{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=DD24F9A3-9939-432F-9E44-C22ED11E5861", "Thune: Families Falling Behind in Biden-Harris Economy", "2024-09-25", "2024", "2024-09", "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 spoke on the Senate floor about the burden Americans are facing as a result of the Biden-Harris administration\u2019s reckless spending. Thune noted that American families have to spend over $13,000 more per year to maintain the same standard of living they had when President Biden and Vice President Harris took office.\n\nThune\u2019s remarks below (as prepared for delivery):\n\n\u201cMr. President, when the history of the Biden-Harris administration is written, I suspect it will be defined by the historic inflation crisis that has characterized almost all four years of this presidency.\n\n\u201cIt started almost right away.\n\n\u201cEager to begin implementing their big-spending visions, Democrats seized on COVID as an excuse for a massive, partisan, $1.9 trillion spending spree \u2013 the so-called American Rescue Plan Act.\n\n\u201cDemocrats were warned that their bill ran the risk of, quote, \u2018set[ting] off inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation.\u2019\n\n\u201cBut they proceeded anyway.\n\n\u201cVice President Harris cast the tiebreaking vote in the Senate to ensure that this massive government boondoggle would become law.\n\n\u201cAnd within weeks of its passage, inflation began climbing.\n\n\u201cAnd kept climbing.\n\n\u201cAnd climbed some more.\n\n\u201cBy 2022, inflation had reached its highest level in 40 years.\n\n\u201c40 years.\n\n\u201cAnd Americans felt the consequences.\n\n\u201cAs the price of everything from gas to groceries shot up, Americans dipped into their savings to make ends meet, or put essential items on their credit cards.\n\n\u201cThey took on second jobs.\n\n\u201cThey visited food banks.\n\n\u201cThey put off home repairs or family vacations.\n\n\u201cThey skipped necessary medical care.\n\n\u201cAnd even as the rate of inflation has finally \u2013 finally \u2013 slowed, Americans continue to suffer as prices remain elevated.\n\n\u201cToday Americans are paying 21 percent more for groceries than they were when President Biden and Vice President Harris took office.\n\n\u201cThey\u2019re paying 37 percent more for energy.\n\n\u201c45 percent more for gasoline.\n\n\u201c22 percent more for shelter.\n\n\u201cThe list goes on.\n\n\u201cToday a typical family needs to spend an additional $13,202 per year to maintain the same standard of living it enjoyed when President Biden and Vice President Harris took office.\n\n\u201c$13,202.\n\n\u201cJust think about that for a minute, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cHow many lower- and middle-income families do you know who can easily absorb an extra $13,000 a year?\n\n\u201cHow many families out there have had to lower their standard of living as a result of the Biden-Harris administration?\n\n\u201cHow many missed vacations or missed braces or missed extracurricular activities or missed car repairs or home projects does that $13,000 represent?\n\n\u201cAnd, Mr. President, in addition to the staggering price hikes of the past few years, Americans have had to contend with additional economic pain as a result of the rate hikes the Federal Reserve was forced to impose to deal with the Biden-Harris inflation crisis.\n\n\u201cThose rate hikes drove up credit card interest rates.\n\n\u201cThey drove up rates for car loans.\n\n\u201cThey drove up mortgage rates.\n\n\u201cAnd so Americans who, for example, have had to charge things to their credit cards to deal with high food or energy prices are now facing increased challenges in paying off that debt.\n\n\u201cA September Wall Street Journal article noted, and I quote, \u2018Around 9.1% of credit-card balances turned delinquent over the past year, the highest rate in over a decade, according to an August report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.\u2019\n\n\u201cOther Americans are finding the American dream of owning your own home out of their reach, as they face elevated mortgage rates on top of staggering housing prices.\n\n\u201cMr. President, President Biden has talked a lot about building an economy from the bottom up and the middle out.\n\n\u201cBut it\u2019s lower- and middle-income Americans who have suffered the most in the Biden-Harris economy.\n\n\u201cAnd if Vice President Harris becomes president and Democrats take control in Congress, the next few years aren\u2019t likely to look too good for lower- and middle-income Americans either.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s already become clear that Vice President Harris intends to continue with the tax-and-spend agenda she and President Biden have worked to impose.\n\n\u201cAnd if she is elected Americans should brace themselves for more economic pain.\n\n\u201cMr. President, \u2018The need is greater. Costs are still high. Gas prices are high. Owning a home is a struggle. Every time I look at my bank account, it\u2019s always going down.\u2019\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s what one American had to say about his economic situation earlier this year.\n\n\u201cAnd it\u2019s been the story for too many Americans in the Biden-Harris economy.\n\n\u201cWe can only hope they don\u2019t have to deal with another four years of it.\n\n\u201cMr. President, I yield the floor.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:46:43Z"]], "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=DD24F9A3-9939-432F-9E44-C22ED11E5861"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.179423812776804, "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"}