[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 130 (Monday, July 26, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5063-S5064]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              The Economy

  Mr. TUBERVILLE. Madam President, you know, there is an old saying 
that I have used quite often, but it bears repeating: Give a man a 
fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man how to fish, and you feed him 
for a lifetime.
  It is a simple yet insightful concept. Human beings often like things 
to be easy. It is just in our nature. But the reward for easy is very 
short-lived. Sometimes, if you don't earn it, you don't understand it. 
If we work hard and challenge ourselves to improve, we reap the 
benefits for much longer. That is the American way.
  I would tell this to my players over the years that I coached. You 
know, lessons learned that are applied to the football field also apply 
in life. You know, this country owes you one thing: an opportunity. 
Sometimes people just need to be shown where that opportunity is at and 
encouraged to take it, and that is what everyone in this body should be 
focused on doing: opening doors for opportunity for the people of this 
country.
  President Biden seems determined to close those doors of opportunity 
by creating, it looks like, a future massive entitlement state.
  My Republican colleagues and I have talked a lot about the reckless 
tax-and-spend plan and the cost of that plan on American families. We 
are seeing rising inflation, which means dollars from your paycheck are 
not going as far. We are seeing costs rise on everyday goods that 
families need: food, gas, diapers--you name it; it is going up. This is 
a direct result of untargeted spending this year as we are trying to 
recover from a pandemic, which is the worst time in the world to be 
throwing government money at a pandemic.
  And, now, our Democratic colleagues, it looks like, want to spend 
$3.5 trillion more, after spending $1.9 trillion back in February. And 
what gets talked about less than the cost of this spending is the 
social and societal cost of all of these new and expanded programs. 
While it may not be easy to see or measure, it is no less important, 
and that is what I want to talk about today.
  Let's remember how this started and how we got here. It started with 
President Biden's announcing two plans--great names. First was the 
American Families Plan, and then there was the American Jobs Plan. 
Despite their confusing and similar names, on the face they don't sound 
that bad. I am for American families, and I am for American jobs.
  These plans are not about American families or American jobs. They 
are full of progressive items that can only pass the Senate through a 
reconciliation process. There won't be any--there won't be any--
Republicans that will vote for this, and Democrats know this. So, now, 
here we are with our colleagues stuffing the worst parts of President 
Biden's agenda--I am talking about the most progressive items that only 
appease the far left of their base--into their latest package. And all 
of President Biden's progressive programs cost money, lots and lots of 
money. And they are going to pay for them with your taxpayer dollars, 
not the government dollars--taxpayer dollars.
  A lot of my colleagues have expressed concern with the Democrats' 
tax-and-spend spree, but they aren't the only ones sounding the alarm. 
Folks back home have started to take notice, and there is a lot more 
collective wisdom among the folks back home than there has been here 
lately in Washington, DC.
  So I brought a couple of letters with me today. These are folks from 
Alabama who wrote to me about their concerns with President Biden's 
massive spending plan. Here is what James Merrill from Huntsville, AL, 
wrote to me:

       I have been studying this atrocious ``Biden American 
     Families Plan'' and it is clear that not only is the cost 
     staggering, the implications of all the rules that will go 
     with it will terribly impact all family life and our freedoms 
     to manage our lives. It blatantly makes the middle-class 
     dependent on the government--cradle to grave. A clear path to 
     socialism.''

  James, you are exactly right.
  And Rosa Hill in Birmingham, AL, had this to say:

       I have just listened to President Biden . . . and the ideas 
     are ridiculous. [We] should be helping each other, [not] the 
     government . . . [getting] involved.

  Ms. Hill makes an important point. Much of this work can and should 
be done by our neighbors, churches, and people in the communities. The 
problem is, we have been conditioned to wait for the government to do 
the hard work of helping the less fortunate for us rather than doing it 
ourselves.
  Half a century ago, President Lyndon Johnson launched the ``War on 
Poverty.'' He and leading liberals at the time thought the answer to 
poverty was to dramatically increase the benefits the Federal 
Government would give out to the poor. Well, the War on Poverty didn't 
work like its backers thought it would. The following decade was filled 
with economic stagnation, high inflation, gas lines, spikes in drug 
addiction, and a horrifying rise in crimes across our country. Sounds 
familiar--doesn't it?--just like what is happening today.
  Folks, the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and 
over again expecting a different result. We have already tried this. 
President Biden is determined to try the same worn out policies today: 
throwing trillions and trillions of taxpayer money at the problem and 
hoping the problem goes away. It has been and still is the wrong 
solution.
  President Biden's reckless spending spree won't help struggling 
American families. It will trap them in the endless cycle of dependence 
on Big Government and taxpayer money. Just take a look at what 
President Biden has proposed in his American Families Plan:

[[Page S5064]]

government-subsidized childcare, free preschool, free community 
college. Free, free, free; that seems to be the slogan of this 
administration.

