Vulnerable midterm candidate Rep. Kim Schrier, D-Wa., claimed that after the COVID-19 pandemic, "Democrat spending rescued our economy," despite inflation hitting a 40-year-high in June.
"Democratic spending rescued our economy and kept families afloat, kept small businesses afloat, and were key to our country's economic recovery and rebound which was faster than virtually any other country in the world," Schrier told the Wall Street Journal's "What's News" podcast.
In late January 2021, right after President Joe Biden was sworn into office, the national debt stood at nearly $28 trillion, according to the U.S. Treasury's Fiscal Data. As of October 2022, the total public debt stands at $31,123,887,781,401 — which is approximately $94,000 per American.
After the inflation report revealed the year-over-year inflation rate rose to 8.3% in August, Fox News' Sean Hannity criticized spending and said Democrats' spending is only making inflation worse.
INFLATION WILL PICK MIDTERM ELECTION WINNER IN NOVEMBER
"Democrats have lost all touch with reality," Hannity said during his Sept. 14 show. "Inflation went up. Core inflation went up. Food, rent, energy all way up. The stock market, meanwhile, plummeted. It tanked. It dropped significantly, the biggest drop since the height of the pandemic."
"Now this. But one month after the Democrats passed their so-called Inflation Reduction Act, or, as I call it, the tax the poor, middle class and people on fixed income Act of 2022. It doesn't actually do anything to reduce inflation. It will increase inflation. It is just a massive Green New Deal spending bill that, as predicted, is making inflation far worse, making everything more expensive than ever."
VULNERABLE DEMOCRATS WON'T SAY WHEN INFLATION REDUCTION ACT WILL REDUCE INFLATION
In August, the Democrats passed various bills into law, including the CHIPS and Science Act, the PACT Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, a reconstructed version of the failed Build Back Better legislation.
Despite claims that the Manchin-Schumer climate bill, labeled the Inflation Reduction Act would combat rising prices and the tanking economy, an analysis from the University of Pennsylvania Penn Wharton found that the legislation would only reduce annual inflation by 0.1 percentage point over the next five years.
The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) reported that middle-class earners would see an increase in their taxes as a result of the bill. Reporting from the committee revealed that taxpayers making less than $200,000 per year would have their taxes increased cumulatively by $16.7 billion and for those earning between $200,000 and $500,000 annually, the bill would increase taxes by $14.1 billion.
Along with signing the recent packages into law, Biden announced a student loan handout that according to The Penn Wharton Budget Model, "will cost between $300 billion and $980 billion over the 10-year budget window."
Inflation hit a 40-year-high of 9.1% in June and the gross domestic product (GDP) from April-June decreased for a second consecutive quarter, sending the economy into a technical recession.
Schrier is running in one of the tightest elections this cycle as she fights for her seat in Washington's 8th Congressional District against GOP opponent Matt Larkin.
