Blunt: Soaring costs in the Biden economy taking a toll on families

WASHINGTON – At the weekly Republican leadership press conference today, Missouri U.S. Senator Roy Blunt outlined how rising costs, especially on essentials like food and home energy, are crushing families across Missouri. As Blunt noted, grocery prices were up 13.5% in August from a year ago, the largest jump since 1979.

Following Are Blunt’s Remarks:

“So, gasoline costs traditionally historically go up and they go down. Food costs go up and almost never go down. [An] 8.3% increase, year-over-year, this month. And that’s with a decrease in gasoline prices. Imagine how much everything else had to go up above 8.3% to get that to happen.

“Food went up 13.5%. Since Biden became president, it’s 17% higher than it was. It costs more to feed your family — the increase in the cost of feeding your family — in the last month was higher than any time since 1979. Costs of providing electricity to your house more than any time in the last 40 years.

“This is a serious problem. They celebrate today at the White House making it more serious by putting still more money into the economy than would have been there without the passage of this last bill. They’re doing exactly the worst thing you could possibly do if you’re trying to fight inflation, while at the Federal Reserve they’re raising the interest rates to make it harder to buy your house, your car or anything else.

“That may be the only option we have based on what Democrats have already done. But the last bill they passed is in addition to the bill that everybody knows is the root of this inflation. When the economy was recovering, you don’t pass a $2 trillion ‘American Recovery Plan’ and dump that on top of a recovering economy.