output was mostly due to restocking, not a surge in new demand itself. and compared to before the pandemic, there are 3.6 million more americans who chose to leave the labor force and said they didn't want to work. that's an issue. and inflation is a giant and ugly problem. today's economic report shows that consumer prices rose by 6.5% in the fourth quarter alone. i want to give you some context on that. that is more than three times greater than what we saw before the pandemic began and it is the biggest increase in prices since 1981. the time of stagflation. and for the millions of americans who are living paycheck to paycheck, it is a problem that cannot be overstated. when milk doubles in price, that's a problem. gas prices are up 50%, yes, from pandemic lows, but that affects people. prices for used cars up 37%, and other food staples, i mentioned an anecdote about milk, but meat, poultry and fish up 12.5%. we all know that it's everywhere. it's everywhere. and president biden himself knows it's everywhere and it's a