{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=7F7E4EE4-3740-4B78-B241-10CB5D4FA35E", "Thune: Biden Economy Does Not Work for Working Families", "2022-09-13", "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 Democrats\u2019 reckless tax-and-spending spree has created an economy that is making life harder for working families. Thune noted that our country continues to be in a period of historically high inflation \u2013 largely because of Democrats\u2019 big-government, big-spending agenda \u2013 in which families are continuing to struggle with high grocery bills, high energy bills, and high rent prices.\n\nThune\u2019s remarks below (as prepared for delivery):\n\n\u201cMr. President, this morning the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the August inflation numbers.\n\n\u201cAnd as every American who has been to a grocery store lately knows, August was yet another month of high inflation.\n\n\u201cConsumer prices rose 8.3 percent last month from a year earlier, holding near a four-decade high.\n\n\u201cAnd Americans are feeling the strain.\n\n\u201cMr. President, even one unexpectedly expensive month can be challenging for many families.\n\n\u201cBut at least it\u2019s usually possible to recover from a single tough month.\n\n\u201cHow are American families going to recover from the months upon months upon months of high inflation that have marked the Biden economy?\n\n\u201cMr. President, as I said, American families are suffering.\n\n\u201cGrocery bills are out of control.\n\n\u201cBetween August 2021 and August 2022, grocery bills rose at their highest rate since 1979.\n\n\u201c1979.\n\n\u201cEven back-to-school supplies like pencils and glue are more expensive.\n\n\u201cThe National Retail Federation reported in July that households were on track to spend an average of $864 on back-to-school shopping \u2013 a 24 percent increase from 2019.\n\n\u201cUtility bills have soared.\n\n\u201cThings have gotten so bad that approximately one out of every six households \u2013 one out of every six households \u2013 is behind on its utility bills.\n\n\u201cUnfortunately, considering the increases in the price of natural gas and electricity since President Biden took office, it\u2019s not surprising.\n\n\u201cForty percent of households \u2013 40 percent \u2013 report having difficulty paying for their normal household expenses.\n\n\u201cAnd Gallup reports that 56 percent of Americans \u2013 well over half of the U.S. population \u2013 are experiencing financial hardship as a result of inflation.\n\n\u201cThe personal savings rate has plunged to its lowest level since 2009, and many Americans are dipping into their savings to make ends meet.\n\n\u201cOthers have taken up a side job, or are pulling out the credit card.\n\n\u201cStill others have been forced to rely on food banks.\n\n\u201cMr. President, as recently as Friday, President Biden was touting his work to, quote, \u2018finally deliver an economy that works for working families.\u2019\n\n\u201cI have to say, I don\u2019t know what ivory tower the president is living in, but the Biden economy is the very opposite of an economy that works for working families.\n\n\u201cWorking families in the Biden economy are struggling.\n\n\u201cThey\u2019re wondering how they can make ends meet.\n\n\u201cThey\u2019re cutting back on groceries like meat or milk.\n\n\u201cThey\u2019re cutting back on family trips or putting off making necessary home repairs.\n\n\u201cThey are, as I said, dipping into their savings, or charging necessities on their credit cards, or visiting food banks.\n\n\u201cA recent CBS News article discussing a new Gallup poll noted, and I quote, \u2018The findings indicate that the hottest inflation in 40 years is eating into the bedrock of the American economy \u2014 the middle-class \u2014 and even eroding the financial stability of more well-heeled households.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018The findings indicate that the hottest inflation in 40 years is eating into the bedrock of the American economy \u2014 the middle-class \u2026\u2019\n\n\u201cThis is not an economy that\u2019s, to paraphrase the president, being built from the bottom up and the middle out.\n\n\u201cThis is not an economy that \u2018works for working families.\u2019\n\n\u201cThis is an economy where living standards for working families are declining.\n\n\u201cMr. President, the president has actually had the audacity to repeatedly bring up the lines of cars waiting at food banks that occurred during the height of the COVID pandemic \u2013 with the implication that things are different now in the Biden economy.\n\n\u201cPerhaps no one in the White House has read the news recently.\n\n\u201cHere\u2019s a sampling of headlines from the past few weeks:\n\n\u201c\u2018Las Vegas food banks experiencing heightened demand amid inflation spikes\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Food banks feeling pinch of high inflation as centers juggle increased demand for help\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018New Hampshire food pantries struggle with rising costs, growing demand: Organizations say more people than ever need help\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018St. Mary\u2019s Food Bank in Phoenix sees record number of families in need amid inflation\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Mountain West food banks are strained by high customer demand and low supply\u2019\n\n\u201cAnd unfortunately I could go on.\n\n\u201cMr. President, at this point, everyone knows how we got here.\n\n\u201cDemocrats took office and decided to pass a massive, $1.9 trillion spending bill, the so-called American Rescue Plan Act, that flooded the economy with unnecessary government money.\n\n\u201cAnd the economy overheated as a result.\n\n\u201cDemocrats were warned \u2013 including by at least one noted economist from their own party \u2013 that their legislation ran the risk of overheating the economy.\n\n\u201cBut they were committed to taking advantage of their new majority to push through their big-government, big-spending vision.\n\n\u201cAnd so they ignored the warnings.\n\n\u201cAnd their bill helped trigger the worst inflation crisis in 40 years.\n\n\u201cBut perhaps the worst part is that even after Democrats saw the damage that resulted from their American Rescue Plan spending spree, they continued to try to double down on the spending strategy that helped get us into this mess in the first place.\n\n\u201cDemocrats spent half of last year attempting to force through another partisan spending spree originally planned to cost up to $5 trillion.\n\n\u201cFortunately for Americans, those particular far-left fantasies were foiled.\n\n\u201cBut that hasn\u2019t stopped Democrats from continuing to accumulate wasteful government spending.\n\n\u201cIn August Democrats forced through a partisan tax-and-spending bill that will raise Americans\u2019 energy bills, reduce jobs and opportunities for American workers, and waste taxpayer dollars on a host of Green New Deal priorities like electric vehicle tax credits for wealthy Americans and road equity and identifying gaps in tree canopy coverage.\n\n\u201cThey\u2019ve called this tax-and-spending spree the Inflation Reduction Act \u2013 even though, as even the DEMOCRAT chairman of the Senate Budget Committee admitted, the bill will not reduce inflation.\n\n\u201cApparently the title\u2019s only function is to make the bill sound more acceptable to Americans who are sick and tired of dealing with soaring prices and economic pain.\n\n\u201cThen a mere eight days after signing the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, the president once again added to Democrats\u2019 record of economic malfeasance with a massive student loan giveaway that could cost more than $1 trillion \u2013 and that the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget notes will, quote, \u201cmeaningfully boost inflation.\u201d\n\n\u201c\u2018\u2026 meaningfully boost inflation.\u2019\n\n\u201cMr. President, I\u2019m not sure whether Democrats are incapable of learning their lesson, or whether they consider soaring prices to be a trivial issue next to implementing their Green New Deal agenda, or whether they think inflation is an acceptable price to pay for big government.\n\n\u201cBut whatever it is, Democrats are apparently going to continue to ignore the economic pain Americans are experiencing in favor of implementing their far-left, big-government, big-spending agenda.\n\n\u201cAnd it appears that the American people are going to have to continue to suffer as a result.", 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=7F7E4EE4-3740-4B78-B241-10CB5D4FA35E"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7036840543150902, "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"}