Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), the vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which writes the Pentagon’s funding bills, laid the blame for September’s inflation surge squarely on Republican policy in a post on X on Wednesday. Her message landed hours after federal data showed consumer prices climbing at their fastest annual pace in months, driven by a jump in gasoline costs tied to the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. Murray, who has voted repeatedly to end the war and has pressed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on its cost, framed the numbers as the direct result of choices made by the president and congressional Republicans.
What Murray Said
In the post, published at 12:24 p.m. on October 14, 2026, Murray wrote in full:
“New inflation numbers are out, and families are paying the price for Republican choices.
Their tariffs raised prices at the store. Their war with Iran sent gas to $4+ a gallon. And they gave giant corporations tax breaks while you foot the bill.”
The post names three targets: tariffs, the Iran war and corporate tax breaks. It arrives as the Iran war, now in its eighth month, has become a central issue for the Senate’s top defense spending negotiators.
The Inflation Data Behind the Post
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday that the Consumer Price Index rose 0.6 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis in September, after a 0.4 percent increase in August. Over the last 12 months, the all-items index increased 3.7 percent, up from 3.4 percent for the 12 months ending in August. The gasoline index rose 9.1 percent in September alone, accounting for more than half of the monthly increase, and is up 34.2 percent over the past year. The energy index climbed 20.4 percent year over year.
Reuters reported that the data dealt another blow to President Donald Trump and Republicans ahead of the November 3 midterm elections, and that price pressures broadened beyond energy. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, rose 0.3 percent in September and 2.6 percent over the year. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found about 78 percent of Americans blame Trump’s policies, including tariffs and the Middle East conflict, for rising prices that are outpacing wages. Average hourly earnings fell 0.7 percent from a year earlier. The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate in September for the first time in three years, and markets now see a meaningful chance of another increase at its October 27-28 meeting.
A Record of Warnings on the War and Prices
Murray’s post follows months of similar statements. The Iran war began February 28. In early March, days into the conflict, she voted for Sen. Tim Kaine’s War Powers Resolution, saying it “reiterates that President Trump, just like any president, must come to Congress to approve the use of military force—he cannot unilaterally declare war on Iran over the objections of Congress and the American people.” She also said she left a classified briefing with “many unanswered questions” about whether the administration was “intentionally misleading the public about the success of its unauthorized operation.”
On tariffs, Murray visited a Tacoma guitar-pickup maker on April 13 that had high-value orders put on hold. At the height of the trade war, the firm’s incoming shipment of magnets faced a 145 percent tariff. “I’ll be using my voice and my vote to put an end to these tariffs, and to keep standing up for small businesses,” Murray said. Her office noted she had also applauded the Supreme Court’s February ruling against the president’s use of emergency powers to impose tariffs unilaterally.
On April 15, Murray issued a statement after voting for her fourth War Powers Resolution to end the war, calling it Trump’s “reckless and illegal war.” She wrote: “While Republicans turn a blind eye as Trump spends billions on bombs, prices across the board—groceries, health care, and gas—are skyrocketing.” She added that Trump had promised “lower prices” and “no new wars,” and said: “When it comes to broken promises—it does not get more blatant than that.”
On May 12, at a Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing, Murray pressed Hegseth after Pentagon officials told lawmakers the war had cost $29 billion. “That is $29 billion blown on a war of choice—and that’s what it would have cost actually to save the ACA tax credits,” she said. She told Hegseth: “You’re forcing people to pay more at the pump—and yet you’re not even providing a real breakdown for the cost of this war so far.” At that point, she said, the war had cost the lives of 13 American servicemembers.
The July 21 Supplemental Hearing
Murray’s sharpest remarks on prices came July 21, when the Appropriations Committee reviewed Trump’s $87.6 billion supplemental request, including $67.1 billion for the Defense Department. “On average, gas cost just under three dollars on February 28. Today, it’s over four dollars and ticking back up with the Strait closed again,” Murray said. She said Americans had paid more than $70 billion extra on gas since the war began, or $550 more per household, and that inflation had “shot up about 50%” since the conflict started. She also said 17 American servicemembers had died.
“Tax dollars we could’ve spent helping people afford health care—or building new housing—have now been lit on fire by a president who blundered us into a disastrous war,” Murray said. She told colleagues she would not support “rubberstamping a request to bankroll this war and whatever other misadventures Trump wants to get us into next.”
In the same hearing, Murray pointed to the request’s $10 billion for farmers hurt by tariffs and war-driven input costs, and argued the choices were political. “These are policy choices. And Republican leadership has chosen to focus on funding war and ICE endlessly without a single cent for our American families,” she said. Hegseth, pressed on earlier claims about Iran’s missile capabilities, answered that Iran “is at the weakest point militarily it has ever been” in the past decade, while acknowledging it still retains capabilities.
Health Care Costs and the Wider Cost-of-Living Argument
Murray has extended the argument beyond the pump. At a Senate HELP Committee hearing on health care affordability, her office said Republicans’ refusal to extend the enhanced ACA tax credits left 22 million Americans, including more than 216,000 in Washington state, facing sharply higher costs. In July she also urged Congress to “delay and ultimately reverse” Republican cuts to SNAP, which she said had already kicked at least one million children off food assistance.
Impeachment Efforts and Ending the War
Efforts to impeach officials over the war have come from the House. On April 15, House Democrats led by Rep. Yassamin Ansari introduced six articles of impeachment against Hegseth, including for launching the war without congressional authorization. With Republicans controlling both chambers, passage was considered unlikely. In the Senate, Murray’s efforts have centered on War Powers votes, which have failed multiple times, and on withholding support for the supplemental request.
What It Means for the Midterms
The timing carries political weight. Midterm elections are on November 3, and Polymarket’s prediction market gave Democrats a 91 percent chance of winning the House as of Wednesday. A prediction market is not a poll, but the odds reflect a national environment in which the war and prices are heavily weighted by voters, as the Reuters/Ipsos finding showed. Murray’s statements reflect the argument Democrats are expected to carry into the final weeks of the campaign: that rising costs trace back to specific Republican decisions.
The next major checkpoints come quickly. The Fed meets October 27-28, and the Labor Department’s October CPI report, scheduled for November 10, will arrive just after Election Day.