Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, on Thursday hit the recent rise in inflation in response to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).
He said it showed "that there has been a notable increase in inflation this year and that consumer prices for the month of May climbed at their fastest pace in nearly 13 years."
Senator Hagerty said, “Today’s five percent increase in the inflation rate is the highest since 2008 and makes one thing clear: President Joe Biden’s partisan trillion-dollar spending sprees are raising prices on groceries and gas and everything in between.
"This hurts Tennessee’s poorest families and workers the most, and is a clear and immediate tax on the middle class - something President Biden said he would not impose. Unless our supply chains normalize quickly to meet pent-up demand from the pandemic, this tax hike on the American people will continue and could go even higher.”