[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 169 (Tuesday, September 28, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6714-S6716]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Government Funding

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, last night's vote was an exercise in 
futility, as Democrats knew would be the case.
  For months now, Republicans have made it clear that we will not help 
Democrats raise our Nation's debt limit to finance Democrats' partisan 
tax-and-spending spree. If Democrats want to pass a massive, partisan 
tax-and-spending bill without Republican input, they can raise the debt 
limit without Republican input.
  Democrats, of course, have complained they can't raise the debt limit 
by themselves. The truth is that they don't want to do it by 
themselves. Democrats want the credit for their social policies and the 
government handouts they are planning, but they don't want to own the 
pricetag.
  Democrats are talking about engaging in a wild, reckless spending 
spree that will worsen our inflation problem, threaten economic growth, 
and substantially increase the government's control over Americans' 
lives. Republicans can't support that kind of legislation, and we are 
not going to help Democrats increase the credit card limit to pay for 
it. If the Democrats want to raise the debt limit, they have to do it 
by themselves.
  I have come down to the floor more than once to talk about the 
reckless spending and the massive tax hikes the Democrats are planning. 
I could spend the rest of my time here on the floor today talking about 
the irresponsible amount of money Democrats want to spend and the tax 
hikes they are proposing, but today, I want to look at things a little 
differently.
  Last week, House Speaker Pelosi had this to say in reference to the 
Democrats' $3.5 trillion spending bill. She said:

       It's not about a price tag. It's about values.
       It's not about a price tag. It's about values.

  Mr. President, she is partially right because while the pricetag does 
matter, this is about more than just the pricetag. This is about values 
and visions--specifically, Republicans' and Democrats' different 
visions of government.
  The Democrats' bill isn't just about spending money, even though it 
does spend money--a lot of it. It is about a

[[Page S6715]]

specific vision of government, one where the government is intimately 
involved in nearly every aspect of your life from, to quote the New 
York Times article on the Democrats' bill, ``cradle to grave.''
  Someone once said to me that the difference between Democrats and 
Republicans is the Republicans believe in less government and more 
freedom; Democrats believe in less freedom and more government. I think 
that is a pretty accurate description of what we are seeing here.
  Republicans oppose Democrats' tax-and-spending spree because it 
spends an irresponsible amount of money, but more than that--more than 
that--we oppose it because it moves us further and further away from 
the American idea of limiting government.
  Our Founders established a limited government for a reason--because 
they respected individual liberty, and they knew that the heavier the 
hand of government, the less liberty Americans would enjoy. That is why 
our Constitution is as much about what government cannot do as what 
government can do.
  Democrats might protest that they are not restricting individual 
liberty, that they are just providing a helping hand or redistributing 
wealth, but when you expand the reach of government, the diminishment 
of liberty is inevitable. When government gets involved in a new area 
of life, it rarely, if ever, just comes with the benefits; it comes in 
with rules and regulations and mandates.
  Take Democrats' childcare benefit. Democrats are preparing to offer 
childcare subsidies to parents around the country, but it is not as 
simple as just taking some money from the government and going out and 
purchasing childcare because it turns out the Democrats are changing 
decades-old childcare funding programs to favor secular childcare 
providers who provide care at daycare centers. If you prefer to choose 
a faith-based provider for your child, you may be out of luck.
  A 2020 Bipartisan Policy Center survey found that among parents who 
used center-based childcare, 53 percent used a faith-based center--53 
percent. They reported that they chose these providers for a variety of 
reasons, from the quality of the caregivers, to the cleanliness of the 
facility, to the values of the provider. That number may change when 
Democrats' tax-and-spending plan goes into effect, not because parents 
are changing their childcare preferences but simply because Democrats 
have set up their benefit to favor secular center-based childcare 
providers.
  With government benefits come government control and government 
picking the winners and the losers. Secular childcare providers win 
under Democrats' massive government expansion; faith-based providers 
and parental choice, not so much. Electric vehicle manufacturers win; 
the natural gas and biofuels industries, not so much, despite the fact 
that both have been key to producing cleaner American energy. Unions 
win under this bill; Americans making charitable donations, not so 
much. Democrats are allowing the charitable deduction to expire but 
adding a new tax break to pay for union dues. When government is in 
charge, government dictates your choices and picks winners and losers.

