[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 129 (Thursday, August 6, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4489-S4490]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Trump Administration
Ms. HASSAN. Madam President, I rise today to speak about a broken
promise, a promise that the President made to the country when he took
office.
Time and again, the President promised that ``starting on day one''
of his administration, he would ``end inflation''--his words. A year
and a half into his term, it is clear that the President not only has
broken his word but that he disdains the very notion that he should
even try to make good on his pledge.
Now, for the vast majority of Americans of all ages and walks of
life, of all political stripes, costs aren't a partisan thing, and it
is simply clear: It costs more to be an American with Donald Trump as
President.
Part of why I am speaking today is because, as a new Joint Economic
Committee minority report details, American life has become more
expensive under this administration. As of June, in my home State of
New Hampshire, the average Granite State family has had to pay an
additional $4,400 for goods and services since President Trump took
office. This toll is exacted from virtually every part of everyday
life.
In Donald Trump's America, when a person wakes up and starts their
day, they now drink coffee that costs around $10 a pound, a 25-percent
increase since the President launched senseless trade wars, launched
without the support of the American people.
After they finish their coffee and drive to work or to drop their
children off at school, they do so in a car that now costs more to fill
up every time they stop at the pump. Each Granite State family has
spent $596 more on gas, in fact, since President Trump launched his
reckless, illegal war against Iran--a war he launched without a plan to
win.
Now, let's say our typical American has a doctor's appointment that
day. Assuming that they are able to afford health insurance, they will
receive care covered by a plan which premiums rose as much as 50
percent under President Trump. Why? Because the President let
Affordable Care Act insurance premiums surge.
And at the end of the day, the average Granite Stater returns to a
house or an apartment that is also more expensive, as families in our
State have so far spent $1,108 more on rent or mortgage payments since
President Trump started his term--all because the President refuses to
address our country's housing crisis.
And after my constituent gets home and goes to pick up her mail, she
opens another electric bill. Electricity has gotten so expensive that
people in New Hampshire have had to pay $194 more so far this year than
last year because the President caused a worldwide energy crisis and
canceled clean energy projects.
Next on the list, my constituent goes into the kitchen to make
dinner, where--you guessed it--the ingredients cost more than they did
before Trump took office. Granite Staters paid $310 more for groceries
last year than they did the year before.
So what has been the cost of the Trump Presidency, a Presidency where
food, healthcare, gas, rent, and more have all become more expensive?
The costs can be summed up by the figures in this report, but it can
also be put more simply. For many in our country, the cost has been
nothing less than seeing their chance at the American dream fade before
their very eyes.
A year and a half into his Presidency, my Republican colleagues are
making excuse after excuse for the President's failure to address the
American people's basic needs. They need to stop--stop trying to
advance the fiction that the President cares about lowering costs or
perhaps is trying to lower costs but is getting some bad counsel from
his advisers. If the President actually wanted to help the American
people, he would listen to them. He would hear that this economy isn't
working for them and, for some, well, it is breaking them. If he cared,
this man who was supposed to understand the economy, as well as the
hopes and dreams of the American people, would acknowledge that he
needs to take action to lower costs. And even if he doesn't care, if
this President believed that, in America, Presidents are accountable to
the American people, he would be working to make life more affordable.
But this President neither cares nor thinks he is accountable to
anyone other than himself and perhaps his billionaire backers. Just
consider, he has attacked and dismissed anyone who says that there is a
problem at all. He has called inflation a ``hoax'' and dismissed the
cost-of-living crisis as--his words--``made up.'' He says this despite
the fact that virtually every American of every political perspective--
at least those who live outside the splendor of Mar-a-Lago--knows that
American life has become more expensive under President Trump.
So when the American people say that their costs have gone up and the
President dismisses inflation as a ``hoax,'' is he saying that American
families are lying? Is he suggesting that they should not believe their
own eyes, their own understanding of math, when they look at the
numbers at the cash register or at the gas pump? Because it is one
thing not to solve a problem for American families; it is quite another
to essentially say that the American people are lying.
[[Page S4490]]
What have American families done, what have the people who gave the
President the privilege of serving in the highest office in our country
done to have their biggest challenge, their greatest anxiety and fear
dismissed by the President as a ``hoax''?
Should we be surprised that a President who incited a mob to storm
the Capitol and tried to overturn the voices and votes of the American
people dismisses yet again what they have to say? Maybe the President
would be more inclined to help the American people if they were a
little less decent and a lot better connected. After all, this is
President Trump's Washington, and we know well who this President is.
He will save one of his corrupt campaign donors asking for a pardon,
but he won't lift a finger to save American families a dime on their
groceries.
And so I return to the President's promise. When he sought our
country's highest office yet again, Donald Trump told the American
people to put aside his corruption, his self-dealing, his poor
character, his willingness to fan the flames of division and extremism,
to forget the way he disrespects our veterans. He wanted us to even
forget the attack on this Chamber, to forget the scars of the Capitol
Police officers, forget all of this and more because he said he would
bring down costs.
And now he is dismissive and contemptuous of anyone who asks him to
make good on his pledge. He even undermines my Republican colleagues
when they do try, in good faith, to lower costs. He actually threatened
to block a bipartisan bill to bring down the cost of housing, a law
that we were eventually able to pass.
Now, Donald Trump has made himself very, very clear. His Presidency
will be defined not by lowering costs for families but by raising
monuments to himself.
It doesn't have to be this way. The American people, right now, want
an American dream that they can afford, a dream that doesn't belong
just to a privileged few, a dream that is bigger than self-dealing,
kickbacks, and self-enrichment schemes in the gilded rooms of Mar-a-
Lago. The dreams of the American people aren't focused on golden luxury
trappings. Their dreams are less gilded than all of that, but they are
also far more noble.
Americans want their children to live better lives than they did;
with quality, affordable healthcare that can help them rest easier at
night; a decent education for their children; a place to build not a
gilded ballroom but a home--a home in a country where we don't live
fearing one another, divided over politics, but instead united as
freedom-loving Americans who know that we are lucky to live in the
greatest country on Earth, who love this country too much to ever hate
our fellow Americans and who won't let the miracle of self-government
die--not in the service of one man's ego, not for anything.
The American people want an America that is as good as this Nation's
promise. They deserve a President whose word is as good as our people.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.