Jay Obernolte: “I thank the Member for yielding. Madam Speaker, I stand deeply concerned today about the state of our economy. Last…”

“I thank the Member for yielding. Madam Speaker, I stand deeply concerned today about the state of our economy. Last week, the Department of Labor released the latest statistics for inflation in the United States. It shows that inflation continues to occur here at a rate above 8 percent, a 40-year high. Even more alarmingly, the Department of Labor says that core inflation has increased in August over the month of July and that real wages have declined 3.4 percent on an annualized basis. What that means is that my constituents cannot buy the same quantity of the things that they need this year as they could last year, even if they got a raise for the labor that they produced. Madam Speaker, every single day I hear of constituents who are desperate because of the results of this inflation. Imagine my embarrassment when I have to tell them that inflation was caused by actions of their own Federal Government. Economists already answered why we are experiencing this inflation. It is a combination of several things. {time} 2100 As our economy emerges from the pandemic, there has been an increased demand for goods and services, and a constrained supply chain which restricts our ability to respond to that increased demand. An economist will say that will make prices go up. The other thing that has occurred is that this Federal Government has dumped almost $5 trillion of excess government spending into our economy over the last 18 months--$5 trillion.…”