[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 189 (Wednesday, October 27, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7412-S7413]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Biden Administration

  Mrs. FISCHER. Mr. President, I rise to discuss where things stand 
after 9 months under President Biden.
  To start, American citizens are still left behind enemy lines in 
Afghanistan, even though the President said in August that he would get 
every single American home safe before pulling out our troops.
  And the numbers are much worse than the administration has led us to 
believe. As of this week, the State Department is in touch with more 
than 400 Americans who are still in Afghanistan. About half of those--
at least 196 American citizens--want to leave, but they have been 
unable to do so.
  Leaving even one American citizen who wants to come home at the mercy 
of the Taliban is a failure in leadership. It should never have been an 
option. But it has been 2 months, and there are still 196 Americans in 
Afghanistan who want out. That is unconscionable.
  President Biden should have done what was needed to bring every last 
American home, like he promised he would do in August. That is his No. 
1 responsibility as President, to ensure the safety of the American 
people.
  But maybe we shouldn't be surprised, since he hasn't been able to 
secure our own border. In fact, he doesn't even try to secure our 
southern border.
  Customs and Border Protection reported recently that they apprehended 
more than 1.7 million migrants attempting to cross our southern border 
illegally over the span of just 12 months. That is the highest total 
ever recorded in a single fiscal year. And if border agents encountered 
1.7 illegal migrants, imagine how many were able to cross into our 
country undetected.
  CBP encountered nearly 200,000 illegal migrants last month alone, 
meaning that apprehensions were up by more than 230 percent in 
September 2021 compared to September of 2020.
  If you want to know why we have this crisis at the border, ask the 
migrants themselves. Many have been very honest about why they risk 
their lives to travel thousands of miles to the United States. If you 
ask them why--ask them why they are here--their answer is simple: The 
President promised to let us in.
  We are a nation of immigrants, but we cannot have effective legal 
immigration if illegal immigration is spiraling out of control.
  Illegal immigration means cutting in front of millions of people who 
have been waiting years to come to the United States the right way. Our 
message as a nation needs to be that if you want to come here, you have 
to follow our laws. You cannot just walk across the border.

  President Obama said it well a few weeks ago in an interview on ABC 
News. He said:

       And we see tragedy and hardship and families that are 
     desperately trying to get here so that their kids are safe, 
     and they're in some cases fleeing violence or catastrophe. At 
     the same time, we're a nation state. We have borders. The 
     idea that we can just have open borders is something that . . 
     . as a practical matter, is unsustainable.

  Well, ABC cut that portion of the interview out. I suppose they can't 
allow a former President of the United States to disagree with the 
radical leftwing of their party.
  This is all taking place against the backdrop of the highest 
inflation rate in decades and massive supply chain issues that threaten 
to cripple our recovering economy. The White House insists these 
problems are only going to affect the upper class--they are high-class 
problems. Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the other day that our supply 
chain issues are nothing more than ``the tragedy of the treadmill 
that's delayed.'' What an out-of-touch thing to say. She must be 
talking about her friends and neighbors here in DC because I don't know 
many Nebraskans who are spending thousands of dollars on in-home 
treadmills.
  Rising costs and shortages are hurting everyone--most of all, the 
tens of millions of Americans who are living paycheck to paycheck. The 
President's shameless ``buy now, pay later'' policies are forcing hard-
working Americans to pay an extra dollar for a gallon of gas while they 
watch the real value of their retirement accounts slump.
  They might not live in Washington or New York or San Francisco, but 
these are real people. They are small business owners who are wondering 
if they will be able to get the supplies that they need to meet 
historic demand this holiday season. They are millions of hard-working 
Americans who rely on propane to heat their homes who are worried about 
getting priced out of a warm house this winter. They are families who 
don't know if they will be able to put food on the table for their 
kids.
  Anyone who thinks most people's first concern is whether the newest 
Peloton is going to arrive on time, they have no idea what working 
Americans do to get by every single day.
  What has the response to these unprecedented problems been in the 
media? The Washington Post said it is ``time for some new, more 
realistic expectations.'' I think people will find that ``lower your 
expectations'' is not a very optimistic and it is not a very inspiring 
slogan for the party in power.
  And as dangerous as this wave of inflation is, it is really not like 
nobody saw it coming. Larry Summers, the liberal economist who directed 
the National Economic Council under President Obama, has been sounding 
the alarm for months. He is not the only one. Dozens of leading experts 
have warned against borrowing trillions of dollars to expand the reach 
of government when inflation is already running rampant.
  But, earlier this year, Democrats in Congress spent nearly $2 
trillion on an entirely partisan basis under the pretense that it was 
necessary to fight the pandemic. So what is the fix? What is the fix? 
How is President Biden going to pull America back from the brink of 
stagflation?
  Well, he wants to spend even more of the American people's hard-
earned money. The President said in August that the massive, 
multitrillion-dollar spending spree he wants this Chamber to approve 
``won't increase inflation. It will take the pressure off of 
inflation.''
  Well, he leaves how that might happen to our imagination. In reality, 
trying to spend our way out of inflation is like trying to put a fire 
out with lighter fluid; it is absolutely delusional.

