WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks Thursday, April 28, 2022 on the Senate floor regarding inflation:
“Runaway inflation is crushing working American families on Democrats’ watch.
“The share of Americans who say the economy is our most important problem hasn’t been this high since the last time Democrats controlled the White House.
“Just this morning, we got a devastating quarterly GDP report. The economy shrank — shrank — 1.4% over the last three months.
“No longer are Democrats just presiding over a disappointing recovery; now they’ve thrown the recovery into reverse and they’re going backwards.
“We haven’t seen inflation this bad in more than 40 years. Month after month of skyrocketing prices. It’s exactly what everyone knew would happen if Democrats dumped $2 trillion in printed money on an economy that was all ready for a comeback.
“But Democrats rammed through the far left spending. So working Americans are paying dearly.
“This week, the same Washington Democrats who drove this inflation have finally figured out their response: They want to raise taxes on the American people.
“The Democratic Leader said this on Tuesday. ‘If you want to get rid of inflation, the only way to do it is to undo a lot of the Trump tax cuts and raise rates. No Republican is ever going to do that. So, the only way to get rid of inflation is through reconciliation.’
“Now, remember, Leader Schumer is the same person who said in March 2021, ‘I do not think the dangers of inflation, at least in the near term, are very real.’ Now the same person who predicted that inflation would not happen is saying we have to fight inflation by dramatically raising taxes on the American people.
“The answer for Democrats hurting families once is for Democrats to hurt families twice.
“This is literally Democrats’ economic agenda for your family: High prices and less money.
“Republicans’ 2017 tax cuts just about doubled the standard deduction for households. We created a brand-new zero percent tax bracket for the first $24,000 that a married couple brings in. Repealing that law would cut that in half and raise your taxes. That’s what repealing the 2017 tax bill means.
“Republican tax cuts also doubled the Child Tax Credit from $1,000 to $2,000. A tremendous help to working families. Repealing the 2017 tax law would slash those credits in half. But that’s what Democrats say they want to do — because of the inflation they created.
“This is Senate Democrats’ position: Because their bad decisions have hurt Americans once, the solution is to hurt Americans twice.
“First they hurt you with inflation, and now they want to hurt you with tax hikes.
“We’ll see what our citizens have to say about that later this year.”
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