[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 110 (Thursday, June 24, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4751-S4752]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          BIDEN ADMINISTRATION

  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, dating back to his time as a Member of 
the Senate, President Biden--then-Senator Biden--frequently shared a 
piece of advice from his dad:

       Don't tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I'll 
     tell you what you value.

  He is not wrong. We have heard countless iterations of the same 
message from President Biden. Actions speak louder than words. Talk is 
cheap. Or, as we say in Texas, sometimes someone is all hat and no 
cattle.
  So I want to take President Biden up on his advice. We have spent 
plenty of time hearing what his values are. He has talked about the 
importance of rebuilding our economy following the pandemic. We all 
agree with that--restoring public trust in government, check; 
protecting low- and middle-income families from tax hikes, check; and 
standing up to Russia and China, the two greatest threats to the world 
order. These are priorities shared by Americans with diverse political 
views, and they are critical goals that any President--Republican or 
Democrat--should have.

  But we don't have to take the President at his word when he talks 
about the importance of each of these things because we have his 
budget. We have a written plan from the President of the United States, 
outlining how his administration wants to turn his spoken intentions 
into concrete action.
  So based upon President Biden's budget, what does he value? It just 
takes a quick glance to see that responsible spending is not one of the 
things that he values. The overall pricetag of the President's budget 
is a whopping $6.4 trillion. Even with the President's massive tax 
hikes, the United States would still be running more than a trillion 
dollar deficit each year.
  It would only take 2 years for our debt burden to reach the highest 
level in American history, surpassing even World War II-era debt.
  As a reminder, the government has spent a massive amount of money 
over the last 15 months, as we know. Much of it was a necessary 
investment in our fight against COVID-19.
  On top of that funding, though, our Democratic colleagues 
circumvented the bipartisan legislative process and added an additional 
$2 trillion on a host of partisan pet projects, only about 10 percent 
of which related to COVID-19, even though that was the caption on the 
bill--a COVID-19 relief bill that was only 10 percent COVID-19.
  Now, perhaps nobody expected the President to dramatically cut 
spending and solve our national debt problems in one go, but this is 
not a time, after trillions of dollars of necessary COVID-19 spending, 
to go on another unrelated spending spree, especially once you see 
where all the money is going. Once again, this is his budget; these are 
his values.
  One of the most critical lines in any President's budget is 
discretionary spending. For a decade, my colleagues on the other side 
of the aisle have pined for parity between defense and nondefense 
spending. But as soon as they get unified government--majority in the 
House, majority in Senate, and the White House--what do they do? Well, 
they abandon that parity argument and provide a measly 2-percent 
increase to defense spending while providing a 16-percent increase in 
the President's budget to domestic spending--hardly parity.
  The Federal Government simply cannot provide for the common defense 
without the resources to do so. In the face of growing threats, which 
we all have acknowledged--China, Russia, Iran, North Korea--you would 
think that the President would propose a substantial increase in 
defense spending, but he proposed a whopping 2 percent.
  Now, compare that to the Department of Education, where the 
President's budget calls for a 41-percent increase, a 28-percent 
increase for the Department of Commerce, and a 22-percent increase for 
the Environmental Protection Agency. Well, when you adjust for 
inflation, the small increase for defense spending actually represents 
a decrease.
  The Department of Defense isn't the only national security Agency 
that the Biden budget expects to do with less. Even with a humanitarian 
crisis on our border, the budget for the Department of Homeland 
Security remains flat. Once again, after inflation, that will represent 
a decrease in spending over the current year.
  Customs and Border Protection personnel are working overtime to take 
care of unaccompanied children, to stop dangerous drugs from crossing 
our border, and to enforce the laws that we in Congress have passed. 
They need more support to handle the situation in a fair and humane 
way. Cutting already thin resources for the entire Department will only 
make the circumstances at the border more dangerous--for law 
enforcement, for local communities that are being overrun by the huge 
numbers of people coming across the border--and a danger to the 
migrants themselves.
  If this $6.4 trillion budget doesn't support our most urgent 
priorities, what does it support? What priorities are so critical that 
they supersede the need to support our national security and protect 
our borders?
  Well, for one, the administration would double the size of the 
Internal Revenue Service. I am sure that is good news to every 
taxpaying American. The President has called for increasing the number 
of IRS agents by 15 percent a year for the next decade.

