Inflation
Floor Speech
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Mr. HICKENLOOPER. Mr. President, last week, President Trump was asked about the surge in inflation. His response:
I love the inflation.
``I love the inflation''? It is almost like the reality betrays reality. What else does he love? Does he love the increase in measles cases, screwworm infecting our cattle, record credit card debt?
The truth is the President's economy has become a disaster for Americans. Families feel like they are getting squeezed every which way they look. This has become a cost-of-living emergency.
According to a recent report by the Joint Economic Committee minority, Coloradans have spent $3,300 more on goods and services since President Trump took office last year. That is $416 more on rent and mortgage payments; $310 more for groceries at the checkout line, as everything from ground beef to coffee has spiked; and $1,000 more in average deductibles for people on the Affordable Care Act insurance plans.
And Americans have gotten completely ripped off at the gas pump. In total, Coloradans have spent over $780 million more on gas since the beginning of President Trump's illegal war with Iran. That means Colorado families are spending $347 more now than they did before the war started.
Not only did President Trump raise your bills, but he also broke another campaign vow. He repeatedly promised, in his campaign, no more expensive, deadly wars.
Now, we are almost 14 months into an illegal war--a war of choice--in Iran. It is a war that Trump promised would be over in 4 to 5 weeks.
Mr. President, $100 billion later, 14 servicemembers lost, and we are still waiting for it to end.
A few hours ago, the administration finally released the details of a memorandum of understanding, which appears to kick the can down the road on many of the hard decisions still to be made, kicking that can down the road for another 60 days.
They still haven't briefed Congress, including the top Republican leaders.
What is clear is that the deal he is pitching comes nowhere close to limiting Iran's ability to obtain a nuclear weapon. It is clearly nowhere near the deal President Obama secured over a decade ago that meaningfully curbed Iran's nuclear ambitions--that is, until Trump ripped it up.
It is also hard to explain to Americans why the Iranian regime would get hundreds of billions of dollars in this settlement and sanctions relief, as well, all to restore access to a waterway that was free and open to all before Trump took us to war in the first place.
We will have spent all this money on the war, on the aftermath, on the future settlements, just to be in a position where the United States is worse off than where it was when we began.
Right before Trump bombed Iran, farmers and ranchers in Colorado and across this country were preparing to plant for this season. Trump's tariffs increased the cost of farming equipment, while retaliatory tariffs from other countries reduced access to international markets that bought better prices for American farmers. The climate change- driven megadrought in the West made matters even worse.
As the war stretched on, farmers and ranchers reckoned with a new hurdle--diesel and fertilizer costs. Approximately one-third of global fertilizer passes through the Strait of Hormuz, resulting in prices, with the blockade, rising over 40 percent.
These rising costs are crushing our farmers and our ranchers and sending grocery prices soaring for American families.
President Trump was elected to bring down prices. He pledged to ``end inflation'' on day one. He promised a government that finally works for working people. Yet President Trump's agenda can be better summed up in just three letters: A, B, C--anything but costs--the cost of diesel, the cost of fertilizer, the cost of food, housing, healthcare.
President Trump has plenty of time to host a UFC fight on the White House lawn. He has been laser-focused on refurbishing the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall. He has been unrelenting in his desire for a Department of Justice slush fund for election criminals like Tina Peters and the January 6 rioters. But he is not doing much to help you, the taxpayers.
Trump isn't unrigging the system, as he promised voters. He is rerigging it for himself. He is rerigging it for his pals and cronies. His family and close associates have pocketed billions, while Colorado families struggle to pay their monthly bills.
His ``One Big Bad Betrayal Act'' gave billions in tax cuts to ultrawealthy friends and the largest corporations and threw literally millions of Americans off their healthcare.
He sued the IRS so he wouldn't have to pay taxes again, while teachers, police officers, and nurses pay their taxes every year.
While working families worry about the cost of groceries, housing, and healthcare, this administration is focused on ballrooms, bombs, and billionaires.
This isn't why the American people sent us to Washington.
When I travel across Colorado, I hear the same things again and again. I hear: I can't afford to get sick. I can't afford my rent. I am scared about the kind of world my kids are going to inherit.
Working families don't ``love'' inflation. They don't think affordability is a ``hoax.'' They are desperate for a country that works for them--a country where Washington focuses on lowering costs and improving their lives, not giving record tax breaks to the Epstein class; a country where healthcare is a right and not a privilege; and a country where every family can afford to buy a home, instead of getting outbid by Wall Street.
So while the White House administration focuses on their ``anything but cost'' agenda, we are showing up every day to build a country that works better for you, better for your family, better for your neighbors.
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