WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, spoke on the Senate floor on Wednesday to highlight the climbing inflation rate—nearing a ten percent increase over the last year—that Americans are facing under President Biden. To illustrate this concept Ernst used a classic Price is Right game – the Mountain Climber, starring President Biden as the Yodeler.
Ernst’s full remarks are below, and readers can watch her remarks in the video above:
“The mountain Americans have to climb to make ends meet keeps getting steeper and steeper as a result of Bidenomics.
“Since President Biden began his reckless tax and spending spree, prices are sky-high – for gas, food, housing, and just about everything else.
“The administration’s own statistics reveal inflation jumped nearly 10 percent in the last year—the biggest increase in over four decades.
“Democrats keep telling us not to worry and that the problem is only temporary… yet every month, prices keep climbing … and climbing… and climbing.
“The reason is simple – President Biden’s fiscal policies are driving costs higher and higher.
“You may recall I came to the Senate floor a year ago to warn my colleagues that Bidenomics was causing inflation to spin out-of-control.
“Yet, Democrats have ignored the struggles being inflicted on hard working Americans, and continue to pass one trillion-dollar-bill after another.
“And as the reckless spending increased, the value of the dollar declined – meaning paychecks aren’t going nearly as far as they did just a year ago.
“To make matters even worse, the Biden administration’s ongoing effort to end domestic oil and gas production is fueling the elevated price at the pump, which reached an all-time high of more than $5 per gallon this summer.
“And an internal analysis by the Biden administration’s own Treasury Department forecasts that this fall, gas prices could top $6 a gallon!
“I am already hearing from Iowans and Iowa businesses about how folks aren’t even able to afford to drive to work!
“The problem is becoming even more difficult since Bidenomics is driving up the sticker prices on cars to record highs.
“The actual retail price for a new vehicle is… $48,000.
“And if that sounds like a lot, the cost of buying a home has also reached an all-time high of $416,000!
“It’s no surprise fewer people are buying homes.
“And then look at rent… it’s also hit a record high of nearly $1,900 a month.
“These unpredictable prices have everyone asking themselves if the Price is Right.
“Folks, Americans shouldn’t have to play guessing games about whether or not their paychecks can be stretched far enough to avoid going over a financial cliff.
“Each bill the Democrats have passed as part of the Biden Agenda has increased costs for working Americans while moving our nation closer and closer to the edge of the fiscal cliff.
“Consider that when Joe Biden was inaugurated as President in January 2021, the inflation rate was only ONE percent.
“After their so-called “COVID relief” bill, which cost $1.9 trillion, was passed in March of last year, the inflation rate moved up to nearly THREE percent.
“In July, President Biden claimed the quickly increasing prices were “temporary” and that his big spending plans would result in lower prices for Americans.
“But by the time the president signed his $1 trillion so-called “infrastructure” bill in November, inflation had climbed to almost SEVEN percent.
“In December, President Biden said inflation had reached its ‘peak.’
“He was wrong once again, and today inflation is more than nine percent.
“This isn’t a cliff hanger, folks.
“We all know where this is headed.
“Step by step, President Biden’s reckless tax and spend policies are taking us closer and closer to going over the cliff.
“And yet the Democrats are still trying to outbid each other with another trillion dollar, budget-busting, partisan package that would raise taxes on small businesses and increase prices for everyone.
“That’s right folks, Bidenomics is driving up the costs of everything and the Democrats’ solution is to spend even more of your hard-earned money to pay for more of their pricey partisan pet projects.
“Any more Bidenomics will push the economy over the fiscal cliff and into a recession.
“It’s time to take a step back and stop the wasteful Washington spending, which is the only way to make these prices come on down…”
