07.19.21

Democrats’ Reckless Taxing and Spending Spree is the Last Thing American Families Need

‘Thanks to the smart, targeted, bipartisan policies we passed last year, our economy was primed to get millions of Americans back to work with competitive pay while consumers unleashed pent-up demand. But that was before Democrats decided to pour $2 trillion into a long list of liberal pet projects and insist on making it less appealing for workers to go back to work.’

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding the economy:

“Runaway costs and surging inflation are a huge worry for middle-class families.

“Every survey confirms it. Every conversation confirms it.

“Over the last 12 months, during this economic recovery, the average American worker earned a 3.6% raise. But inflation has risen so steeply that it’s turned that into a nearly 2% pay cut.

“Remember, at the beginning of the year, the Biden Administration inherited a historically strong economic trajectory. Thanks to the smart, targeted, bipartisan policies we passed last year, our economy was primed to get millions of Americans back to work with competitive pay while consumers unleashed pent-up demand.

“But that was before Democrats decided to pour $2 trillion into a long list of liberal pet projects and insist on making it less appealing for workers to go back to work.

“Today, essentials like gas and groceries have gotten more and more expensive. Bigger purchases consumers had put off during the pandemic are getting even further out of reach. Across the country, working families and employers alike are feeling the pinch — an effective tax increase on both the wages and the savings of the middle class.

“Now, our colleagues weren’t flying blind. They weren’t naïve. They knew they were passing what the White House Chief of Staff said was designed to be ‘the most progressive domestic legislation in a generation.’ And they knew the risks, which one liberal economist described as, quote, “inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation.”

“Sure enough — inflation just clocked the fastest year-on-year increase since 2008.

“But apparently, according to President Biden himself, the solution is… even more of the same!

“Today, instead of deflecting attention from the fact that his administration’s springtime approach was flat wrong, the President doubled down. He suggested that the right way to shake this inflation was — wait for it — another $3.5 trillion in spending.

“This is the same reckless taxing and spending spree that Democrats dreamt up when they assumed our economy would be having the opposite problem.

“But now, all that same borrowing, printing, and spending is supposed to be what the doctor ordered to fight inflation?!

“Inflate our way out of inflation. Let’s hope the American people don’t have to learn firsthand how that strategy would work out. Another multi-trillion-dollar reckless taxing and spending spree is the last thing American families need.”

Related Issues: Economy, Taxes