{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=B6E4CA0C-79CF-4E65-8939-7D6D1EFB4D5A", "Democrats Ignoring Americans\u2019 Top Concern", "2022-09-15", "2022", "2022-09", "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 inflation:\n\n\u201cThis week\u2019s inflation report confirmed what working people across this country know all too well:\n\n\u201cThe costs of feeding a family and keeping the lights on have skyrocketed more quickly this past year than at any time since the wake of the Carter Administration.\n\n\u201cA year and a half of crippling runaway inflation is the most important story to the American people every day.\n\n\u201cThe media may have grown somewhat numb to month after month of 8- and 9-percent inflation, but working Americans have not had the luxury of growing numb. The pain gets worse every single time they have to fill a shopping cart or pay their credit card bill.\n\n\u201cOne mother of young sons in my hometown of Louisville put it this way, \u2018My grocery bill has went up a lot. It\u2019s terrible right now. I have to be really strategic on how I plan out the whole month to make sure we have enough money.\u2019\n\n\u201cOf course Kentuckians aren\u2019t the only ones in this predicament.\n\n\u201cIn Nevada, an office worker recently told reporters, \u2018I\u2019ve not been buying a lot of things because I can\u2019t afford it. I\u2019m like, \u2018The kids don\u2019t need juice for school anymore. We\u2019ll just do water.\u2019\u2019\n\n\u201cIn Arizona, so many families are having to make tough choices at the grocery store, many are accepting charity to keep food on the table. According to an employee of one food bank in Phoenix, \u2018The impact we are seeing day in and day out continues to go up. The families are stressed.\u2019\n\n\u201cAnd who can blame them, Madam President? Food inflation in America is at a more than four-decade high!\n\n\u201cBread is 16.2% more expensive than it was a year ago. Milk is up 17%. Flour is up 23.3%. And eggs are going for nearly 40% more.\n\n\u201cWeek after week, feeding a family has become a stressful proposition for millions of Americans. And every extra dollar spent on groceries is one fewer to spare for soaring electricity bills.\n\n\u201cIn the suburbs of Las Vegas, residents have commiserated over the astronomical cost of keeping their homes cool this summer. One neighborhood message board reads like this: \u2018My bill for this month will be $574\u2026 it\u2019s insane.\u2019 \u2018Yes, ours was $800 for June.\u2019\n\n\u201cIn Arizona, a restaurant worker didn\u2019t mince words about scraping together enough to keep the lights and AC on. \u2018If I didn\u2019t have roommates, I wouldn\u2019t be able to make it on the salary that I have.\u2019\n\n\u201cOverall inflation in Phoenix and Atlanta is way, way higher than even the sky-high national average. The country as a whole is still grappling with inflation over 8%, but Phoenix has seen a staggering 13% inflation in just the last year, and Atlanta has seen nearly 12%.\n\n\u201cOf course, for working Americans in some other states, the most acute emergency is not the cost of summer cooling, but rather the cost of winter heating.\n\n\u201cIn places like New Hampshire and Vermont where many homes burn heating oil, this important price is up more than 91% since President Biden took office.\n\n\u201cAnd in every corner of the country, one of the biggest collective headaches facing working families with young kids is the rising cost of the back-to-school shopping list.\n\n\u201cAccording to one working mother in Pennsylvania, she had to take items like a backpack for her pre-schooler out of her shopping cart in the checkout line. \u2018It\u2019s been at least 20 years since I have had to pull back to this extent. This is a new and humbling experience for me as an adult.\u2019\n\n\u201cMadam President, American families are facing math problems that just don\u2019t add up.\n\n\u201cMeanwhile, the same Washington Democrats who got them into this mess spent Tuesday celebrating having rammed through a party-line bill that does nothing to help them solve it.\n\n\u201cHundreds of billions of dollars in new spending, just as working families are having the hardest time in decades making ends meet at home.\n\n\u201cHundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars that wouldn\u2019t even accomplish Democrats\u2019 own underlying radical climate goals, let alone the false claims of \u2018Inflation Reduction\u2019 on the cover.\n\n\u201cSo our economy continues to hand working families a raw deal. But the same day this latest awful inflation report was published, Washington Democrats went to a concert at the White House and celebrated their economic policies!\n\n\u201cHow much more out-of-touch does it get?\n\n\u201cThe Democrats\u2019 giant inflationary spiral is costing the average American household $460 extra every single month just to buy the same things they bought last year. President Biden and his government have imposed a silent Democrat Inflation Tax of $460 every single month!\n\n\u201cIn Kentucky, the average household has to pay $608 more a month \u2014 well over $7,000 a year \u2014 just to stay where they were when President Biden was sworn in.\n\n\u201cAmericans\u2019 real wages \u2014 their purchasing power \u2014 has plummeted since this all-Democrat government was sworn in.\n\n\u201cAnd the Democrats\u2019 response? Print and spend hundreds of billions more; make Americans without bachelor\u2019s degrees pay off the graduate school debt of doctors and lawyers; and throw themselves a party on the White House Lawn.\n\n\u201cOur colleagues across the aisle created this human catastrophe.\n\n\u201cThis runaway inflation was a policy choice by Democrats.\n\n\u201cAnd they aren\u2019t even trying to stop it.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:29:59Z"]], "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=B6E4CA0C-79CF-4E65-8939-7D6D1EFB4D5A"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5075199771672487, "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"}