[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 177 (Thursday, October 7, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S6950]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          GOVERNMENT SPENDING

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, now on a related matter, Washington 
Democrats are behind closed doors trying to hammer out a multitrillion-
dollar reckless taxing-and-spending spree, but we already know a lot 
about this bill.
  First and foremost, we know their reckless legislation would hurt 
American families and actually help China. It is that simple: 
inflicting pain on American workers and families while putting us at a 
global disadvantage.
  Just look at the radical climate policies Democrats have packed into 
the spree to satisfy their far-left base. The apples haven't fallen far 
from the awful Green New Deal. In the name of clean energy performance, 
Democrats want to force electric utilities to model their grids off of 
the high-cost, blackout-prone system that liberals have set up in the 
State of California; move all 50 States' electric grids toward 
California's.
  As one group of major power providers observed, not only would this 
be logistically unworkable, it would also threaten to send consumers' 
electricity costs totally out of control. And in the words of a member 
of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission who testified before our 
colleagues just last week, the scheme would be ``H-bomb''--``H-bomb''--
for the electricity markets.
  At the same time, Democrats are also pushing a brand-new natural gas 
tax they call a methane fee. It is a natural gas tax is what it is. 
Just as our friends in Europe are facing soaring natural gas costs and 
the threat of winter shortages, just as it seems Russia may be 
willingly supplying less and less gas to the free world, Democrats want 
our Nation to declare war on natural gas, kill tens of thousands of 
jobs, drain billions from the economy, and increase costs for our 
families--at a moment when U.S. natural gas futures just hit a 12-year 
high.
  There is no limit to the harm Democrats will inflict on America to 
force the heartland to accept elite liberal fashions. Their legislation 
includes special giveaways for electric cars that are 
disproportionately the preferred option--you guessed it--of wealthy 
people, jacking up America's gas bills and utility prices in order to 
turn 49 other States into California. It is a bad idea at an awful time 
and just one more way their reckless taxing-and-spending spree would 
hurt families and help China.

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