[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 162 (Monday, September 20, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S6537]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Government Funding

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, over the past year and a half, senior 
Democratic leaders decided the upheaval and hardship of a once-in-a-
century pandemic was actually a chance to justify radical leftwing 
change.
  This isn't just me conjecturing; it is what they keep saying. Right 
at the start of the crisis, March 2020, the House Democratic Whip said 
the pandemic offered ``a tremendous opportunity to restructure things 
to fit our vision.''
  Just last week, President Biden said: ``This pandemic has been God-
awful for so many reasons. . . . But''--``but,'' he said--``it does 
present us with an opportunity.'' So they get points for honesty, at 
least. The reckless taxing-and-spending spree the Democrats are writing 
behind closed doors is designed to leave Americans with a socialist 
country they never voted for and a country that working families, in 
many ways, would barely recognize.
  Last night, one of those many efforts hit a stumbling block. Senate 
Democrats were reminded the rules of this institution will not permit 
them to shove a massive amnesty for illegal immigrants into a reckless 
taxing-and-spending spree they want to ram through on a party-line 
basis.
  Our Democratic colleagues cannot pretend that massive 
transformational policy changes are mere budgetary tweaks. As no less 
an authority than our colleague now-Chairman Bernie Sanders said just a 
few years ago, ``the function of reconciliation is to adjust federal 
spending and revenue, not''--not--``to enact major changes in social 
policy.'' That is Chairman Sanders a few years ago. That is a lesson he 
and his caucus need to relearn.
  Even with the border as insecure as it has ever been, the far left 
wanted sweeping amnesty, and Democratic leaders dutifully tried their 
very best. It just goes to show you how radical this legislation is 
going to be.
  Democrats want to tamper with Americans' Medicare and stretch the 
program even thinner, while it already faces fiscal challenges. They 
want to interfere massively with the States that choose not to bow to 
Obamacare mandates on Medicaid; they want to use healthcare dollars to 
line the pockets of special interests with big union giveaways; and 
they want to impose socialist price controls on Americans' medicines 
that would leave us with fewer new treatments and new cures in the 
future.
  It adds up to a massive leap toward socialized medicine. But somehow 
this still only scratches the surface.
  Democrats are also trying to force through an unprecedented Federal 
takeover of American families' childcare options that may leave faith-
based childcare providers high and dry. They want an all-out assault on 
affordable, reliable, homegrown American energy so the entire country 
could be marched toward California utility prices, California gas 
prices, and California electricity blackouts--just what families want.
  Look, I could go on all day. The reckless taxing-and-spending spree 
that Democrats are writing behind closed doors is shaping up to be 
exactly what they promised: an effort to exploit this terrible but 
temporary pandemic as a Trojan horse for permanent socialism.
  Now, on a related matter, Democrats have united, unified control of 
the Senate, the House, and the White House. Their strategy for all this 
transformational borrowing, spending, and tax hikes was deliberately 
designed to include no Republican input and to receive no Republican 
votes.
  Since Democrats decided to go it alone, they will not get Senate 
Republicans' help with raising the debt limit. I have explained this 
clearly and consistently for over 2 months. We do not have divided 
government. Democrats do not need our help. They have every tool to 
address the debt limit on their own--the same party-line process they 
used to ram through inflationary spending in March and already plan to 
use once again this fall.
  Now, look, this might inconvenience Democrats. It might delay their 
next reckless taxing-and-spending spree, but Democrats cannot risk the 
full faith and credit of our Nation to serve their own partisan 
timelines. Democrats decided to govern alone. Their unified Democratic 
government must put basic governing duties ahead of partisan wish 
lists. If they don't, the consequences for our country would be 
catastrophic.
  Senate Republicans would support a clean continuing resolution that 
includes appropriate disaster relief and targeted Afghan assistance. We 
will not support legislation that raises the debt limit.
  Remember, when the debt suspension lapsed in August, the debt limit 
was automatically ratcheted up to account for all of the borrowing that 
had occurred up to that date. This isn't about the past. It is about 
the future. And Democrats want to build a partisan future without our 
input. So Democrats will not get bipartisan facilitators for their 
purely partisan spending binge.
  Democrats are fully capable of owning this step themselves. The 
Democratic chairman of the House Budget Committee admitted just 
yesterday: ``We can do it through reconciliation. [But] [l]eadership 
has said they don't want to do that.''
  One party controls the entire government. They have the power to 
address this alone. And as I have warned since July, that is what they 
will need to do.