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Floor Speech

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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, when the history of the Biden-Harris administration is written, I suspect it will be defined by the historic inflation crisis that has characterized almost all 4 years of this Presidency. And it started almost right away. Eager to begin implementing their big spending visions, Democrats seized on COVID as an excuse for a massive, partisan $1.9 trillion spending spree, the so- called American Rescue Plan Act.

Democrats were warned by Democratic economists that their bill ran the risk of setting off ``inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation.'' But they proceeded anyway. Vice President Harris cast the deciding, tie-breaking vote in the Senate to ensure that this massive government boondoggle would become law.

And within weeks of its passage, inflation began climbing--and kept climbing and climbed more and more. By 2022, inflation had reached its highest level in 40 years--40 years--and Americans felt the consequences. As the price of everything from gas to groceries shot up, Americans dipped into their savings to make ends meet or put essential items on their credit cards. They took on second jobs. They visited food banks. They put off home repairs or family vacations. They skipped necessary medical care.

And even as the rate of inflation has finally--and I say ``finally''--slowed, Americans continue to suffer as prices remain elevated. Today, Americans are paying 21 percent more for groceries than they were when President Biden and Vice President Harris took office. They are paying 37 percent more for energy, 45 percent more for gasoline, 22 percent more for shelter--and the list goes on.

Today, a typical family needs to spend an additional $13,202 per year to maintain the same standard of living it enjoyed when President Biden and Vice President Harris took office--$13,202 per year. Just think about that for a minute. How many lower and middle-income families do you know that can easily absorb an extra $13,000 a year? How many families out there have had to lower their standard of living as a result of the Biden-Harris administration's policies? How many missed vacations or missed braces or missed extracurricular activities or missed car repairs or home projects does that $13,000 represent?

And in addition to the staggering price hikes of the past few years, Americans have had to contend with additional economic pain as a result of the rate hikes the Federal Reserve was forced to impose to deal with the Biden-Harris inflation crisis. Those rate hikes drove up credit card interest rates. They drove up rates for car loans. They drove up mortgage rates. And so Americans who, for example, have had to charge things to their credit cards to deal with high food or energy prices are now facing increased challenges in paying off that debt.

A September Wall Street Journal article noted:

Around 9.1% of credit-card balances turned delinquent over the past year, the highest rate in over a decade, according to an August report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Other Americans are finding the American dream of owning your own home to be increasingly out of their reach as they face elevated mortgage rates on top of staggering housing prices.

President Biden has talked a lot about building an economy from the bottom up and the middle out, but it is lower and middle-income Americans who have suffered the most in the Biden-Harris economy. And if Vice President Harris becomes President and Democrats take control of Congress, the next few years aren't likely to look too good for lower and middle-income Americans either.

It has already become clear that Vice President Harris intends to continue with the tax-and-spend agenda that she and President Biden have worked to impose. And if she is elected, Americans should brace for more economic pain.

The need is great. Costs are still high. Gas prices are high. Owning a home is a struggle. Every time I look at my bank account, it's always going down.

That is what one American had to say about the economic situation earlier this year, and it has been the story for too many Americans in the Biden-Harris economy. We can only hope that they don't have to deal with another 4 years of it.

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