[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 160 (Wednesday, September 16, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5632-S5634]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Issues Facing America
Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, when I was growing up, I was
raised to believe in the American dream. My mom taught me that we were
blessed because God and our Founders created the greatest country ever,
where anything was possible. We weren't allowed to complain. Debt, Big
Government, socialism, and communism were bad. College was for a better
paying job. Church on Sundays was absolutely not optional.
While I didn't always appreciate my tough-love, my-way-or-the-highway
mom growing up, I now thank God every day for my mom and this country.
She gave me the opportunity to experience every lesson this country had
to offer before I was 20.
Sadly, the values that I grew up with are becoming a way of the past,
but I believe these values, these virtues, can and should be part of
our country's future. The left has worked hard over the last 50 years
to discredit the values of the America I was raised with and the values
of the America I want my grandkids to grow up with.
In recent weeks, we have seen the Democrats try hard to paint our
President and the entire Republican Party as ``darkness,'' but let me
tell you what darkness would actually look like in America.
What if our country turned the keys over to the far left and turned
away from capitalism in favor of socialism? The data is already in on
that. The result would be the same as it has been throughout history:
Socialism would destroy our economy and cause widespread poverty and
oppression. Darkness.
What if our country just gave up on the battle to protect innocent
human life and agreed with the political party that proudly embraces
the killing of the unborn at any time, for any reason? Darkness.
What if we decide to change our First Amendment, editing out our
freedom of speech and freedom of religion, forcing Christians and Jews
to retreat from the public square and silencing any who dare to speak
up? Darkness.
What if America did what every authoritarian government in history
has done and must eventually do--disarm the American people? Darkness.
What if we defunded our police forces across the country, even just
partially? What would happen to public safety? How would life in our
cities be affected? Turn on your TV for the answer. Darkness.
What if we allowed people to throw homemade bombs at police and burn
down police stations and then pretended that these violent
demonstrations are peaceful? Darkness.
What if we enacted the Green New Deal? Literal darkness.
What if we let China--a Communist country that systematically
imprisons and murders its own citizens--take advantage of American
workers and put them out of work? Darkness.
What if we teach our kids that America is a bad country with an evil
history that must be erased and that America is fundamentally a morally
bankrupt country? Darkness.
Republicans are fighting for issues that the American public care
about. People want good jobs, a good education for their kids, and they
want to live in safe communities. Republicans are working to defend our
law enforcement, invest in our military, secure the border, and stop
illegal immigration. Republicans are standing up to dictators in Latin
America and to Communist China, after the Democrats have appeased them
for decades.
Here is the fundamental difference between Democrats and Republicans:
Democrats want to control your life; Republicans want to give you a
life. Republicans want to give every American the opportunity to live
their version of the American dream. Governments don't do that.
Politicians don't do that.
The American people are dreamers, and if we get government out of
their way, the innovation, determination, and entrepreneurial spirit of
the American people and American business will shine bright.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Indiana.
Mr. YOUNG. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the dangerous path
that national Democrats are spiraling on down and to caution our
countrymen not to follow them. Radicals on the far left have hijacked
an otherwise righteous cause and are in command of a once proud
political party that traces its heritage back to Jefferson and Madison.
The violence the radicals have unleashed threatens lives. The cancel
culture they imposed curtails liberty. And their misguided means of
creating economic equality endangers the pursuit of happiness.
Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and their hand-picked Democratic candidates
are
[[Page S5633]]
empowering the radical wing of today's national Democratic Party--the
same people responsible for the chaos now on full display across our
country. The national leaders of the Democratic Party offer them
sanctuary.
They make excuses for radicals' destructive behavior, the way an
embarrassed parent does for a mischievous child. To them, the riots
that are occurring from Minneapolis to Indianapolis are only peaceful
protests. Promises to defund police departments are just ways of
reimaging police--whatever that means. It is the same sleight of hand
that turns government-run healthcare into Medicare for all who want it.
Most Democrats will not publicly embrace the socialist policies the
mob howls for because they know the American people will not buy it.
But once in power, they will be all too happy to implement these
radical policies, and that means a mainstream national Democratic
agenda that will abolish and defund police departments; take away on-
the-job insurance; pack the Supreme Court of the United States; raise
taxes; give Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico the same number of U.S.
Senators that the State of Indiana has; eliminate the legislative
filibuster and, therefore, the right of the minority within this
institution; and spend trillions of dollars of new government programs
that Americans don't need or want.
They are allies--the destroyers and these national Democrats I
reference--only they can't be straight with the American people about
their alliance, and their leaders just can't seem to summon the simple
moral clarity that says racism is evil and so is using it to justify
violence and vandalism.
Blessedly, in my State, local Democratic elected officials have had
enough. In fact, in recent weeks, several Hoosier public servants have
left their party and they have become Republicans. To clearly
understand the choice before us, we need only listen to their
explanations why.
This is Brian Snedecor, mayor of Hobart, who just switched from a
Democrat to a Republican. He says:
I must be true to my God, my family, myself and those that
have supported and believed in me . . . I want Hobart to be a
place for business to come and the American Dream to be
achieved.
And then we have Dave Wedding, Vanderburgh County sheriff, who also
just became a Republican. Sheriff Wedding says:
I'm tired of seeing fires set in our streets. I'm tired of
people defying God, our church, our police, our government
and everything we stand for.
