Best Way to Fight Inflation Is by Killing Democrats' Massive Social Spending Bill, McConnell Says

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The single best option for Congress to address rising inflation in the United States would be to scuttle the Democrats' plan to spend nearly $2 trillion on a series of social programs, US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said.

“The only way to keep inflation from getting worse would be to kill the reckless tax and spending spree and we would hope that’s the ultimate fate of that ill-advised proposal,” McConnell told reporters during his weekly press conference on Tuesday.

McConnell was referring to the Democratic-backed budget reconciliation package – with a series of social programs, the measure is now expected to cost nearly $2 trillion based on the latest scoring from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

McConnell noted the remarks by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell earlier on Tuesday, in which the central bank chief urged everyone to stop using the word “transitory” to describe US inflation, now at a three-decade high. Powell said inflationary pressures are likely to persist.

Because no Republicans will vote for the Democrats’ spending package in the evenly divided Senate, McConnell said he was hopeful that one Democrat will come forward and stop the proposal from becoming law.

Asked about Senator Joe Manchin, the Democrat who has expressed the strongest reservations about the legislation, McConnell said he pulls for Manchin every day and prays for Manchin every night.

US prices rose 6.2 percent in October from October 2020, the biggest year-over-year increase in three decades, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.