  Government also gets a lot more involved with overseeing the details 
of your personal life. Democrats are planning to add a provision that 
would force banks and credit unions to report the details of your 
financial activity to the IRS, including certain deposits, withdrawals, 
and other transactions. Democrats are apparently still discussing the 
amount that would trigger the new reporting requirement, which has been 
proposed at $600 or $10,000, but whichever number they settle on, a lot 
of ordinary Americans are going to end up having their bank or credit 
union forced to report their private information to the IRS. Talk about 
Big Brother.
  Probably the biggest reason that Republicans believe in limited 
government is because we believe in individual liberty, and we know 
that the more government expands into your life, the more your choices 
and liberties are curtailed. But there are other reasons that we 
believe in limited government.
  One big reason is that we know that the Federal Government simply 
isn't the best way of delivering many services. There are some things 
that the Federal Government is well-suited to do--handling our national 
defense, for example. If our country is invaded or attacked, it is a 
lot more effective for our national military to respond rather than for 
each State to respond on its own. But there are a lot of other things 
that are better handled at the State level or at a local level or in 
some cases not by government at all.
  Our State government in South Dakota is a lot more familiar with the 
needs of South Dakotans than the bureaucrats at Washington Agencies. 
The city government in Sioux Falls or Rapid City or Pierre or Box Elder 
is even more familiar with or more able to respond to the needs of 
individual residents. That is why a lot of things are better handled at 
the State or local level or, as I said, at times not by government at 
all.
  Big Government is impersonal and inflexible. It is not familiar with 
and can't take into account particular and sometimes opposing needs of 
each State or each community. Big Government is one-size-fits-all.
  Big Government is also inefficient. Anyone who thinks the Federal 
Government would do a good job running Americans' healthcare hasn't 
dealt with a Federal Agency very recently.
  Big Government is unaccountable. Think about it. If you have a 
company that offers a bad product, what is going to happen? People are 
not going to buy your product, and you are probably going to go out of 
business quickly. It doesn't work that way with the Federal Government. 
The Federal Government is not going to go out of business because it 
isn't doing a good job delivering the services that are promised.
  If the government is in charge of your healthcare and it isn't 
delivering quality healthcare, you have little recourse. Sure, you can 
try to vote in new Members of Congress to reform things, but even then, 
change can take a very long time. Real reform of an existing government 
program is rare. Elimination of a bad government program? Even rarer. 
As Ronald Reagan used to say, the nearest thing to eternal life that we 
will ever see on this Earth is a government program.
  I could go on. I could talk about how Big Government tends to stifle 
the innovation that leads to economic growth or ask why Democrats think 
that a group of bureaucrats in Washington are the best decision makers 
for American families. But I want to touch on one other point before I 
close, and that is that Democrats believe in government dependence as 
the goal. They might dispute that characterization, but you only have 
to look at the tax-and-spending package that they are putting together 
to know that is their vision.
  They envision a future where Americans rely on the government for 
everything from childcare, to education, to healthcare, and on and on. 
That is a vision with which Republicans fundamentally disagree. Our 
vision is not a future of government dependence because government 
doesn't bring prosperity. Government doesn't bring the American dream. 
At best, government is going to help you survive. It is not going to 
help you thrive.

  Yes, government can be an important backstop in difficult situations 
or national emergencies, like the COVID crisis, but the goal should 
always be to get people to a place where they don't have to rely on 
government. Permanent government dependence robs people of the purpose 
and pride that comes with work and personal achievement, and, as I 
said, it denies them the opportunity for prosperity. No one ever became 
prosperous on government benefits.
  If you asked most Americans what the American dream means to them, I 
am pretty sure you would hear things like a ``good job,'' a ``rewarding 
career,'' the ``chance to pursue my ambitions,'' or the ``chance to 
improve my circumstances and make life better for my children.'' That 
is what Americans envision, not a future of government dependence and 
government subsidies.
  People are looking to achieve the kind of prosperity where they don't 
need government involvement in every aspect of their lives and can 
choose their paths for themselves instead of having to follow the rules 
and regulations that come with government benefits.

[[Page S6716]]

  That is a vision that Republicans share, and it is what we are 
committed to fighting for on behalf of the American people. That is 
another reason we are committed to maintaining limited government, 
because the bigger government grows, the more that vision of 
opportunity and prosperity shrinks.
  And so Speaker Pelosi is partially right. She is wrong to dismiss the 
bill's pricetag, because it is profoundly--profoundly--irresponsible to 
mortgage our children's and grandchildren's futures with a massive 
government spending increase, but she is right in that it is about 
values.
  Now, Republicans aren't opposing Democrats' tax-and-spending spree 
simply because it spends a lot of money, but because it advances a 
vision of government with which we profoundly disagree. We don't 
believe that the American dream is government dependence; we don't 
believe in an ever-expanding role for the Federal Government; and we 
don't believe that bureaucrats in Washington are a good substitute for 
the judgment of the American people.
  That is why every Republican in the Senate will be voting against the 
Democrats' reckless spending legislation, not just because it spends 
too much money, but because it fundamentally undermines the American 
tradition of liberty and limited government. It is about values, and it 
is about visions, and Republicans do not share the Democrats' vision of 
a future of Big Government and Big Brother.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
  Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be able to 
conclude my remarks before the scheduled rollcall vote.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.