Source: United States Senator for Kentucky Mitch McConnell
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding Democrats’ reckless tax and spending spree:
“88 percent of Americans are concerned about inflation. Most of them are ‘very concerned.’
“77 percent of Americans say inflation has affected them personally.
“We have a big and diverse country. It’s hard to get that many Americans to agree on anything.
“But President Biden did promise he would unite the country. And on Democrats’ watch, under Democrats’ policies, the American people are united in their fear and frustration at runaway prices, falling purchasing power, and all the consequences of inflation.
“The men and women of this country are spending 20% more than last year for beef at the grocery store. 50% more to fill up at the gas station. 26% more for far less choice in used cars.
“One recent article in the New York Times suggested that perhaps Americans should forget about trying to buy their family members normal gifts and settle for exchanging hand-written promises to tackle household chores such as ‘washing out the reusable plastic bags.’ I guess the Grinch is doing some ghostwriting in his spare time.
“Some weeks back, the White House press secretary tried to laugh off reporters’ questions about the supply chain and inflation crises. She laughed at the idea that anybody would be worried about, ‘the tragedy of the treadmill that’s delayed.’
“The president’s staff are yukking it up. But working parents aren’t laughing. Middle-class families aren’t laughing.
“A Kentuckian named Mike Halligan isn’t laughing either. He runs a big food bank in Lexington called God’s Pantry. They distribute more than 40 million pounds of food every year to local food pantries across Kentucky.
“He says: ‘We’ve seen the cost of our ‘sharing Thanksgiving basket’ go up this year by 14.5 percent… We’ve seen our costs go up by about 50 percent. The transportation component of that is literally doubled.’
“And he also explained that since inflation is also hammering his contributors, charities and nonprofits may face ‘donor fatigue’ at precisely the time they cannot afford a fall-off. The Democrats’ inflation is hitting every part of our society.
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“A famous economist once said that inflation is the only form of tax that can be levied without any legislation. But what’s remarkable about 2021 is that Democrats did directly legislate a big chunk of this inflation into existence!
“It is unusually traceable to deliberate policy decisions they have made.
“One of the most famous Democratic economists in the country, Larry Summers, tried to warn them.
“On February 4th he wrote the Democrats’ stimulus could, ‘set off inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation.’ He said the same thing all springtime long.
“So did President Obama’s CEA chair. Quote: ‘Jason Furman…said that the American Rescue Plan is definitely ‘too big for the moment,’ stating: ‘I don’t know of any economist that was recommending something the size of what was done.’’
“But Washington Democrats had already decided months ago they’d try to use the temporary pandemic as a Trojan horse for permanent socialism.
“Remember last spring, when one of the seniormost House Democrats called it, ‘a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.’ Or earlier this fall, when President Biden, himself, said the pandemic, ‘does present us with an opportunity.’
“For Democrats, this go-around, it has never been about what families need. It has only been about what activists want.
“So we got the first massive spending bill in the springtime. And now, a majority of Americans ‘worry they won’t be able to afford what they need during the holidays due to inflation.’
“President Biden inherited an economy that was primed and ready for an historic comeback. A fantastic inheritance. Since then they’ve had less than a year at the controls. And we’ve got more than half the country actively worried their checking accounts might not even get them through the holidays.
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“But Democrats aren’t offering the country any contrition, any apology, or any course-correction.
“Amazingly enough, they want to come back around for an even bigger bite at the apple. They want to try to inflate their way out of inflation.
“Our colleagues have spent months huddled behind closed doors, neglecting the most basic governing duties, writing another reckless taxing and spending spree that even the most conservative estimates say would add about $800 billion to deficits over the next five years alone.
“They want to take the inflationary fire they helped start and pour jet fuel on it. Even the CBO, which has to swallow most of Democrats’ gimmicky math, estimates this bill would spend nearly $2 trillion dollars and pile hundreds of billions more onto deficits over the next decade.
“Perhaps more realistic are the outside, nonpartisan estimates that actually account for what we all know: Democrats would never let the new entitlements in their bill expire. These more realistic estimates put the total cost just shy of $5 trillion dollars.
“All at a time when Chairman Powell, who has been willing to let the economy run hot, is now warning that current uncertainties could keep inflation elevated to a troubling level.
“Now, I could talk all day about how the actual contents of this bill would hurt American families even more.
“About how it would take another big step toward socialized medicine and pour cold water on the innovations and cures that save lives…
“How it would incinerate huge chunks of our energy sector, and the jobs it supports, in order to keep pace with the green preferences of California liberals…
“How it would wrestle authority over intimate decisions about childcare away from American families and put it in the hands of Washington bureaucrats.
“But the overall picture is impossible to mistake:
“Inflation is hurting the American people and Democrats want to print, borrow, and spend trillions more.
“The most out-of-touch agenda you could possibly imagine.”
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