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:
“The country just received yet another terrible inflation report.
“Yet again, overall inflation came in higher than expected: 8.3 percent. Inflation continues to stick right around its worst level in 40 years.
“The measure the Bureau of Labor Statistics calls ‘core inflation’ increased in April by twice as much as it increased in March.
“Food costs are way up again. Housing costs are way up again.
“President Biden has presided over one of the most expensive years for working families in modern American history.
“The national average gas price is the highest it has ever been in history. Americans are paying an average of $4.33 per gallon for regular.
“Diesel has also hit a record high. It’s now $5.62 per gallon. A huge blow to Americans with trucks and tractors; to small businesses and family farms. And it forces up the price of practically everything that travels on a truck to reach the store or supermarket. Inflation on top of inflation.
“In my home state, Kentuckians are paying 34% more for propane and 112% more for home heating oil than they were paying when Democrats took control.
“Let me say that again: The price of home heating oil has more than doubled since President Biden took office. A crushing blow to families in rural America — especially in states like Pennsylvania, Vermont, and New Hampshire.
“Democrats’ policies have fueled this runaway inflation. Their mistakes are why inflation has hit America much harder than other developed countries.
“Expert calculations say Democrats’ $2 trillion spending spree last March is directly responsible for as much as 3 percentage points of our current inflation. Even the prominent Democratic economist Jason Furman puts that number at 2.5 percent.
“If just one Senate Democrat had the courage to vote with Republicans in March of 2021, inflation today would be closer to 5 percent, instead of almost 8½ percent.
“Steven Rattner was a top economic advisor to President Obama. He says the Democrats’ $2 trillion disaster will, ‘go down in history as an extraordinary policy mistake’ that put us ‘way behind the curve on inflation.’
“Everybody knows where this inflation came from. But President Biden can’t admit it. He just makes excuses that no one is buying.
“Listen to the Democratic political advisor David Axelrod. He said, ‘[Biden] was saying, you know, everything is Putin’s price hikes, inflation is Putin’s fault. People don’t believe that… They know that we had inflation before this. They know that gas prices were high before this… You can’t blame everything in the economy on Putin.’
“It is this President and his all-Democrat government who have drained American families’ pocketbooks. And every poll shows our citizens understand that sad reality all too well.”
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