Alabama Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville said that Democrats’ “out of control” spending is putting the economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis at risk.
“For many folks, a 4 percent hike on a grocery bill takes a serious toll. Rising prices like these are the definition of a kitchen table issue,” Tuberville said. “The Democrats’ out of control spending is putting the recovery at risk. And it’s the American families who will pay the price in the end.”
“Higher taxes, combined with Democrats’ inflation, would be a one-two punch to knock out our nation’s economic recovery,” the senator said.
Tuberville made those remarks on the floor of the United States Senate. Tuberville said inflation particularly hurts low-income Americans and that Democrats’ plan to raise taxes would only further endanger the post-pandemic economic recovery.
“Inflation is not an abstract idea thrown around by finance gurus. Inflation is a very real threat to the pocketbooks of hardworking Americans throughout our great country,” Tuberville said. “I recently spoke with a group of homebuilders from across Alabama. They told me how they’re seeing price increases that are even higher than the ballooning national average. As an example, in Alabama and across much of the South, homebuilding materials such as brick prices are up 10 percent, insulation prices are up 15 percent, sheetrock prices are up nearly 50 percent, lumber prices are up 300 percent, and particle board prices are up by more than 600 percent.”
“Folks back home can rest assured that I’ll be monitoring this closely,” Tuberville said. “I’ll be listening to my constituents and other companies about their costs and supply chain experiences. But I shouldn’t be the only on taking these concerns into account. These price jumps should be concerning to all of us in this building. Because the national numbers don’t paint a rosy picture. In April, consumer prices jumped by 4.2 percent – the highest rise in over a decade. Energy prices went up 25 percent overall, with gas prices increasing nearly 50 percent.”
“This level of inflation doesn’t just affect a select few – it affects all American families,” Tuberville said. “Paying 50 percent more for gas, or having a costlier electric bill, forces families to make a hard choice on what they can and cannot afford for that month.”
“We know what makes inflation worse: massive government spending,” Tuberville said. “President Biden and Congressional Democrats already spent 1.9 trillion dollars on a stimulus bill that flooded the economy with cash just two months ago. Now, they want to spend trillions on a package they’re trying to disguise as ‘infrastructure.’ And they’re following this up by trillions more to fund items on the progressive priority list in the future. Well, they are being confronted by that old truth: there’s no such thing as a free lunch.”
President Joe Biden recently rejected a Republican proposal on infrastructure.
“Thanks to the bipartisan emergency relief bills passed under President Trump, the economy had stabilized by year end,” Tuberville said. “We were in the middle of the most rapid economic recovery on record. The Democrats’ out of control spending is putting the recovery at risk. And it’s the American families who will pay the price in the end.”
“In addition to a reckless monetary policy, they want to raise taxes on all of us, including small businesses and family farms to fund this spending spree,” Tuberville said. “If they repeal the Republican tax cuts, Democrats will be encouraging American companies to move overseas. Job creators will have to pay more taxes at the same time as they’re recovering from the pandemic. And the tax increases being proposed will be passed on to working Americans – in the form of higher prices and lower wages.”
“It only takes one match to start a brush fire,” Tuberville said. “Rather than taking commonsense steps to fight inflation, Democrats are preparing for it by dumping lighter fluid on the whole field.”
Fuel, lumber, bricks, corn, wheat, copper, housing and labor have all gotten much more expensive in the last year, sparking growing fears of inflation.
Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans’ Affairs, and HELP Committees. Tuberville defeated incumbent Senator Doug Jones, D-Alabama, in the November election.
