{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=4150AEA2-6656-46CC-95B2-318F80BB6BAC", "Thune: South Dakotans Shouldn\u2019t Foot the Bill for Democrats\u2019 Radical Agenda", "2022-09-21", "2022", "2022-09", "Republican", "Senate", "SD", "John Thune", "T000250", "www.thune.senate.gov", "thune", "https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases", "scraper", "Click here to watch the video.\n\nWASHINGTON \u2014 U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today discussed how the so-called \u201cInflation Reduction Act\u201d imposes new taxes on businesses in order to pay for Democrats\u2019 radical climate agenda. Thune noted that this new tax burden will largely fall on workers and consumers in the form of fewer jobs and opportunities, lower wages, and higher prices.\n\nThune\u2019s remarks below (as prepared for delivery):\n\n\u201cMr. President, on Sunday the president appeared on \u201860 Minutes,\u2019 where he was asked what he was going to do to help alleviate inflation in light of August\u2019s continued grim inflation news and the resulting stock market nosedive.\n\n\u201cThe president\u2019s response?\n\n\u201c\u2018Well, first of all, let\u2019s put this in perspective. Inflation rate month to month was just \u2013 just an inch, hardly at all.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Let\u2019s put this in perspective.\u2019\n\n\u201cMr. President, that might be something to say if the inflation rate had ticked up from, say, 2 percent \u2013 the target inflation rate \u2013 to 2.1 percent.\n\n\u201cBut I\u2019m pretty sure that\u2019s not the appropriate thing to say when you\u2019re talking about the sixth straight month of inflation above 8 percent.\n\n\u201cAnd the ninth straight month of inflation at or above 7 percent.\n\n\u201cAnd the 11th straight month of inflation above 6 percent.\n\n\u201cAnd even more concerning than August\u2019s consumer price index rising 8.3 percent from the same month a year ago was the increase in core inflation \u2013 a measure of inflation minus the volatile categories of food and energy.\n\n\u201cThis measure increased to 6.3 percent in August, up from 5.9 percent in both June and July, suggesting that inflation is sinking its roots even deeper into various sectors of our economy.\n\n\u201cOr in the words of a CNBC headline from last week, \u2018Inflation isn\u2019t just about fuel costs anymore, as price increases broaden across the economy.\u2019\n\n\u201cBut of course you don\u2019t have to take my word for it about the mess we\u2019re in.\n\n\u201cHere\u2019s what one of President Obama\u2019s top economic advisers had to say last week after August\u2019s inflation numbers came out:\n\n\u201c\u2018Today\u2019s CPI report confirms that the US has a serious inflation problem. Core inflation is higher this month than for the quarter, higher this quarter than last quarter, higher this half of the year than the previous one, and higher last year than the previous one.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Let\u2019s put this in perspective.\u2019\n\n\u201cMr. President, here is the American people\u2019s perspective:\n\n\u201cFifty-seven percent of Americans disapprove of President Biden\u2019s handling of the economy.\n\n\u201cAnd 37 percent of voters say that President Biden\u2019s policies have hurt them personally, versus just 15 percent of voters who say his policies have helped them.\n\n\u201cThese numbers are no surprise, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cThe president may somehow still believe that he\u2019s creating an economy that will \u201cwork for working families,\u201d but the reality is that in the Biden economy working Americans are suffering.\n\n\u201cAmericans\u2019 utility bills are soaring.\n\n\u201cTheir grocery bills have ballooned.\n\n\u201cAnd they\u2019re paying $1.30 more per gallon every time they fill up their car than they were when President Biden was elected.\n\n\u201cReal wages have dropped every single month since Democrats passed their $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan spending spree \u2013 the bill that helped plunge our economy into our current inflation crisis.\n\n\u201cAnd 40 percent of Americans report having difficulty paying for their normal household expenses.\n\n\u201cAmericans are dipping into their savings or working side jobs to make ends meet.\n\n\u201cThey\u2019re charging more day-to-day expenses on their credit cards.\n\n\u201cAnd in too many cases they\u2019re having to visit food banks, which are seeing huge lines again thanks to continued high inflation.\n\n\u201cAnd what are Democrats and the president doing about this?\n\n\u201cNothing.\n\n\u201cOf course, last month Democrats did pass a bill called the Inflation Reduction Act.\n\n\u201cThe problem?\n\n\u201cThe bill will do nothing to reduce inflation.\n\n\u201cNothing.\n\n\u201cAnd again, you don\u2019t have to take my word for it.\n\n\u201cThe nonpartisan Penn Wharton Budget Model said this about the bill\u2019s impact on inflation: \u2018The impact on inflation is statistically indistinguishable from zero.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Statistically indistinguishable from zero.\u2019\n\n\u201cOr you could take the word of the Democrat chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, who admitted right here on the Senate floor that the so-called Inflation Reduction Act would not reduce inflation.\n\n\u201cBut it\u2019s not just that Democrats have done nothing to help solve our inflation crisis.\n\n\u201cThey\u2019re also on track to make Americans\u2019 economic situation significantly worse.\n\n\u201cIn August, President Biden announced a massive student loan giveaway that could cost anywhere from an estimated $500 billion to more than $1 trillion, and that the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget notes would, quote, \u2018meaningfully boost inflation.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Meaningfully boost inflation.\u2019\n\n\u201cOr as the president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget recently put it:\n\n\u201c\u2018Amid 40-year-high inflation and despite the administration constantly touting its \u2018fiscal responsibility,\u2019 these changes will recklessly add to the debt and make the Federal Reserve\u2019s job in fighting inflation even harder, which will amplify our risk of entering a recession.\u2019\n\n\u201cInflation has spent eight straight months at 40-year highs, and the president has decided that now is a good time to implement a policy that will, quote, \u201cmeaningfully boost inflation.\u201d\n\n\u201cMr. President, the economy continues to show signs of weakening, driven in large part by the inflation crisis Democrats helped create.\n\n\u201cMajor companies have recently announced job cuts.\n\n\u201cSixty-three percent of small businesses are putting a hold on hiring, and 10 percent of those are cutting jobs.\n\n\u201cAnd we\u2019ve had negative economic growth for the past two quarters.\n\n\u201cAnd so naturally Democrats decided this was a good time to raise taxes on businesses.\n\n\u201cYes.\n\n\u201cDemocrats\u2019 so-called Inflation Reduction Act imposes new taxes on businesses to help pay for Democrats\u2019 Green New Deal spending.\n\n\u201cI say taxes on businesses.\n\n\u201cBut of course, taxes on businesses largely fall on workers and consumers in the form of fewer jobs and opportunities, lower wages, and higher prices.\n\n\u201cIn other words, pretty much the exact opposite of what we need right now, with prices soaring and wages failing to keep pace with inflation.\n\n\u201cThe Inflation Reduction Act also imposes new taxes on energy that will drive up energy prices for both American families and American businesses \u2013 imposing further pain on family budgets and likely prolonging our inflation crisis even further.\n\n\u201cMr. President, the president may have wanted to build an economy \u201cfrom the bottom up and the middle out.\u201d\n\n\u201cInstead, he and his fellow Democrats have helped create an economy in which working families are struggling to make it from one paycheck to the next.\n\n\u201cAnd thanks to the additional tax-and-spending policies Democrats have recently implemented, working families are likely to be struggling for some time to come.", 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.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=4150AEA2-6656-46CC-95B2-318F80BB6BAC"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.7135620582848787, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": 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