THE ECONOMY

On 2026-05-13, Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) delivered a floor speech titled "THE ECONOMY" in the Senate.

THE ECONOMY

Congressional Record, Volume 172 Issue 81 (Wednesday, May 13, 2026) [Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 81 (Wednesday, May 13, 2026)] [Senate] [Pages S2283-S2286] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] THE ECONOMY Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, as the Presiding Officer well knows-- because I am about to describe the good people of West Virginia as well as the good people of Louisiana and of many other States--most Americans get up every day. They go to work. They obey the law. They try to teach their children values. They try to do the right thing by their children, and they try to put aside a little money for retirement. I have just described millions of moms and dads across the Presiding Officer's State and mine and all across America. But, unfortunately, many moms and dads, when they lie down to sleep at night, can't. And they can't because they are worried. They can't because they are scared. Worry and fear are inextricably linked. One of the main things they are worried about today in America is the cost of living. Worry and fear also can lead to anger. There is a lot of anger in America today among our middle-class citizens. That anger is shared not only by the folks in the Presiding Officer's State and in my State and in other States, it is shared all across political party lines and all across demographics. Many of my Democratic friends and neighbors are angry just as they are scared and worried. Many Independent moms and dads or many Republican moms and dads are worried, and they are angry. Why are they angry? First, let me say I understand their anger. It is perfectly predictable. Here is why they are angry, and this is why they are scared: These moms and dads who can't sleep at night because they are concerned about the cost of living look around and they see too many undeserving people--I want to emphasize ``undeserving'' because I don't want to paint it with too broad a brush. These parents--these moms and dads--look around and see too many undeserving people at the top getting bailouts, and they see too many undeserving people--not everybody but too many undeserving people--at the bottom who are getting handouts. And they are in the middle, and they are getting stuck with the bill, and they can't pay it anymore because of the cost of living. Now, this started back during COVID when we experienced our first inflation--a rise in the cost of living in America. You don't have to be a senior at Caltech to figure out what happened. The Federal Government, at the suggestion of President Biden, spent bucketloads of money that we didn't have, particularly and especially after the pandemic was over. They just spent [[Page S2284]] billions and billions of dollars. There was money sloshing around the financial system in America like it was confetti. These stimulus bills were passed at the suggestion of President Biden at a time when many of our supply chains had kinks in them, and all this extra money that President Biden spent that we didn't have increased demand at a time when supply was constant or going down. Well, what is the result of that? Inflation. That is how you get inflation. At one point, we had 9-percent inflation in America--9 percent. And inflation is pernicious. It just guts the middle class like a fish. Those at the top aren't particularly bothered by inflation. I don't want to overstate this, but many people at the bottom who depend on public assistance to live are not as worried about inflation because a lot of their public assistance is adjusted for inflation. But the folks in the middle--the ones who get up every day and go to work and obey the law and pay their taxes and try to do the right thing by their kids--yes, they have gotten some wage increases but not as fast as inflation. We have gotten that 9-percent inflation down. Before the conflict in Iran, we had gotten it down to 2.5, 2.8 percent. We were trying to get it down more, but inflation is very sticky. It is like a stray dog. Once you feed it, you can't get rid of it. Our goal was to get it down to 2 percent. The Federal Reserve was doing its part, and I would like to think most Members of Congress were doing their part, but we were having real trouble getting it down. Then, of course, we had a spike in the cost of energy. Now, energy was already up. Under President Biden, the average electricity bill of the average American went up 28 percent--almost a third. So that started the fear and the anger among middle-class Americans. But the conflict in Iran, predictably, raised the cost of energy and particularly the cost of gas and diesel fuel. I think most Americans understand. They don't like it. I don't like it. It is as painful as hell. They understand that every time you have a conflict in the Middle East, the price of energy is going to go up, and once the conflict is over, it will gradually come down. Usually, it doesn't come down as fast as it went up, but it is still painful. This fear, this anger at the cost of living predates the conflict in Iran. I don't want to blame it on the conflict in Iran. It was there before because we had inflation there before the conflict. I am not going to say it is just energy prices. It is not just energy prices. We were seeing it in food prices, for example. You shouldn't have to sell blood plasma to go to the grocery store, but a lot of middle-class Americans felt that they just about had to. Now, I talked to the President about it. He understands it. It frustrates him because he didn't cause that 9-percent inflation. No disrespect, but President Biden did. He did. He spent money that we didn't have like it was ditchwater. I think, if we had discovered life on Mars when President Biden was President, he would have sent it money immediately. That is how much money we were spending that caused all this inflation, but it frustrates President Trump. And these are my words, not his, but I have heard him say, in effect: Why are people mad at me? I didn't cause this inflation. Yes, I did what I had to do in Iran, and gas prices and diesel prices have gone up and fertilizer prices, but the American people aren't stupid. They don't read Aristotle every day because they are too busy earning a living, but they understand the energy prices will gradually come down after the conflict is over. But the President says: Why am I getting blamed? And I have told the President gently: Mr. President, I understand your frustration. You didn't father this child--you are not the daddy-- but you have got to raise him. You have got to raise him because you are the President. And I don't want the American people to think we have been doing nothing. We have done a lot already, as the Presiding Officer knows. We passed the One Big Beautiful Bill. Now, I could stand here--and most of the provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill which are going to help with the cost of living are just now taking effect. People are already seeing tax refunds bigger than they have ever seen, and that is going to help. It is a breathtaking piece of legislation. I don't think I have ever--I know I have never voted for a bill that was more impactful and that covered more subjects. I have talked before about no tax on tips and the fact that we prevented a $4.3 trillion tax increase. I am not going to go into that, but I do want to highlight one of the things we did--one among, frankly, thousands in the One Big Beautiful Bill--to try to help people in the middle class who are scared and who are angry. I will give you an example--and the Presiding Officer knows this. We have a program called the child and dependent care tax credit. Now, we have made it as complicated as hell, as the Federal Government is wont to do, but this is what the child and dependent care tax credit basically does: Basically, if you are a mom and dad and you are working and you have to pay for childcare--which is outrageously expensive; I am not blaming the childcare providers, but it is just really expensive--under the child and dependent care tax credit, we will pay a portion of your childcare expenses. This program has been around since 2001. In the One Big Beautiful Bill, we amped it up. We don't talk about it much, but we did. For about 4 million working families, they are going to get more money to pay for childcare. For many families, that is going to mean an extra $900 a family to pay for their childcare. I am very proud of that. We heard the American people, and we did something about it. We also have another program--way too complicated--called the employer-provided childcare credit, 45F. Let me tell you what it does in simple terms. It basically says, if you are a businesswoman or a businessman and you want to help your employees and you want to attract new employees because you need them, we will give that company a tax credit to pay for a portion of the childcare expenses of those employees. So that is the second way that we have, at the Federal level, to try to help people pay for their childcare. Under the One Big Beautiful Bill, we expanded that dramatically. That program has also been around since 2001. To make a long story short, which sometimes is difficult for me to do, basically, in the One Big Beautiful Bill, we have given employers all across America more money so they can, in turn, help their employees by giving them more money to pay for childcare. We don't talk about it enough, but parents with kids will start feeling that immediately. We also have a third program at the Federal level that we beefed up in the One Big Beautiful Bill. It is called the child tax credit. It is really the simplest of the three. Basically, if you have a child in America, we will give you a certain amount of money to defray the cost of raising that child. Now, look, children are worth it, OK? I don't need to talk in just purely financial terms. I love my son more than life itself. I remember, when I was young,