[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 130 (Monday, July 26, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5062-S5063]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Democratic Agenda

  Now, Madam President, on an entirely different matter, American 
families are anxious, and they are uneasy.
  The share of Americans who feels optimistic about our country's 
direction has plummeted by almost 20 percent just since the springtime. 
As recently as early May, nearly two-thirds of Americans said they were 
optimistic about the direction of the country. That was the highest 
figure that survey had reported in 14 years, but, alas, that has 
plummeted. Late last week, a new survey found that optimism is now a 
minority position as 55 percent of Americans are pessimistic. Approval 
of the new administration's handling of COVID-19 has tumbled. Their 
handling of the economy is underwater among Independents. Fewer than 4 
in 10 Americans approve of their handling of immigration, the border, 
or violent crime.
  Unfortunately, American families have ample reason to feel this way. 
The end of June clocked the highest annual inflation spike in more than 
a decade. The Democrats' stay-home bonus to workers who remain 
unemployed has slowed the recovery and helped to keep workforce 
participation stagnant. Meanwhile, last year, as the far left put the 
squeeze on law enforcement funding in cities across the country, 
America faced a 25-percent--25-percent--increase in homicides. Then, 
after the Biden administration was very eager to claim ownership and 
spike the football on the vaccination trajectory, which they largely 
inherited from Republican leadership, we have now seen vaccination 
rates in many places plateau on what this White House has been 
insisting is their watch.
  This turn toward pessimism is especially stunning and especially sad 
because President Biden took office with

[[Page S5063]]

the wind at his back. Things were set up for a roaring success like no 
other Presidential transition in recent memory. Thanks, in large part, 
to Operation Warp Speed, set up by the prior Congress and 
administration, we had multiple safe and effective vaccines that were 
beginning to circulate widely through the country. The new 
administration's so-called ambitious goal of about a million vaccines 
per day was already happening before they were sworn in. Thanks to the 
five bipartisan rescue packages that the Republican-led Senate passed 
last year, we were primed and ready for a historic economic comeback. 
Americans were excited and ready to build a comeback summer for the 
history books.
  Yet those incredible tailwinds have largely been squandered. That 
historic head start has been wasted through bad policy and, in many 
cases, needlessly divisive leadership.
  After a poorly targeted partisan spending package that even liberal 
economists warned could cause more inflation, American families are now 
feeling the pain and literally paying the price. After campaign 
rhetoric and then policy decisions that have made our southern border 
less secure, a predictable crisis is playing out. After a year of anti-
police and anti-rule-of-law rhetoric from too many on the political 
left, a violent crime surge is hammering communities and making streets 
less safe all across our country. Oh, and as the new administration 
pulls back America's presence in the Middle East in a reckless and 
rushed fashion, terrorist leaders are simply jumping for joy.
  This is how you take a country from near-record optimism to serious 
pessimism in just 2-months' time. This is how you inherit favorable 
trends in just about every direction imaginable but produce 
disappointment. Our Democratic friends' big master plan is yet another 
reckless taxing-and-spending spree but even larger. The Washington 
Democrats' big idea is to borrow, print, and spend our way to even more 
inflation and even higher costs for American families, along with a 
historic set of big tax hikes to boot.
  My friends across the aisle and down Pennsylvania Avenue should be 
less concerned about checking leftwing items off activists' wish lists. 
As more and more of the Democrats' partisan agenda comes online, the 
American people's pessimism grows and grows. The families of our 
country need a better approach.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. TUBERVILLE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Duckworth). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.