Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) was joined by several other top Democrats during a press conference in front of the U.S. Capitol on Thursday. The lawmakers in attendance said that corporations need to do their part in helping with the current economic situation amid record high inflation.

"We need the right tools to deal with it and dealing with price gouging is number one on my list right now," Warren said. 

Corporate greed is a topic that Warren talks about often in her role as a member of the Senate Finance committee but she’s zeroing in on the issue after Wednesday’s release of the Consumer Price Index for June. In that report, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found prices are up more than 9% than they were during the same time period last year. The increase marks a 40-year high. Warren, Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) believe that a big part of the problem is corporate price gouging. 

“When price gouging is a big part of why prices are going up, then we need better tools to deal with that price gouging. That's the way to bring down prices," Warren added during a press conference organized by Unrig Our Economy. The organization describes itself as "a campaign to fix the rules of our economy to make it work for working people," according to its website.

At the press conference Booker said that the issue isn't limited to price hikes on gas but added that the same kind of thing is happening in other areas of the economy. 

“The only winners in this massive food system, which is making incredible profits are the consolidated multinational companies that dominate this industry. They've turned it into an oligopoly, there's no other way to look at it," Booker said. 

In an exclusive interview with Spectrum News, on Wednesday, Congressman Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) also expressed concerns about price gouging. 

“We need to try to find ways to lower gas prices. I wish oil companies weren't gouging people, they are, they're ripping people off and shame on them for doing that. They ought to be held accountable," McGovern said. 

Warren, Booker and Whitehouse have sponsored several pieces of legislation including the Price Gouging Prevention Act of 2022, the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act and The Food and Agribusiness Merger Moratorium and Antitrust Review Act of 2022 to address the problem. However, getting the 60 Senate votes needed to pass legislation in the Senate this session has proved difficult. With that in mind, Warren said it's important that lawmakers and the public keep the pressure on corporations to help ease inflation with voluntary action. 

Republican lawmakers have criticized the White House and President Joe Biden for not doing enough to address inflation but Democrats argue that lawmakers on the other side of the aisle are trying to distract the American people from the issue of corporate price gouging.