Advancing Important Measures on the Floor

Floor Speech

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Mr. HARRIS. Mr. Speaker, thank you very much. I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.

Mr. Speaker, this afternoon I am going to talk a little about Bidenomics. It is interesting the President doesn't talking about Bidenomics anymore. He thought about a year ago it would be a neat thing to talk about, but I guess the problem is that reality struck.

Just over a month ago, President Biden stood right in front of where you stand now, Mr. Speaker, in this very Chamber to give his State of the Union Address. He declared: ``Our economy is the envy of the world.''

Well, just today, the Consumer Price Index, a key inflation index, came in ``hotter than expected.'' By the way, that is not good news for Americans. It actually increased to 3\1/2\ percent. The past few years, it has been higher than it has been in 40 years.

As we all pay more for almost everything in Joe Biden's economy, let's take a really close look at the economy that Joe Biden built.

Well, when Joe Biden took office, the national debt was $28.7 trillion, a huge amount of debt, but now it is approaching $35 trillion, or more than $250,000 of debt for every American household. Now, in my district, that debt is higher than the average mortgage in my district.

For the average family, the mortgage is the least of their debt worries now. Now, it is the Federal debt.

The CBO projects that by 2031, $2 trillion deficits will be the norm, but I would suggest, Mr. Speaker, that as usual the CBO gets this wrong because this year it is going to be way over $2 trillion. In fact, over the last calendar year, from last April to the beginning of this April, the Federal debt has increased over $3 trillion under Joe Biden's watch.

Joe Biden's new spending initiatives, just the new spending initiatives in the budget he just proposed, adds up to a price tag of 5.5 trillion more dollars over the next 10 years, and that is just new spending.

That doesn't count the ongoing growth of existing Federal programs that he projects in his budget.

Together, all this new spending is going to drive up Federal deficits to 10 percent of GDP, a level we have only seen in the modern era during the national emergencies of COVID and World War II.

Now, since Joe Biden took office, inflation has risen to historic levels and make no mistake, Bidenflation is a direct result of Joe Biden and the Democrats' out-of-control government spending.

Just a couple of days ago, Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, no friend of this side of the aisle, warned in a letter to his shareholders that interest rates could rise to 8 percent or higher. He also mentions drivers of persistent inflation being military conflict throughout the world and fiscal deficits.

Let me tell you something, the Biden administration are absolute champions of military conflicts throughout the world and fiscal deficits. The bottom line is, we all know that under the last administration there were no hot wars. The Middle East actually was becoming more peaceful, not less peaceful. The Russians were not advancing in Ukraine.

All that changed with this administration and the resulting military spending that is going to be necessary worldwide will drive inflation even higher.

That is not my word; that is the word, again, of the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, a person who understands how this economy works.

Now, President Biden's economy is affecting Americans of every age and we all know it. In fact, according to a recent survey, one in eight retirees now plan to return to work this year because they simply can't afford retirement anymore. Inflation has driven up the cost of everything--groceries, gasoline, housing, rent, everything.

In a recent study, The Wall Street Journal showed that a $100 grocery list from 2019--and for those of you keeping score, that was during the last administration--now costs $137. Anybody who is watching us to day who goes to the grocery store, Mr. Speaker, knows this is true. They know what a loaf of bread costs. They know what a dozen eggs costs. They know what a gallon of milk costs. When they go down the aisles, they know everything is more expensive under Joe Biden's watch.

If Joe Biden thinks the economy he built is ``such an envy,'' maybe he ought to take a walk through a grocery store.

Within the first 2 years of this administration, Joe Biden and the House Democrats passed their so-called American Rescue Plan--I don't think we feel too rescued, to be honest with you--and the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, which is the real laugh because everybody knows inflation isn't reduced from where it was in the last administration. Both of those sent Federal Government spending sky- high, again, what Jamie Dimon warns us is going to lead to a prolonged inflationary period and high interest rates.

Lastly, I will talk about energy prices because when you go to the gas pump, if you go to buy diesel to put in your farm tractor or truck, you know what it costs now. It costs about 50 percent more than it did under the last administration.

Energy prices, your electric bill, your heating bill, everything is going sky-high because of this President's policies.

Make no mistake, Joe Biden's out-of-control spending, his spending agenda, and his economic policies have made life simply unaffordable for American families.

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