The Economy

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, where did that land us? Well, as I said, last week, the Department of Labor announced that inflation had climbed to the highest rate since 2008. Core inflation surged to the highest level in nearly three decades. Families are feeling the pinch of higher prices as they pay higher prices for everything from housing to cars to gasoline to groceries.

This is really sort of a silent and hidden tax on their income, when the dollar that they earn is worth less and less as prices go higher and higher. But, unfortunately, this is the exact scenario economists expected when our Democratic colleagues rolled out this $2 trillion spending bill at the beginning of the year. And they are currently proposing to spend trillions of dollars more.

Even Larry Summers, who once served as Treasury Secretary under Bill Clinton and Director of the National Economic Council under President Obama, warned about inflation. He penned an op-ed in the Washington Post in February, cautioning the administration about the risks of inflation, making himself persona non grata among our Democratic colleagues. But he wrote another one last month saying that ``the inflation risk is real.''

You might think that would serve as a cautionary tale to our Democratic colleagues, that partisan legislation does not give way to sound and stable policies. But that is not the case.

When the majority leader said all options are on the table for eliminating the filibuster, he didn't mention the fact that he would be setting the table and setting the agenda trying to make that case.

Absent Republican obstruction that he and other members of the media forecasted, the majority leader is now teeing up a series of designed- to-fail votes so he could explain or justify--try to justify--why the filibuster should be eliminated

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