WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding inflation:
“Last week our nation celebrated one of our great, distinctly American holidays.
“In President Reagan’s Thanksgiving proclamation in 1982, he wrote eloquently of the, ‘divine plan [that] placed this great continent here between the oceans to be found by people from every corner of the Earth who had a special love of faith and freedom.’
“On Thursday millions of families sat down to catch up with loved ones, enjoy food and fellowship, and reflect on the incredible blessing it is to get to call the United States of America our home. And we kept in our prayers the many brave servicemembers and first responders who were missing at their own families’ holiday tables this year in order to keep the rest of us safe and protected at ours.
“This year, though, for too many families, Thanksgiving Day also brought added stress and anxiety. Two years of ruinous inflation that have pushed up the costs of everything from food to travel to housing to home heating and electricity.
“In January 2021, with inflation well within a normal range, President Biden and this all-Democratic Party government took power, talking a big game about ‘rebuild[ing] the middle class.’ Instead, they promptly set out eroding away the ground from right underneath middle-class families’ feet, taking a match to trillions of dollars and igniting the worst inflation in 40 years.
“On President Biden’s watch, the average American household is paying an extra $110 a month on food, an extra $111 on housing, $270 more on transportation, and $147 more on energy. That’s more than $750 in hidden Democrat Inflation Taxes for the average household. Thousands of extra dollars per family, per year, because Washington Democrats jumped headlong into party-line reckless spending that every expert and every Republican warned would hurt our country.
“All in all, prices have soared by 13.9% since President Biden put his hand on the Bible. Thanks to his party’s reckless spending, inflation is the highest it’s been since the fallout of the Carter Administration. So it’s no wonder this was a painfully costly Thanksgiving. Staples from turkey to potatoes to green beans have seen double-digit price increases in just the past year. Inflation on top of inflation.
“This runaway inflation has been hitting families hard everywhere. In the state of Georgia, for example, local food assistance organizations reported skyrocketing demand heading into the holidays. The CEO of the Atlanta Community Food Bank said, ‘We’re basically back to the same level of demand that we were at during the height of the pandemic.’ There’s a charitable organization saying the Democrats’ party-line policies have created an economic environment that is on par with the worst of the COVID shutdown.
“On the Democrats’ watch, rising housing costs in Georgia have outpaced the already-big jump in the nationwide average. One relief agency says requests for emergency rent, utility, and food assistance have jumped 40% this year.
“Two years of one-party Democrat control in Washington have been a disaster for working families in Georgia. And their two Senators haven’t just failed to stop the damage; they’ve helped cause it and cheered it on. Georgia’s Senate delegation of two Democratic Senators has been a lockstep rubber stamp along party lines for every bit of reckless liberal spending and painful tax hikes. Just when working families in Georgia needed checks and balances, what they got were reckless rubber stamps.
“Earlier this month, after the American people voted to break up Democrats’ one-party government, President Biden insisted defiantly, ‘I’m not going to change the direction.’
“It’s been two years since the Senate Democratic Leader said that if he got Georgia’s two Senate seats, he would change America. Well, they certainly have done that. On party lines, Democrats squandered a promising economic comeback and spent us into staggering inflation. And now President Biden says he’s learned nothing and will change nothing.
“The Democrats have shown the American people what they’ll do with power. But in the United States of America, the power ultimately lies with the people. And in a little over a week, the people of Georgia will have the ability to make their own choice — between a check and balance, or a rubber stamp.”
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