[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 145 (Wednesday, September 18, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S6137]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Inflation

  Madam President, topic No. 2: This is not a news flash. Americans are 
struggling to pay their bills. The reason, of course, is inflation. The 
inflation that the American people--and let me strike that. I don't 
want to call it inflation. Let me call it what it is--those high 
prices. Those high prices were made in Washington, and they are a 
cancer on the American dream. As a result of the high prices, people 
are struggling to pay their bills.
  I was looking at a report this week--and I know the Presiding Officer 
feels this in her State. People are having to borrow money to pay their 
bills, and they are having to borrow money on their credit cards. I 
don't need to tell the Presiding Officer that the interest on credit 
cards has gone up dramatically as a result of inflation. The interest 
on the credit card is not like going to your bank where credit is 
tight. Because of inflation, the interest rates on those credit cards 
has gone through the roof. The credit card interest rate in March was 
21.51 percent. Back in 2019, it was 15 percent. Delinquent payments on 
credit cards are also through the roof--9.1 percent--the highest in a 
decade. Credit card balances are higher too.
  Auto loans: The average interest rate on a 60-month new car loan was 
8.2 percent last May. That is up from 5.3 percent in 2019. And 
delinquency rates on auto loans are the highest they have been in 10 
years.
  If you look at consumer debt, last year, it hit $17 trillion--not 
billion, not billion--$17 trillion. It hit that number last year for 
the first time. Inflation-adjusted debt is at its highest level since 
2009.
  Now, I know some folks who are thinking, yes, but inflation has come 
down. Yes, it has, and I want to thank the Federal Reserve for that 
because they had to do it alone. They sure didn't get help from 
Congress.
  But what does that mean? When inflation comes down, that is called 
disinflation. What does that mean? When inflation comes down, that just 
means prices are not rising as quickly as they were. That is all a 
reduction in inflation means. Prices are still going up, but they are 
not going up as quickly as they were. That is called disinflation. But 
prices are not going down. If prices were to go down, that would be 
called deflation. That would be called deflation.
  As Federal Reserve Chair Powell and Treasury Secretary Yellen have 
both testified in front of the Banking Committee--and I hate to say 
this--unless we do something, these high prices are permanent. They are 
permanent.
  Now, there are only two ways to reduce these prices. One is to go 
into a recession. China is in a recession. Prices in China are going 
down. It is too big of a price to pay. I don't want us to go into a 
recession. People would lose their jobs in order to get prices down.
  The only other alternative is to grow out of the inflation--to lift 
people up; to increase wages at the low end of the wage scale, at the 
middle, and at the upper end of the wage scale--to help everybody. Five 
thousand years of human history has taught us that you cannot increase 
wealth, you cannot increase individuals' incomes--it can't be done--
without increasing output.
  So we in the Senate are going to have to put our heads together and 
figure out how to grow this economy, not at 1\1/2\ percent, not at 2 
percent, which has become the norm. We break 2 percent GDP growth now, 
and we want to have a toga party. We shouldn't settle for 2 percent. We 
need 3 percent growth to lift everybody up.