U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) appeared on CNN’s The Arena with Kasie Hunt on Wednesday to discuss the state of the U.S. economy, focusing on inflation and holiday costs. During the interview, Mullin compared economic conditions under President Trump and President Biden.
Addressing the cost of upcoming holidays, Mullin said, “Walmart’s CEO I met with last week said the average table for Thanksgiving is going to be down over $20. That’s down… It sure isn’t up, because we saw it go up over four years straight. So, if you start looking at Christmas, you talk to Amazon. Amazon is saying their prices on the products that they were selling last year versus now have also dropped too because it’s cheaper to ship stuff. So that is prices coming down.”
On inflation rates during recent administrations, Mullin stated, “Biden was handed an inflation rate of 1.4%, he ran it up to 9.1%, he averaged 5%. Inflation is down now to 2.5%. So, prices have come down… When you start looking at what’s the backbone of any product being made? It’s energy. Energy costs have come down. You can’t make a product, and you can’t deliver a product without factoring the cost of energy in it. That has come down. So, prices have come down because that’s why inflation was able to come down.”
Mullin also addressed ongoing negotiations regarding government funding: “I think the shutdown is bad for everybody. That’s why it’s so frustrating that the Democrats want to continue to use it as leverage… I don’t know where we negotiate though, because we’ve offered a clean CR (Continuing Resolution) that Chuck Schumer wrote a year ago. This isn’t any legislation that has Republican policies on it. I don’t know how you negotiate when it’s already clean.”
Senator Mullin continues to update constituents through his social media accounts on X, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
The full interview is available online.
