This August, I traveled our state to meet with Kentuckians and discuss the most pressing issues facing our Commonwealth. In conversations with families, workers, and business owners, one concern overrode all others: inflation.
Across our country, Americans are saying that runaway costs are their top worry. The most recent CPI report shows inflation remains stubbornly high. But amazingly, as Congress returns to Washington this September, the Democrats who run the House, Senate, and White House have no plans to tamp down our forty-year high inflation rate.
Instead, they’ve spent the first two years of President Biden’s term pushing through hundreds of billions of dollars of wasteful spending. Most recently, they passed the absurdly named Inflation Reduction Act, which economists have lambasted for having no significant effect on inflation whatsoever.
Rather, the bill is a handout to Washington Democrats’ preferred special interest groups: $80 billion to supersize the IRS and audit more taxpayers, billions of dollars in slush funds for “environmental justice” groups, huge tax credits for the few Americans who can afford expensive electric vehicles, and massive subsidies to expand Obamacare coverage to six-figure earners. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, its impact on inflation over the next few years will be “negligible.”
To cap off his summer of reckless spending, President Biden transferred the student loan debt held by doctors, lawyers, and other high-earners to working families, costing taxpayers as much as $1 trillion in the process. This huge giveaway is a slap in the face to everyone who sacrificed to save for college, every graduate who paid what they owed, and every American who chose a certain career path or served in our Armed Forces to avoid taking on debt. It will also almost certainly add to inflation.
Clearly, Washington Democrats have decided it’s politically advantageous to simply ignore inflation, hoping the problem goes away while they use their narrow congressional majorities to reward tax dollars to political allies. Kentuckians don’t have the luxury of avoiding the issue. Since President Biden took office, prices in the Commonwealth have spiked 13%.
For the average Kentucky household, that price increase translates to $608 in additional spending every month, or $7,297 every year. Higher prices are drowning out any wage increases Kentuckians might see.
Washington Democrats are grasping at straws to defend their economic leadership, pointing to our tight labor market and slightly moderating gas prices to claim our country is “stronger economically than we have been in history.” That assertion is detached from reality. In addition to facing record inflation, Kentucky still has 19,000 fewer workers than before the pandemic, and our drivers are paying well over a dollar more per gallon of gas than before President Biden took office.
Kentuckians want real solutions, not more political spin. During my visits to our state, I heard directly from constituents harmed by Washington Democrats’ economic failures.
I talked to business leaders like those at the Kentucky Association of Manufacturers who, under different conditions, would be powering our recovery. Instead, many are struggling to find enough workers just to meet consumer demand.
I heard from farmers in Hopkinsville who have seen the price of energy skyrocket, raising the cost of everything from fuel to fertilizer. Now, Americans everywhere are paying higher prices at the grocery store.
I spoke to folks in Eastern Kentucky who are still reeling from this summer’s floods. They would like to begin rebuilding damaged homes as quickly as possible, but supply chain issues and increased material costs are hamstringing the recovery process.
These are the people Washington Democrats are ignoring when they return to Congress without legislation to fight inflation. Republicans know how to solve our problem: stop the reckless spending fueling price increases, end irresponsible subsidies for liberal special interest groups, and unleash American energy producers to make our country energy independent again. But the Democrats who run our government refuse to do any of that for fear of angering their political base.
In Kentucky and across the country, Americans are communicating loudly and clearly that they want cheaper groceries, lower gas prices, and affordable electricity. With the plans they’ve set for the rest of this Congress, Democrats are communicating that they simply do not care.
