{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=A073A85A-1F92-4311-BF59-214A29E2D5C2", "Thune: Biden is the President of High Prices", "2024-06-20", "2024", "2024-06", "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 spoke on the Senate floor about the economic hardship that Americans continue to face due to Democrats\u2019 reckless spending. Thune noted that prices continue to rise on President Biden\u2019s watch, and American families are having to pay more for everything from groceries and air conditioning to summer camp and cookouts.\n\nThune\u2019s remarks below (as prepared for delivery):\n\n\u201cMr. President, summer is an exciting time of year for many Americans.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s a time for adventure.\n\n\u201cFor relaxation.\n\n\u201cFor quality time spent with friends and family.\n\n\u201cBut, like seemingly everything else, summer activities are more expensive in the Biden economy.\n\n\u201cThe cost of gas for a family trip is up 45 percent since President Biden took office.\n\n\u201cFood for a summer cookout costs 10 percent more than it did last year.\n\n\u201cAnd fees for summer camp are giving parents sticker shock.\n\n\u201cEven just keeping the house cool has climbed 8 percent since last summer to over $700.\n\n\u201cAnd of course, Mr. President, this is just a small sampling of what Americans have been going through for the past three-plus years.\n\n\u201cLast week\u2019s inflation report confirmed again what Americans know all too well:\n\n\u201cInflation is still a problem.\n\n\u201cOverall, prices are up more than 20 percent since President Biden took office.\n\n\u201cThe cost of groceries is up 21 percent.\n\n\u201cEnergy costs are up 41 percent.\n\n\u201cCar repairs and maintenance are up 30 percent.\n\n\u201cAnd the list goes on.\n\n\u201cAll told it costs a typical family $13,000 more per year to maintain the standard of living it enjoyed when President Biden took office.\n\n\u201c$13,000 more just to buy the exact same things you were buying three years ago.\n\n\u201cAs one mother of three told the New York Times, \u2018We\u2019re spending way more to get the same amount of food that we were getting before.\u2019\n\n\u201cMr. President, the inflation rate has been elevated for 38 months.\n\n\u201cUnderstandably, many people are at the end of their rope.\n\n\u201cAmericans have dipped into their savings.\n\n\u201cThey\u2019ve taken on record levels of credit card debt.\n\n\u201cAnd a shocking report came out recently that said that more than a quarter of Americans have skipped meals because of inflation.\n\n\u201cSkipped meals because of inflation.\n\n\u201cAnd, Mr. President, the cost of dealing with inflation is adding to Americans\u2019 financial pain.\n\n\u201cTo fight inflation, the Federal Reserve has been forced to keep interest rates high, which affects Americans\u2019 finances in a variety of ways.\n\n\u201cMany Americans turned to credit cards \u2013 racking up record levels of debt \u2013 to cope with inflation.\n\n\u201cAnd higher interest rates, in part the result of the Fed\u2019s actions, are making credit card bills harder to pay down.\n\n\u201cThe same is true for car payments.\n\n\u201cAnd Americans looking to own their own home are facing what one housing expert calls \u2018the most challenging home buying market we\u2019ve ever seen.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe average monthly mortgage payment is a staggering $2,800 \u2013 the result of a combination of higher mortgage rates and higher home prices.\n\n\u201cAnd if you do own a home, a recent report found that the cost of keeping and maintaining it has gone up 26 percent since 2020 to more than $1,500 per month.\n\n\u201cMr. President, it\u2019s worth remembering that it didn\u2019t have to be this way.\n\n\u201cThree years ago, President Biden and Democrats forced through a reckless, partisan spending spree under the guise of pandemic relief.\n\n\u201cThey had been warned that spending so much risked setting off an inflation crisis unlike any we had seen in decades.\n\n\u201cYet they chose to ignore those warnings and pushed through $1.9 trillion in new government spending.\n\n\u201cAnd inflation almost immediately began surging as a result.\n\n\u201cAnd then instead of learning their lesson, they moved forward with even more reckless spending plans.\n\n\u201cFortunately, Democrats\u2019 $3.5 trillion Build Back Better spending spree failed to get off the ground.\n\n\u201cBut they\u2019ve steadily run up the debt with their so-called Inflation Reduction Act, whose true cost continues to grow.\n\n\u201cAnd the student loan forgiveness schemes the president has put in place come with a price tag in the hundreds of billions of dollars.\n\n\u201cAnd it\u2019s clear that if President Biden gets a second term, there will be a lot more lavish spending on the docket.\n\n\u201cPlus, the president\u2019s proposed tax hikes.\n\n\u201cAnd then there are the expiring tax cuts.\n\n\u201cIn 2017, Republicans delivered tax reform that lowered rates across the board and allowed families to keep more of their hard-earned dollars.\n\n\u201cBut those tax cuts are set to expire next year.\n\n\u201cAnd the president seems willing to let that happen.\n\n\u201cThat would mean a $1,600 tax hike for a typical family in 2026 \u2013 on top of years of economic pain from Bidenomics.\n\n\u201cLet\u2019s hope the American people don\u2019t have to find out what that would feel like.\n\n\u201cMr. President, it\u2019s going to be another expensive summer in the Biden economy.\n\n\u201cAnd if President Biden and Democrats have their way, there could be many more to come.\n\n\u201cMr. President, I yield the floor.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:24:47Z"]], "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=A073A85A-1F92-4311-BF59-214A29E2D5C2"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6982718370854855, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": 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