The August inflation numbers painted a grim picture for Americans on a budget. Food prices alone were up 11.4% since last year, the largest year-over-year increase in prices since 1979. Prices went up 13.5%. This is more bad news for working Americans struggling to make ends meet.

We know that every Minnesotan is feeling the pressure of these high prices. Eggs are up 39.6%, milk is up 25.6%, bread is up 16.2%, and food at workplaces and schools is up 23.7%. Sadly, this has led to Americans skipping meals and going hungry.

Unfortunately, these price hikes could have been avoided. We can draw a straight line from the President and his party’s reckless spending, their failure to listen to the needs of our agriculture industry, and their failure to adequately address supply chain failures to the historic inflationary pressures we are experiencing today. Recognizing these failures, we outlined simple and immediate actions the Administration should take to alleviate the rise in fertilizer prices. We led an effort to bring down input costs for farmers and stabilize our supply chain, and we voted against every single one of President Biden and Speaker Pelosi’s multi-trillion-dollar, partisan, spending bills -the key driver of the inflation we are seeing.

We didn’t stop at just a “No” vote, we have also introduced legislation that offers practical solutions to rein in out-of-control spending. The Responsible Budget Targets Act will set achievable, practical budget targets for the federal government to meet on an annual basis. By doing so, we can balance our budget in just fifteen years without causing major disruptions to government services.

These commonsense solutions will have real positive impacts on Americans and their pocketbooks. We will continue to fight to lower costs for working Americans and ensure that no American goes hungry because of rising food costs.