When President Biden took office, he embarked on one of the largest spending sprees in U.S. history, adding more than $6 trillion to our national debt in just three years to fund his far-left, Green New Deal agenda.

For the American people, it has meant three years of higher prices, lower wages, and greater economic uncertainty. But at every opportunity, President Biden has ignored the chaos caused by his failed “Bidenomics” agenda.

In fact, earlier this month, the President continued to insist that his policies are working for the American people, claiming that they are a “story of progress” and are “growing our economy from the middle out and the bottom up.”

For Tennesseans and most Americans, this assertion could not be further from the truth.

While the President and his allies like to tout that year-over-year inflation has fallen from its four-decade high in 2022 of 9.1 percent, the latest inflation number of 3.4 percent is still more than double the 1.4 percent rate President Biden inherited when he took office.

But to get a full picture of how Bidenflation is hurting hardworking Americans, you need to look at how prices have risen cumulatively under this administration.

Since Inauguration Day, prices across the board are up 17.3 percent; clothing prices are up nearly 7 percent; rent prices are up 19 percent; food prices are up 20 percent; energy prices are up 31 percent; and gas prices are up a staggering 34 percent.

For a family in Tennessee, that means having to spend $10,144 more in 2023 than in 2021 to buy the same goods and services, according to a recent report by the U.S. Joint Economic Committee.

At the same time, mortgage rates have reached a two-decade high, pushing the foundation of the American dream—purchasing a home—out of reach for millions of Americans. In fact, 2023 marked the worst year for home sales in nearly 30 years, dropping nearly 19 percent from 2022.

On top of it all, our national debt has reached a record $34 trillion—$100,000 for every man, woman, and child.

President Biden’s out-of-control, inflationary spending would be bad enough for the American people. But to make matters worse, his administration has tried to regulate every part of a person’s life—from the car they can drive to the stove top they can cook with.

While these far-left regulations are attacking our freedoms, they are also breaking family budgets: According to one estimate, President Biden’s regulations are costing American households nearly $10,000 per year.

This is not sustainable.

Congress cannot keep kicking the can down the road and rubber-stamping trillions of dollars in spending at the expense of our children and grandchildren who will be left to pay our bills.

As a top priority, we need to pass our individual appropriations bills and get our house in order—meaning no more massive spending packages that saddle future generations with unsustainable debt. I have also introduced legislation to cut bloated federal spending—excluding defense, homeland security, and veterans’ affairs—by 1 percent, 2 percent, and 5 percent.

While we cut spending, we also need to cut down on the size of the federal bureaucracy—now totaling more than 2.2 million federal bureaucrats—that costs Americans billions of dollars in taxes and overbearing regulations.

Addressing the rising salaries and size of the federal civilian workforce should be at the top of Congress’s agenda when considering how to rein in the federal government and control spending. This would begin the process of draining the swamp of unelected bureaucrats who are not accountable to anyone and make decisions that drastically impact the lives of every American.

We know Bidenomics is failing the American people. But with these necessary actions, Congress can begin to rein in inflationary spending, curb costly regulations, and put our country on a better path.