  Of course, we all know that there is no such thing as free in this 
country. I have talked before about the fact that President Biden has 
proposed 30--you heard me right, 30--new taxes that the Democrats can 
choose from to pay for these free programs in their next spending 
package--30 new taxes during a pandemic.
  According to one analysis by the Hoover Institution, President 
Biden's American Families Plan would add 21 million Americans to the 
Federal Government's list of beneficiaries--21--21 million more people 
living off the government. Now, there are certainly people out there 
who need help. We all know that. But this plan opens the floodgates to 
taxpayer-funded benefits instead of concentrating on those who mostly 
need it. Under President Biden's plan, your family could make up to 
$200,000 and still qualify for Federal healthcare--$200,000.
  We don't have to comb through the history books for examples on how 
these progressive policies fail. We don't have to look far. Just look 
at what we have done here recently and the insistence on keeping 
unemployment benefits historically high.
  My Republican colleagues and I have spoken about how these misguided 
benefits essentially paid people not to work, destroying small 
businesses all over the country, and our economy's progress has gone 
down as we try to recover from this pandemic.
  Republican Governors across the country recognized the problem and 
decided to cut out the overly generous benefits months ago. Folks who 
needed help would get it, but they wouldn't be paid to sit at home, and 
then they wouldn't be sitting home when they could have been working at 
jobs that would help their family. Just about every Democratic Governor 
has insisted on keeping these benefits. Now, what does that tell you, 
insisting on keeping the benefits and not keeping the benefits?
  We have made some terrible decisions just in a short period of time. 
Well, we can already see the results of what is happening with these 
benefits. According to the monthly data from the Bureau of Labor 
Statistics, States that cut the Federal expanded benefit are closer to 
returning to prepandemic employment levels than the States that kept 
them. Thirteen of the top 15 States with the best unemployment numbers 
have all ended their Federal expanded unemployment insurance.
  Why don't we learn from this misguided policy and not repeat it by 
spending money on bad outcomes? We seem to continue to do that every 
time we turn around.
  The reckless tax-and-spend spree to advance President Biden's 
progressive agenda isn't just unaffordable; it is un-American. The 
United States was founded on the ideas of personal liberty and self-
reliance. It makes you feel good about yourself earning your own way, 
not government handouts best known as socialism.
  Since our founding, people have flocked to the United States because 
of the opportunity it gives citizens to succeed, not because of cushy 
government handouts. Our society valued and values hard work, grit, and 
determination more than the countries most of these folks have left 
behind.
  Again, this country owes you one thing and that is an opportunity to 
succeed through education and hard work. Democrats want you to believe 
that you can only succeed with the government's help. Republicans 
believe in self-reliance and that you have within you God-given skills 
and potential to work hard and succeed. You have that. That is what 
this country gives you, which is why President Biden's reckless 
spending spree and expansion of government programs is so, so 
disappointing.
  The President and Democrats think success is measured by how much 
taxpayer money the government can spend, but real success is measured 
by how many people no longer need the help in the first place. Our 
efforts need to empower people to be free to live and work to build a 
better life for themselves and their families. The most successful 
anti-poverty program should eventually put itself out of business.
  So I say, enough. Enough of continuously growing the Federal 
Government. Enough of the reckless taxpayer-funded spending sprees. 
Enough of trapping people in a cycle of dependence, because a culture 
of dependency is a culture in decline.
  I say we work together to encourage people to seize the many 
opportunities in our country, not have them wait around hoping the 
government will fix every problem life throws their way. We can't do 
that. It is long past time we get back to teaching folks to fish, to 
learn to fish themselves, to be self-reliant. That is a culture of hard 
work and resilience. That is a culture of the United States of America, 
the best country on the face of the Earth.
  Madam President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.