[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 212 (Tuesday, December 15, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7473-S7474]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, over the last 4 years, our country 
has benefited from a Presidential term filled with major 
accomplishments. President Donald Trump has repeatedly surprised the 
skeptics, confounded his critics, and delivered significant policy 
victories that have strengthened our country.
  Case in point, back in May, when the President set the goal of 
finding a pandemic-ending vaccine by the end of this year, his timeline 
was literally dismissed by people who assumed they knew better.
  Here is one quote: ``Trump promises coronavirus vaccine by the end of 
year,'' scoffed one headline, ``but his own experts temper 
expectations.''
  ``Fact check'' complained another headline, ``Coronavirus vaccine 
could come this year, Trump says. Experts say he needs a `miracle' to 
be right.''
  Well, with the genius of science, support from Congress, and the bold 
leadership of the Trump administration, that medical miracle arrived 
right on schedule. Americans on the frontlines are receiving 
vaccinations as we speak.
  This episode offers a kind of microcosm of the last 4 years. On so 
many subjects--from economic prosperity to foreign policy, to 
protecting American families--the skeptics doubted him. The critics 
derided him. But President Trump has delivered.
  When President Trump ran for office, he promised to help open a new 
chapter for working families. After 8 years of failed policies that 
concentrated wealth and optimism among the lucky few, prosperity was 
going to flow to all kinds of workers in all kinds of communities, he 
said. And that is exactly what happened.
  Before this pandemic spread from China and the world had to slam on 
the brakes, the American people had the best job market in living 
memory. With help from the policies of President Trump and Republicans 
in Congress, American workers dynamited the stagnation that experts had 
said was ``the new normal.'' Unemployment hit a 50-year low. Capital 
markets hit record highs.
  And this time, all kinds of Americans got to share in the gains. We 
saw earnings grow faster for workers than for managers, faster for the 
bottom 25 than for the top 25. This success was fueled in part by the 
policy leadership of President Trump.
  This administration pursued bold regulatory changes. Once-in-a-
generation tax reform had eluded prior leaders. This President signed 
it into law in his first year.
  And together we repealed the worst part of ObamaCare. The unfair 
individual mandate was zeroed out.
  President Trump also took historic steps to strengthen the future of 
our

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trade with the world. He secured the historic United States-Mexico-
Canada Agreement and the bilateral tax treaties with partners in Europe 
and in Asia.
  A nation this productive needs plenty of energy to keep it going. 
Fortunately, President Trump and his administration ended the 
ideological war on fossil fuels and hit the accelerator on ``all of the 
above'' American energy dominance. In the last 4 years, we surpassed 
Saudi Arabia in oil production. We saw energy exports exceed energy 
imports for the first year in almost 70 years. Meanwhile, we saw 
CO2 emissions fall, along with other harmful pollutants. 
That energy independence has dramatically strengthened our hand with 
respect to the rest of the world, particularly the Middle East.
  So speaking of the Middle East, President Trump wasted little time 
pulling back from the prior administration's disastrous ``Iran deal.'' 
His team eliminated daylight between us and Israel and repaired our 
relationships with Arab partners. And he aligned these relationships 
around our common shared interests--countering threats like radical 
Islamic terrorists and Iranian aggression.
  Under President Trump's command, our forces took terrorist leaders 
like al-Baghdadi and Soleimani off the battlefield. The physical 
caliphate that ISIS established on the previous President's watch was 
destroyed.
  All of this paved the way for the Abraham accords, the historic 
normalization of relationships between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, 
Sudan, and, most recently, Morocco. And the potential is there for more 
on the horizon.
  Now, the Middle East isn't the only place where the Trump 
administration has shored up our footing on the world stage. Our 45th 
Commander in Chief sought out to rebuild and modernize our military and 
to move our foreign policy from a chapter of weakness and apology into 
a renewed posture of strength.
  Four years later, we have a new national defense strategy to compete 
with and deter adversaries like Russia and China. We have rebuilt the 
military and invested in new technologies to ensure America keeps our 
edge in everything from cyber to space, to advanced weapons system.
  The President's leadership does not stop with those who are currently 
serving. He also signed into law the historic VA MISSION Act to ensure 
our dedication to the men and women in uniform does not end when their 
tours conclude.
  So, clearly, the list of American accomplishments since 2016 is 
nearly endless. There are the many miles of new protections on our 
southern border. At one point, apprehensions at the border hit their 
lowest level since the 1970s.
  Essential causes, like religious liberty and the most vulnerable, the 
unborn, have had a champion in this administration instead of an 
adversary.
  There have been historic new steps to conserve our national 
treasures, like the Great American Outdoors Act.
  And perhaps most important of all, President Trump nominated--and 
this Senate confirmed--three outstanding Supreme Court Justices, along 
with more than 220 more article III Federal judges. These are 
brilliant, young, constitutionalist men and women in lifetime 
appointments who will renew the judiciary for a new generation--all 
because President Trump knows we need judges who respect the essential 
but limited job description the Framers wrote for our third branch of 
government.
  So as you can see, it would take far more than one speech to 
catalogue all the major wins the Trump administration has helped 
deliver for the American people. The outsider who swore he would shake 
up Washington and lead our country to new accomplishments both at home 
and abroad proceeded to do exactly that.
  President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence deserve our thanks and 
our gratitude for their tireless work and their essential roles in all 
of these victories and in many more.

                          ____________________