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 inflation and reckless spending:
“Inflation’s hit a staggering 8.5 percent on Democrats’ watch, under Democrats’ policies.
“Last week, the Commerce Department announced that personal consumption expenditures climbed at their fastest rate this past year since 1982.
“Americans are paying 10% more on groceries than they were a year ago. About $1.25 more for a gallon of gas. In every aisle of the supermarket, in every big box store, the prices families pay for essentials have skyrocketed.
“As the owner of a coffeehouse in my hometown of Louisville put it, quote, ‘We’re trying not to pass on too much to the customers, but it comes to a time when you just have to.’ The owner of a longstanding butcher shop nearby said, quote, ‘we’re all holding our breath.’ That goes for small business owners and shoppers alike.
“One new poll found that 94% of Americans are upset or concerned about inflation. And they’re overwhelmingly not happy with what the Biden Administration is doing about it. Just 28% of the country approved of President Biden’s handling of inflation.
“The worst part is that this pain was not inevitable. American families could have been spared all of this.
“Last spring, Democrats had inherited an economy that was already poised for an historic comeback. Even top liberal economists such as Larry Summers and Jason Furman, both senior advisors to the Obama White House, warned that Democrats’ $2 trillion spending binge was completely out of proportion to the remaining output gap. The country didn’t need anything like it.
“Summers warned of ‘inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation.’ Furman said ‘it’s definitely too big for the moment.’
“But Democratic politicians didn’t listen. Here in the Senate, the Democratic Leader said, quote, ‘I do not think the dangers of inflation, at least in the near-term, are very real.’ That was Leader Schumer last March. So they spent all that money anyway. And sadly for the American people, the rest is now history.
“Democrats spent two trillion dollars of the American people’s money and purchased the worst inflation in more than 40 years.
“Well, actually, that’s not all it purchased.
“Sure, the Democrats’ two trillion dollars didn’t buy our country anything lasting like a Hoover Dam or Interstate Highway System. Nothing like that.
“But that money had to go someplace. And boy, did it ever.
“Democrats and lots of the media spent most of 2020 and 2021 shouting that Republicans were risking calamity because we didn’t want to dump endless sums into slush funds for state and local governments. It turns out we were right and they were wrong. State and local governments are now so awash in Democrat bailout money they can’t even figure out where to put it.
“One recent news report found this bonanza has, quote, ‘provided a boon for localities seeking to build or upgrade their pickleball amenities.’
“You heard that right. Quote: ‘Dozens of municipalities are adding pickleball courts to their park and recreation offerings – and many are using a slice of their coronavirus aid package to underwrite the construction boom. If the Hoover Dam and the Lincoln Tunnel are enduring monuments to the New Deal’s infrastructure spending, perhaps pickleball courts will become a lasting legacy of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act.’ End quote.
“In New York, one county set aside $12 million in so-called ‘relief funds’ to renovate a minor league baseball stadium.
“In Iowa, county officials put aside $2 million to buy a private ski area.
“In Colorado, two golf courses are getting their irrigation systems replaced, thank goodness.
“In Wisconsin, a skate park is getting a million-dollar makeover.
“The American Rescue Plan didn’t ‘rescue’ working people from anything. It only “rescued” bureaucrats from any semblance of fiscal sanity.
“Remember, Democrats openly admitted they viewed pandemic relief as an ideological Trojan horse. They called this terrible, deadly virus, quote, ‘a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.’
“And right on cue…
“Their so-called rescue plan has funded environmental justice grants to address something called “inequitable tree canopy cover” in Massachusetts.
“Some public school systems, in the vice grip of Big Labor, are using their windfalls to advance bizarre indoctrination in things like Critical Race Theory.
“The ‘Rescue Plan’ dollars have funded staff trainings to make sure the educators paid to look after young kids are up on all the latest ‘woke’ buzzwords and causes.
“The American people wouldn’t want this junk if it were free.
“They definitely didn’t want it for the price tag of $2 trillion of their money and the worst inflation in a generation.”
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