my State, is a cancer on the American 
dream. And it didn't have to be this way. We tried to tell him. We 
tried to tell him. When I say ``we,'' not only many of my Republican 
colleagues, but many of my Democratic friends did as well. Jason 
Furman, economic adviser to President Obama--I remember clearly Dr. 
Furman, now at Harvard, said: With all due respect, Mr. President, if 
you spend this kind of money, you are going to have inflation. And we 
did.
  And the worst part of this is that President Biden has no plan to get 
it down--none. And I regret to say, but I think the only place that we 
are going to find economic sanity in our country again is in the voting 
booth.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

[[Page S4047]]

  

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I neglected to introduce one of my 
colleagues to the Senate, Ms. Jess Andrews, who was just here. She is 
my communications director, and she helped me research my remarks, and 
I wanted to thank her.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Hassan). The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. OSSOFF. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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