Painful High Prices are Families' New Normal

Statement

U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding inflation:

"This all-Democrat government has managed a unique kind of economic turnaround. They took an economy that was ready to soar, turned it around, and drove it into the ground.

"American families are being crushed by 8.5 percent inflation. Democrats' policies have unleashed the worst inflation in more than 40 years.

"Last March, the Senate Democratic Leader said "I do not think the dangers of inflation… are very real.' At that time the most recent inflation figure was 1.7%. Inflation has more than quadrupled since Leader Schumer said he wasn't worried.

"Remember, the same Democrats predicted that Republicans' 2017 tax reform bill would harm the economy and hurt working people. Instead, it produced the best economic moment for American workers in modern history. Falling unemployment, low inflation, and wages grew faster for the bottom 25% of earners than for the top.

"So Democrats' worldview had been proven wrong. But last year, they put it into action anyway. Democrats dumped $2 trillion on a recovering economy and paid people a bonus to stay home from work even after vaccines were available. And the American people are hurting as a result.

"American workers' real average weekly earnings declined 3.6 percent over the last year. Inflation has more than wiped out the average worker's wage gains. President Biden has handed the average American a big pay cut.

"The cost of the essentials that families need have been skyrocketing.

"Gas prices are now the highest they have ever been in American history. Americans are now paying roughly $4.40 per gallon. That's up about two whole dollars from when President Biden put his hand on the Bible.

"Grocery prices have shot up 10 percent over the past year. Housing costs are up more than 6 percent. Clothing is up nearly 7 percent. Each category is the worst it's been since the early 1980s.

"Remember, if and when the inflation rate begins to gradually slow, that does not mean all of these sky-high prices for goods and services will fall back down.

"In many cases, this painful and preventable inflation will be baked into prices going forward.

"These Democrat price hikes will likely be American families' new normal at the checkout counter. A permanent direct result of their failed policies."

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