For 18 months, we have experienced record high inflation. Prices continue to rise, and the people of Wyoming feel it more and more every single day. Items at the grocery store that used to be staples have become luxury items. Trips are getting canceled because gas is too expensive. We are living through the most rapid inflation in 40 years, and it is not temporary or transitory. It is the new norm. Everyone is tightening their belts and making hard choices.

Everyone except Congress and President Biden. In Washington, we are spending taxpayer dollars left and right on priorities that we hide in huge spending bills because they do not have the support to pass on their own.

Congress:
American Rescue Plan: $1.9 Trillion
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act: $1.2 Trillion
2022 Funding Bill: $1.5 Trillion
CHIPS Act: $280 Billion
Inflation Reduction Act: $790 Billion

President Biden:
Student Loan Debt Bailout: $400 Billion +
Border Crisis: $20.4 billion +
Obamacare Expansion: $34 Billion +

To be clear, Democrats and Republicans alike are both culprits in the endless spending sprees that Congress embarks on. Too often individual Member priorities are included in monstrous bills in exchange for our ‘yes’ votes, regardless of price tags. Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle say ‘yes’ when we should say ‘no’ because we refuse to make hard choices. But those yeses are piling up, and now we are $31 trillion in debt.

Not that long ago, we talked about addressing our debt crisis to secure the future for our children and grandchildren, but I look around at my colleagues and I see grandparents and great grandparents. We’ve failed our children. We need to act now to secure the prosperity we were raised in for our grandchildren and great grandchildren.

The American people want to see fiscal restraint from their representatives, and while it is not popular here in Washington, I will keep voting ‘no’ on bills that do not rein in government spending. I will keep fighting for the future of Wyoming and the children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren that will call our great state home.

 

Happy Trails,

Cynthia Lummis

 

• I did an interview with the Women’s Crypto and Investment Network about my work to promote financial innovation in the Cowboy State and across the country.

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• Hundreds of new Wyoming mining jobs on the horizon
  Casper Star Tribune
  Southwestern Wyoming’s soda ash industry is looking to grow as global demand for the chemical climbs. WE Soda, a subsidiary of Turkey’s Ciner Group and a leading producer of natural soda ash, announced plans Wednesday to open another mining project near its existing Pacific Soda site outside Green River.
  
  The new development, Project West, is expected to create between 1,500 and 2,000 construction jobs and 300 permanent jobs, and indirectly support even more. WE Soda hopes to begin operations there before 2030.

• It’s the time of year to be especially bear aware
  Wyoming Public Media
  As the weather starts to get cooler, bears are getting ready for hibernation. That means they are actively seeking foods to put on fat for their long sleep. Dan Thompson, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s large carnivore supervisor, said because bears are so active right now, hunters, landowners and others who use the outdoors need to be bear aware. Especially in places like the Cody area, where the animals are expanding their range.
  
  “[That’s] part of the reasoning behind the lower elevations on the major river drainage of the South Fork, North Fork, but also expanding into some of the more agricultural landscapes. In areas like that, people just need to be prepared that there’s potential for bear activity,” said Thompson.

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