[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 189 (Wednesday, October 27, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7394-S7395]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          GOVERNMENT SPENDING

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, in a few days, President Biden is set 
to gas up Air Force One and jet to Scotland for a global conference 
about the climate. According to press coverage, the President's agenda 
is clear:
  ``Biden Wants to Show the World He's Serious About Cutting 
Emissions.''
  ``Joe Biden gets real on climate change.''
  What we are talking about here is a meeting to review a plan that 
failed to get its own signatories to meet its unenforceable 
``commitments;'' a deal that couldn't compel the world's largest carbon 
producer, China, to commit to any less than another 9 years of rising 
emissions before it starts--starts--to turn things around. This is a 
country with single companies that emit more carbon than nations the 
size of Canada. Let me say that again. China is a country with single 
companies that emit more carbon than nations the size of Canada. And 
all the while, the United States, from outside the deal, cut our 
emissions more than any major country inside the deal. We cut our 
emissions more outside the deal than any of the countries inside the 
deal.
  The Biden administration is desperately chasing bad deals to win 
applause from foreign leaders. That is what this is about: signing the 
American people up for self-inflicted pain for no meaningful gain.
  The only thing that is serious about President Biden's environmental 
agenda is the trouble that it is already causing right here at home. 
Our adversaries like Russia are salivating over big windfalls while 
working American families are already feeling the pain.
  Remember, on day one, this administration put a freeze on crucial 
development of domestic energy and killed the Keystone XL Pipeline, 
along with over 1,000 jobs. Combined with Democrats' flood of 
inflationary spending, it is no wonder consumers are facing the highest 
prices at the pump in 7 years, the most expensive home heating forecast 
in more than 12 years, and soaring prices on the household goods that 
are costing U.S. manufacturers more to make.
  Ah, but wait. There is more. When President Biden jets off to next 
week's summit, his fellow Democrats will be busy plotting yet another 
reckless taxing-and-spending spree that would compound the pain with 
more anti-energy policies. They want to create new taxes on the most 
affordable and reliable forms of American energy that would put 
producers out of business, workers out of jobs, and make home heating 
even pricier this winter. They want to put billions more into 
``environmental and social justice block grants,'' whatever that means. 
They want to subsidize the favorite products of blue State elites, like 
electric cars and even--listen to this--electric bicycles.
  Democrats also want to pour billions of dollars into a made-up 
government work program they are calling the Civilian Climate Corps--
Civilian Climate Corps. This is pure socialist wish-fulfillment. We 
already have a worker shortage and record numbers of open jobs, but 
Democrats want taxpayers to put aside $8 billion for make-work programs 
for young, liberal activists that they admit ``[wouldn't] measurably 
reduce emissions.''
  Under their latest batch of proposed regulations, States that fail to 
keep pace with heavyhanded emissions targets would face 
``consequences''--consequences like freezes on funds for major 
transportation projects that employ lots of American workers. They want 
to bully every State to become more and more like California.
  Washington Democrats are plowing ahead with all this precisely as the 
Ghost of Christmas Future is providing us with a cautionary tale from 
across the Atlantic. All across Europe, natural gas prices have jumped 
400 percent since the start of the year. Countries are scrambling to 
rediscover and reactivate the reliable systems they had left behind to 
follow the latest fads.
  Thanks in part to the Biden administration's own inaction, Putin's 
Russia has turned his controlling share of European gas production into 
a political weapon.
  But instead of heeding this cautionary tale, President Biden seems to 
want to follow suit. His regulations have squandered the energy 
independence we enjoyed before he took office. U.S. imports of Russian 
oil have doubled. As gas prices soar, his administration is 
reportedly--listen to this--asking OPEC to cut us some slack.
  As one academic summed it up, ``Biden policy promotes a multiyear, 
multitrillion-dollar windfall'' for adversaries--you heard it--like 
Russia.

       To raise energy prices while enabling Moscow to tighten its 
     grip over Europe's energy supply is to turbocharge a Russian 
     regime that was staggering and showing its age.

  Pain for the American people. Payoffs for our adversaries so that 
President Biden can receive cheers from the crowd in Glasgow. Small 
comfort for his own citizens.
  Energy policy isn't the only place where the Biden administration's 
decisions are hurting Americans. The President's retreat from 
Afghanistan continues to have dangerous and disastrous consequences. 
Yesterday, one Pentagon official gave Senators a new estimate of how 
many Americans the administration has left behind. The count Secretary 
Austin claimed last month--last month--was less than 100. That has now 
risen to 450 Americans left behind enemy lines. The Biden 
administration spent weeks insisting they only left about 100 Americans 
behind in Afghanistan when the truth was multiple times that. The 
administration has also continued to fail to keep its promises to brave 
Afghan allies.
  Meanwhile, as many warned, the terrorist threat is growing in the 
wake of our retreat. The same Pentagon official

[[Page S7395]]

acknowledged that Afghanistan-based ISIS-K and al-Qaida terrorists have 
the intent and are acquiring the capability to strike the United 
States. ISIS-K could threaten our homeland in as little as 6 months. 
The Biden administration still doesn't have basing or access agreements 
in neighboring countries for its supposed plan to hit terrorists from 
``over the horizon.'' No wonder our adversaries are testing this 
President's resolve to protect American personnel and American 
interests.
  A complex attack against U.S. forces in Syria last week may well have 
been carried out at the behest of Iran. The administration isn't 
saying. They need to come clean about who is responsible and how they 
intend to respond.
  We know Tehran badly wants the United States and its partners out of 
Syria and Iraq and to continue to threaten Israel and other U.S. 
partners. What we don't know is what the Biden administration plans to 
do about it.
  Even where progress should be easy, this administration finds ways to 
actually mess things up. For example, there is strong, bipartisan 
agreement about the threat the People's Republic of China poses to 
international security and specifically to American interests--case in 
point: Beijing's recent publicly reported efforts to test hypersonic 
weapons and advance their nuclear capabilities. China is also 
dramatically expanding the naval capabilities that they openly use to 
harass other nations.
  Both Republicans and Democrats would welcome a clear and coherent 
China strategy from this administration, but all we are getting is a 
muddled mess. A few days ago, no sooner did President Biden offer 
comments on his own Taiwan policy then the White House staff rapidly 
walked it back. So it makes you want to ask, who is in charge over 
there--the President or the Press Secretary? American administrations 
have a tradition of handling Taiwan with something called strategic 
ambiguity. I am afraid the Biden team is taking that a little too 
literally. Even they themselves seem to have no idea what they are 
doing.
  President Biden likes to say something like: Show me your budget, and 
I will tell you what you value. But President Biden's own request for 
the defense budget didn't even keep up with President Biden's 
inflation. The White House proposed to cut defense funding after 
inflation. And here in the Senate, Democrats' partisan appropriations 
process seems to shortchange defense in favor of runaway domestic 
spending. Even their ostensibly China-focused bill from earlier this 
year would not have included any funding for the kinds of advanced 
defense capabilities that we need to keep pace if it weren't for an 
amendment offered by Senator Sasse.
  Even the NDAA is stuck in limbo. The defense authorization bill is 
our most basic opportunity to shape security policy. It is a core duty 
for the Senate majority, the bare minimum, but Democrats have 
completely neglected the NDAA and the traditional robust and real floor 
process that it will need. They are too busy debating how much 
socialism to unleash on the country to look out for our troops, our 
veterans, and our national security.

  This unseriousness will leave Americans less safe. It is just that 
simple.

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