{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=1B6523EC-AC26-4541-B8ED-1381BD6516DB", "Another Reckless Taxing and Spending Spree Would Pour \u201cJet Fuel\u201d on Inflation", "2021-11-30", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Mitch McConnell", "M000355", "www.mcconnell.senate.gov", "mcconnell", "https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding Democrats\u2019 reckless tax and spending spree:\n\n\u201c88 percent of Americans are concerned about inflation. Most of them are \u2018very concerned.\u2019\n\n\u201c77 percent of Americans say inflation has affected them personally.\n\n\u201cWe have a big and diverse country. It\u2019s hard to get that many Americans to agree on anything.\n\n\u201cBut President Biden did promise he would unite the country. And on Democrats\u2019 watch, under Democrats\u2019 policies, the American people are united in their fear and frustration at runaway prices, falling purchasing power, and all the consequences of inflation.\n\n\u201cThe men and women of this country are spending 20% more than last year for beef at the grocery store. 50% more to fill up at the gas station. 26% more for far less choice in used cars.\n\n\u201cOne recent article in the New York Times suggested that perhaps Americans should forget about trying to buy their family members normal gifts and settle for exchanging hand-written promises to tackle household chores such as \u2018washing out the reusable plastic bags.\u2019 I guess the Grinch is doing some ghostwriting in his spare time.\n\n\u201cSome weeks back, the White House press secretary tried to laugh off reporters\u2019 questions about the supply chain and inflation crises. She laughed at the idea that anybody would be worried about, \u2018the tragedy of the treadmill that\u2019s delayed.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe president\u2019s staff are yukking it up. But working parents aren\u2019t laughing. Middle-class families aren\u2019t laughing.\n\n\u201cA Kentuckian named Mike Halligan isn\u2019t laughing either. He runs a big food bank in Lexington called God\u2019s Pantry. They distribute more than 40 million pounds of food every year to local food pantries across Kentucky.\n\n\u201cHe says: \u2018We\u2019ve seen the cost of our \u2018sharing Thanksgiving basket\u2019 go up this year by 14.5 percent\u2026 We\u2019ve seen our costs go up by about 50 percent. The transportation component of that is literally doubled.\u2019\n\n\u201cAnd he also explained that since inflation is also hammering his contributors, charities and nonprofits may face \u2018donor fatigue\u2019 at precisely the time they cannot afford a fall-off. The Democrats\u2019 inflation is hitting every part of our society.\n\n***\n\n\u201cA famous economist once said that inflation is the only form of tax that can be levied without any legislation. But what\u2019s remarkable about 2021 is that Democrats did directly legislate a big chunk of this inflation into existence!\n\n\u201cIt is unusually traceable to deliberate policy decisions they have made.\n\n\u201cOne of the most famous Democratic economists in the country, Larry Summers, tried to warn them.\n\n\u201cOn February 4th he wrote the Democrats\u2019 stimulus could, \u2018set off inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation.\u2019 He said the same thing all springtime long.\n\n\u201cSo did President Obama\u2019s CEA chair. Quote: \u2018Jason Furman\u2026said that the American Rescue Plan is definitely \u2018too big for the moment,\u2019 stating: \u2018I don\u2019t know of any economist that was recommending something the size of what was done.\u2019\u2019\n\n\u201cBut Washington Democrats had already decided months ago they\u2019d try to use the temporary pandemic as a Trojan horse for permanent socialism.\n\n\u201cRemember last spring, when one of the seniormost House Democrats called it, \u2018a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.\u2019 Or earlier this fall, when President Biden, himself, said the pandemic, \u2018does present us with an opportunity.\u2019\n\n\u201cFor Democrats, this go-around, it has never been about what families need. It has only been about what activists want.\n\n\u201cSo we got the first massive spending bill in the springtime. And now, a majority of Americans \u2018worry they won\u2019t be able to afford what they need during the holidays due to inflation.\u2019\n\n\u201cPresident Biden inherited an economy that was primed and ready for an historic comeback. A fantastic inheritance. Since then they\u2019ve had less than a year at the controls. And we\u2019ve got more than half the country actively worried their checking accounts might not even get them through the holidays.\n\n***\n\n\u201cBut Democrats aren\u2019t offering the country any contrition, any apology, or any course-correction.\n\n\u201cAmazingly enough, they want to come back around for an even bigger bite at the apple. They want to try to inflate their way out of inflation.\n\n\u201cOur colleagues have spent months huddled behind closed doors, neglecting the most basic governing duties, writing another reckless taxing and spending spree that even the most conservative estimates say would add about $800 billion to deficits over the next five years alone.\n\n\u201cThey want to take the inflationary fire they helped start and pour jet fuel on it. Even the CBO, which has to swallow most of Democrats\u2019 gimmicky math, estimates this bill would spend nearly $2 trillion dollars and pile hundreds of billions more onto deficits over the next decade.\n\n\u201cPerhaps more realistic are the outside, nonpartisan estimates that actually account for what we all know: Democrats would never let the new entitlements in their bill expire. These more realistic estimates put the total cost just shy of $5 trillion dollars.\n\n\u201cAll at a time when Chairman Powell, who has been willing to let the economy run hot, is now warning that current uncertainties could keep inflation elevated to a troubling level.\n\n\u201cNow, I could talk all day about how the actual contents of this bill would hurt American families even more.\n\n\u201cAbout how it would take another big step toward socialized medicine and pour cold water on the innovations and cures that save lives\u2026\n\n\u201cHow it would incinerate huge chunks of our energy sector, and the jobs it supports, in order to keep pace with the green preferences of California liberals\u2026\n\n\u201cHow it would wrestle authority over intimate decisions about childcare away from American families and put it in the hands of Washington bureaucrats.\n\n\u201cBut the overall picture is impossible to mistake:\n\n\u201cInflation is hurting the American people and Democrats want to print, borrow, and spend trillions more.\n\n\u201cThe most out-of-touch agenda you could possibly imagine.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=1B6523EC-AC26-4541-B8ED-1381BD6516DB"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4736438170075417, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}