Republican senators on Thursday slammed the Biden administration over a 40-year high increase in inflation.
New data from the Labor Department found that consumer inflation rose 7.9% over the 12 months ending in February, the largest increase since 1982. The spike did not include rises in the price of oil and natural gas following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. The increase followed a similar report by the same department that found a 40-year high for inflation in December.
At a press conference at the Capitol on Thursday, Sen. Deb Fischer attributed the spike to President Joe Biden’s policies.
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“Inflation is really killing us,” the Nebraska Republican said. “And what does the president say? What is President Biden saying? He says he can’t do much. He can’t do much to address especially rising gas prices. That’s unacceptable. We need to restore American energy independence, and we need to look at real solutions on how we can help to drive down these continuing costs and to provide some relief for our families, our businesses, our seniors.”
Senate Minority Whip John Thune, the No. 2 Republican in the upper chamber, cited a New York Times article about how inflation is impacting Americans, quoting, “Bacon is as expensive as filet mignon used to be.”
Thune said rising energy costs will drive up the price of food for families already “struggling to put food on their table.”
“We’ve been trying to get the administration’s attention on this issue for a long time,” he said, saying the administration instead has an “obsession with electric vehicles.”
In a statement about the inflation report, Biden said that unemployment claims remain low and job growth is strong.
“At the same time, today’s inflation report is a reminder that Americans‘ budgets are being stretched by price increases and families are starting to feel the impacts of Putin’s price hike,” Biden said. “A large contributor to inflation this month was an increase in gas and energy prices as markets reacted to Putin’s aggressive actions. As I have said from the start, there will be costs at home as we impose crippling sanctions in response to Putin’s unprovoked war, but Americans can know this: the costs we are imposing on Putin and his cronies are far more devastating than the costs we are facing.”
Biden added that “higher prices impact a family’s budget” and that he and his administration will push for “investments so we can manufacture more in America, strengthen our supply chains, and move goods to market at lower cost.”
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“I’m promoting competition to make sure big corporations are offering consumers fair prices, and I’m pressing Congress to pass my plan to lower the cost of essentials like prescription drugs and energy,” Biden said.