I happen to believe that every regular American feels the same way,
and they will look to us to protect the American Dream and put out the
fires--literal and figurative--in our streets.
The choice that each of us must make in the coming weeks is pretty
darned clear: law and order or anarchy; an economy that is growing or
employers and workers which are grounded; citizens who are free and
flourishing or subjects dependent on government.
What the radicals don't understand is that though we were born by
revolution, the history of America is one of steady progress--a
determined march together for the common good and towards an ever
better union. We have to lead that march.
When far-left Democrats offer dangerous ideas and unfulfillable
promises, Republicans will counter with innovative thinking and
results-driven policies. We will create ways to help every American
access affordable healthcare, afford a college education, advance their
careers, raise a family, and buy a home that they can call their own.
Republicans will play a part in the reinvigoration of economically
disadvantaged areas, both rural and urban. Ours is an America where
everyone lives free of fear and is able to speak their mind, and where
citizens, no matter their color or their ZIP Code, can climb as high
and fly as far as their ambition and ability allows.
Their way leads to a dead end, ours to an endless frontier. They tear
down. We will build. The path forward is clear.
I yield the floor
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
Ms. ERNST. Mr. President, I would like to thank my colleagues for
joining me on the floor today. It is clear that America is facing two
separate, very different paths.
Last Thursday, the Democrats in this Chamber blocked much needed
assistance to families and small businesses struggling to make ends
meet amidst the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and they did it for one
reason only--politics. Our friends across the aisle didn't want to
provide $15 billion in childcare, more than $250 billion of additional
Paycheck Protection Program loans for small businesses, $105 billion
for schools, and $20 billion for farmers.
While this aid is vital to my fellow Iowans, it would have helped
families and communities all across the Nation, in red and blue States.
There is no denying that the damage being caused by this pandemic is
real. Businesses are being shut down, schools are being closed, and
lives are being lost. Yet this toll is apparently not enough for the
other side to set politics aside, even momentarily, to come together
and help our fellow citizens with their daily struggles.
This senseless obstruction is leaving Iowa families to fend for
themselves when they most need a helping hand. In so many ways, this
represents the distinct difference between the two political parties at
this very moment.
While Senate Republicans are leading efforts to get America back up
and running and guarantee opportunities for everyone, Democrats are
embracing obstruction and anarchy.
Following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, my friend
Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina introduced legislation to tackle
police reform in a meaningful way. The bill he proposed would have
enacted long overdue policies, such as finally making lynching a
Federal crime, ending the use of police choke holds, expanding the use
of body cameras by law enforcement, and increasing other forms of
transparency and accountability.
Yet despite the impassioned pleas of Americans across the country
demanding justice for George Floyd and other African-Americans who have
died in police custody, Democrats blocked the Senate from even debating
Senator Scott's thoughtful police reform bill this past summer.
Shouldn't we all be able to agree, regardless of our party
affiliation, that Congress needs to take action to guarantee that no
American should fear walking on the streets, especially in their own
neighborhood? That guarantee should include people of color and
peaceful protesters, as well as our law enforcement officers doing
their jobs.
As a consequence of the Democrats' obstruction, the streets in some
of America's great cities have descended into a state of chaos and
lawlessness, immersed in violence and vandalism, arson and murder.
When taxpayers turn to their elected leaders--whether for assistance
to provide for their families during a pandemic, for protection from
unfair policing practices, or for simple safety when walking down the
street--the Democrats have responded with silence and inaction.
Even when I attempted to call up a bill to reauthorize the Violence
Against Women Act--a bill that is very personal to me and that also had
bipartisan support--the Democrats objected to that bill as well. And
the same was true for my commonsense bill, Sarah's Law, which would
hold illegal immigrants who harm or murder an American citizen
accountable.
It is no wonder that folks across this country are so frustrated with
Washington and fed up with politicians. Folks, just one friendly
reminder: Our country's direction will soon be decided by her people.
America must now choose between two paths to take into the future, and
that choice could not be starker.
At a time when we need leadership and reassurance, the Democrats are
instead offering obstruction, lockdowns, and anarchy. Our friends
across the aisle are actually promising--folks, they are promising--to
increase taxes on hardworking Americans and even promising to defund
the police. That is right, folks. You get to pay more taxes in exchange
for less safety and security. That doesn't sound like a good deal to
me.
Speaking of bad bargains, you can expect the Democrats to pass their
Green New Deal if they are given the chance.
[[Page S5634]]
This radical environmental plan would destroy our very way of life in
Iowa.
The roadmap offered by Republicans is much brighter, to say the
least: reopening America safely; real reforms to end excessive use of
force by police without putting the safety of everyone at risk by
defunding the police; building upon the successful pro-growth policies
that created the greatest economy and historically low unemployment
rates for every demographic; and bringing the jobs that were exported
under the previous administration back to America and ending our
dependency on foreign nations like Red China.
Folks, with our country and the world facing one of the greatest
health and economic emergencies in history, we simply cannot risk our
recovery on the radical designs of the Democrats. Let's pursue the path
towards a renewed United States of America that guarantees safety and
greater opportunities for every citizen to pursue the American dream.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cotton). The Senator from Illinois.