[[Page S4752]]

  We have previously seen the damage that a politically motivated IRS 
can do. We saw the apparent leaking of taxpayer information recently, 
which is supposed to be confidential by law. And we can remember the 
IRS targeting controversy under the Obama administration.
  Bureaucrats at the IRS subjected conservative groups that they 
disagreed with politically or ideologically to a different level of 
scrutiny than left-leaning groups. And, unfortunately, with this sort 
of huge investment in the IRS, it looks like the Biden administration 
simply wants to weaponize the IRS once again.
  But that is just the start of it. A massive portion of the 
President's budget stems from two of the programs he has already told 
us about--one being the $2.6 trillion American Jobs Plan, which relies 
on a very generous interpretation of the word ``infrastructure,'' and 
it reads like the Green New Deal 2.0: more than $200 billion to build 
or retrofit more than 2 million affordable and sustainable places to 
live; a civilian climate corps; and an unrealistic 100-percent 
renewable-generated electricity by 2035.
  His budget includes a range of other spending to address climate 
change, including over $1 billion to help other countries--not 
Americans, not the United States, but other countries--to lower their 
emissions.
  I am sure China will be glad to take our money while continuing to 
build coal-fired powerplants to meet the demands of their growing 
economy.
  Then there is a broad range of spending from President Biden's $1.8 
trillion so-called American Families Plan--you have got to love the 
names of these pieces of legislation--which includes everything from 
universal preschool and free community college to mandatory paid leave 
policies and using the Tax Code to disguise more Washington spending.
  If you read through the President's budget, which, as he said, 
reflects his values, you see the incredible way that President Biden is 
simply caving in to the radical left. Mothers are no longer called 
mothers. They are now called ``birthing people''--unbelievably.
  Well, it is one thing for far-left activists to use these kinds of 
terms on Twitter, but it is entirely different to diminish the role of 
women in an official government document. Women are more than 
``birthing people,'' and I think it is insulting to women to 
characterize them or define them by that.
  The President doubled down on the woke ideology by proposing taxpayer 
funding for abortion. We know abortion is enormously controversial in 
our society, but this is a jarring break from a decades-long 
bipartisan, consensual ban provided by the Hyde amendment. It is also 
stands in stark contrast in the views of most Americans. The majority 
of Americans say they oppose using taxpayer dollars to support 
abortions because they are morally or religiously opposed to the 
practice.

  Adding to the list of absurdities is a massive expansion of welfare. 
We already know that under the COVID-19 relief bills, the 
administration has argued in favor of paying people more not to work 
than they would earn if they did work.
  A number of Governors--more than 20 of them now--have refused the 
$300 weekly supplement because of their concern that this was actually 
discouraging people from returning to work.
  We are hearing from employers all across the country that it is hard, 
if not impossible, for them to find the workforce they need to get the 
economy growing again. Business owners in my State--and I would bet 
across the Country--are already struggling to find a reliable workforce 
following the overly generous pandemic-related unemployment benefits 
that our Democratic colleagues insisted upon.
  We can't continue to discourage Americans from going back to work, 
because our economy will never recover if we stay on that path.
  Overall, the President's budget would dramatically increase the size 
of government and the role it plays in our everyday lives, especially 
with education--as my friend Senator Tim Scott has said, putting 
Washington even more in the middle of Americans' lives, from the cradle 
to college. Is that really what the American dream is all about--more 
and bigger government intervening in our lives, denying us the freedom 
to make our own choices and to seek our own way?
  It is no wonder that the White House rolled out the President's 
budget so quietly. Frequently, a lot of this happens on Friday 
afternoons after the press has left and nobody is paying much 
attention.
  While President Biden has told us what he values over and over again, 
his budget actually speaks to much more. This is not the plan of 
someone who is fighting for a strong national defense and a swift 
economic recovery. This budget prioritizes climate justice over 
American military servicemembers. It further hampers our economic 
recovery at the expense of hard-working taxpayers, and it prioritizes 
the restriction of wealth over the prospect of economic growth, which 
would lift all boats. It digs the United States deeper and deeper into 
debt, creating a massive financial pit that our children and 
grandchildren will have to dig their way out of. We are writing the 
checks, but they will pay the bills, and that, I believe, is immoral.
  It is all well and good to tell the American people that you value 
the same things they value--freedom, security, prosperity--but this, 
which in President Biden's own words reflects his values, this is not a 
blueprint to rebuild America. This is, indeed, strong evidence that 
President Biden has bowed down to the woke political left in his own 
base and is ready to bury the United States and future generations with 
unprecedented debt.
  When he released his budget, President Biden said, ``Where we choose 
to invest speaks to what we value as a Nation.'' The President of the 
United States has made clear what he values. The Nation? Its future? 
Its prosperity? Its security? Not much.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LANKFORD. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from Oklahoma

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