[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 156 (Thursday, September 26, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5733-S5734]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      The Working Class in America

  Mr. HAWLEY. Mr. President, earlier this week, the Missouri Department 
of Health issued a new report that shows that life expectancy actually 
declined in the State of Missouri last year. Worse than that, the 
report shows that life expectancy has been falling in my State for 
almost a decade. Death rates for Missourians between 15 and 34 years 
old rose by almost 30 percent between 2012 and 2018. The death rate for 
Missourians who are between 25 and 34 is at its highest levels since 
the 1950s. We know what is causing it. It is an epidemic of drug 
overdoses and suicides, along with a spike in crime, in our cities.
  Here are the facts. Opioid-related deaths in Missouri have more than 
doubled in the last decade. The number of suicides is up by over 50 
percent, and there is no end in sight. And it is not just Missouri. New 
data shows that deaths from suicides and drug overdoses are exploding 
nationwide. Suicides in this country haven't been so common since 1938. 
Alcohol-related deaths haven't been so high since the 1910s. Meanwhile, 
the surge in deaths from drug overdoses in this country is completely 
unprecedented.
  These numbers are tragic, but they are more than that--they are the 
signs of a crisis. We are witnessing the slow-motion collapse of the 
working class in America.
  All Americans suffer from the depths of despair, but we know from the 
evidence that it is working people and working families who are hit the 
hardest. So now the working middle of this Nation is facing a struggle 
to survive. You don't have to look far to see it.
  I have seen it in the small towns of my State, in the places where TV 
cameras never go, where town squares sit half empty, where businesses 
stand shuttered, where you can buy fentanyl with the snap of a finger 
on any street corner.
  I have seen it in country places where meth is so common, they tell 
me that dealers hang bags of drugs from tree branches for their buyers 
to retrieve--a literal landscape of despair and addiction.
  I have seen it in the faces of young farmers who put a crop in and 
pray for rain and pray for Sun and pray for fair prices and then wonder 
if generations of family farming are going to end with them.
  I have seen it from young mothers raising kids alone, working a job 
and trying to go to school at night, trying to shield their children 
from drugs and from the pathologies online.
  I have heard it in the words of young men who graduated high school 
only to find no jobs, no place to learn a trade, and no hope for 
anything that is better.
  This is the struggle of working life today. In my State, it is a 
struggle shared by White and Black alike, by everybody of every race, 
because of the breakdown of family and neighborhood, the loss of good 
work, and the epidemic of addictive drugs, which don't know racial 
boundaries.
  This is a struggle we are in together. It is a struggle that brings 
us together. It is a struggle for the things we love together--for 
home, family, and country--and the future of this country will be 
defined by how we meet this challenge.
  You can see all of this if you will look. The problem is this town 
will not look. This town is obsessed with partisan theatrics. This town 
is obsessed with money and influence and status. This town wants to 
keep its own good

[[Page S5734]]

times going. The political elite here live in a world where the 
struggle of working Americans is just a human interest story that you 
read about right along with the gossip page.
  But it is time for this town to take some responsibility. It is time 
for the governing class to admit that the policies it has pursued for 
decades on trade, on immigration, and on finance have helped to drive 
working people to this crisis. And it is time to acknowledge that a 
crisis for working America is a crisis for all of America. It is not 
enough for wealthy people in Silicon Valley to do well. By the way, 
those people don't need any more advocates in this city. They have lots 
of them already. It is working people who need advocates here, and it 
is working families who need a voice.
  You know, working folks don't ask for much. They work hard. They love 
their families, they love God, they love the place where they live, and 
they want the opportunity to build a home there and a way of life that 
is prosperous and that is secure and that is meaningful and that they 
can pass on to their children. That is not too much to ask. In the 
America of the 21st century, that is not too much to expect. It is not 
too much to stand for and to fight for because it is the working people 
of this country who built this Nation. They are the ones who keep it 
going now, and they are the ones where this country's strength is 
found. It is the working people of this country--their future and their 
families--who are going to define the future of our country.
  I would just say that this is what we should be debating. This 
challenge is what we should be confronting. This crisis is what we 
should be looking to and addressing because this is what is going to 
define our time.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alabama.