'Democrats want to saddle a sputtering economy with the biggest peacetime tax hikes on record, obliterating President Biden's promise not to raise taxes for the vast majority of American families and leaving American job creators with tougher tax rates than businesses pay in Communist China!... It's not what American voters elected and it's not what American families want.'
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:
"There's a famous saying: If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging.
"Well, Madam President, my Democratic colleagues' policy decisions have dug our economy into a deep hole. And American families desperately need them to stop digging.
"The families of this country are currently battling the worst inflation in well over a decade.
"Over the last 12 months, consumer prices have shot up by 5.4%.
"Gasoline prices and food prices each increased by a full 1.2% just last month alone. That is in just one month. Year on year, groceries are about 4.5% more expensive than they were at this time in 2020.
"Look at housing. Rent jumped a full half a percentage point just in September alone. That was the biggest monthly jump in 20 years.
"On paper, American workers have been getting raises. The average worker's paychecks have gotten bigger over the past year. But the Democrats' inflation has cannibalized all of these gains and then some.
"Any man or woman in this country who hasn't gotten a pay raise of five and a half percent this year has effectively had their pay cut by the Democrats' inflation.
"Let me say that again. Unless you've recently gotten a 5½ percent raise, you have gotten a pay cut.
"And even the households that have enjoyed pay raises are contending with major shortages of the things they want to buy, and rapid and unpredictable price changes.
"Of course, none of the families that we represent need to hear these figures from experts on the news. They are living this reality every time they need to swing by the store, fill up their tank, or grab some essentials.
"What is especially remarkable and especially sad is that our national inflation nightmare was not unavoidable.
"These conditions are the product of intentional policy decisions made by Democrats, over the objections of experts who warned exactly what would happen.
"Larry Summers, a leading economist and top advisor to each of the last two Democratic presidents, said a few days ago that, 'we're in more danger than we've been during my career of losing control of inflation in the U.S.'
"The worst inflation risk he has ever seen.
"Mr. Summers was one of the many mainstream economists who warned the Biden Administration what their policies would unleash. From the start, they tried to persuade Democrats not to ram through their historic glut of borrowing, printing, and spending.
"But Democrats didn't listen. Back in the springtime, they used the pandemic as an excuse to pass a massive spending bill that the White House boasted was the most left-wing legislation in American history.
"Now families are paying the painful price. The country is deep in this hole that Democrats dug.
"But they are showing no indication they want to stop digging.
"Led by our socialist colleague, the distinguished senator from Vermont, Chairman Sanders, Washington Democrats are plowing forward with yet another reckless taxing and spending spree that would make their huge, inflationary package from the springtime look like child's play by comparison.
"They want the government to borrow and print multiple trillions more dollars and dump all that spending onto the heads of families that are already struggling to stay afloat.
"Meanwhile, Democrats want to saddle a sputtering economy with the biggest peacetime tax hikes on record, obliterating President Biden's promise not to raise taxes for the vast majority of American families and leaving American job creators with tougher tax rates than businesses pay in Communist China!
"Or look at energy prices. Americans are already paying more at the pump than they have in seven years. But now, our colleagues want to go beyond their war on gasoline, and slap new taxes and new regulations on other domestic energy sources such as natural gas.
"Winter is fast approaching. The whole world is steeling for huge price increases in natural gas. Our friends in Europe are frantically trying to secure their gas supply lines and Russia is threatening to turn the continent's winter heating into a political hostage.
"But inexplicably, Democrats' response is essentially to have America stand down as an energy superpower. New taxes and new regulations on top of the inflation that is already wreaking havoc.
"Here was one headline last week, Madam President: 'Winter heating bills set to jump as inflation hits home.'
"The story went on: 'With prices surging worldwide for heating oil, natural gas and other fuels, the U.S. government said Wednesday it expects households to see their heating bills jump as much as 54% compared to last winter.'
"This is the moment that President Biden is choosing to let the farthest-left people in Washington D.C. rewrite America's energy and environmental policy.
"Reckless liberal policies have dug America into a hole. Americans need Democrats to stop digging deeper. But the response from my colleagues across the aisle is to trade in their shovels for an excavator.
"Democrats want to keep digging deeper. They want to try to inflate their way out of inflation.
"It makes no sense. It sounds as crazy as it is. No wonder this expensive socialist experiment is proving so painful.
"It's not what American voters elected and it's not what American families want."
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