[[Page S7413]]

  We cannot just keep spending more and more, not when, as the senior 
Senator from West Virginia said recently, ``[m]illions of jobs are 
open, supply chains are strained, and unavoidable inflation taxes are 
draining workers' hard-earned wages as the price of gasoline and 
groceries continues to climb.''
  Out-of-control spending is how we got here in the first place, and 
the longer we keep at it, the worse it is going to get. Some Democrats 
are fond of saying that this bill will cost zero dollars because, well, 
it might be paid for through new taxes. The truth is that their plan 
would create trillions of dollars in new entitlements, and even if they 
do find a way to pay for it, which I doubt, that doesn't mean it is 
free. That money has to come from somewhere, and the Joint Committee on 
Taxation has shown that two-thirds of Democrats' proposed new tax 
burdens--they would fall on the lower and the middle class of this 
country.
  I wish I could say the outrageous pricetag is the only thing wrong 
with the Democrats' tax-and-spend boondoggle, but what is actually in 
their plan might even be more irresponsible. It would allow the IRS to 
snoop on Americans' bank accounts if their inflows and their outflows 
exceed $10,000 per year.
  Now, that is a lot of money, but let's put it in perspective. Federal 
agents would get to see your house and car payments, how much you spend 
on groceries and gas, heating bills, school costs for your kids, and 
everything else that you spend in a year just to get by. So spending 
over $10,000 a year on these essentials that are in our lives, they 
would let the IRS be in just about every American's bank account.
  Democrats' plan would also expand green energy tax credits for 
wealthy Americans so they can buy expensive electric vehicles they can 
already afford. A millionaire can buy the most expensive new Tesla for 
$150,000, and under what the senior Senator from Oregon has proposed, 
they will be able to claim a tax credit worth $12,500. Nebraska 
taxpayers don't need to be subsidizing new electric cars for rich 
Americans.
  And maybe worst of all, the House plan does not include the Hyde 
amendment, which Republicans and Democrats have agreed on for decades. 
If the radical left succeeds in taking that out, taxpayers will be 
required to pay for abortions for the first time in more than 40 years.

  The American people have been watching this country bounce from 
crisis to crisis to crisis, and after so many disasters in a row, one 
poll shows that President Biden's approval rating is down to just 37 
percent. Barely a third of Americans approve of the job this President 
is doing, and a majority say this administration is not competent.
  That should tell President Biden that his agenda isn't as popular in 
the rest of America as it is in the beltway bubble. But, instead, the 
President is forging ahead with more Federal Government controls.
  There is now even talk of a Federal vaccine mandate. The government 
is going to twist an obscure labor law beyond recognition to force 
Americans to take that vaccine.
  I believe in the vaccines. I believe they are safe and effective and 
we should be encouraging people to choose to get vaccinated, but the 
government--the government--simply has no business requiring Americans 
to do it. Under the President's new Executive order, businesses with 
more than 100 employees are being forced to comply with the vaccine 
mandate or submit employees to weekly testing; otherwise, they will 
risk losing crucial employees.
  I recently signed on to a letter led by the junior Senator from 
Alaska that urges the President to reconsider. There is absolutely no 
precedent in American history for a Federal vaccine requirement, and 
President Biden will be on entirely new legal ground if he moves ahead 
with this.
  One of the most unsettling things I have seen from this 
administration wasn't something that they said or did; it was something 
that they left unsaid. When Jen Psaki broke the news that the Federal 
Government was going to try to force through this mandate, she smiled. 
In response to a reporter who asked if the President had the power to 
enforce vaccination for private employees--not Federal contractors, 
private employees--she said, ``Yes. Stay tuned.'' And then she grinned.
  Without saying anything, she showed that the Biden administration is 
relishing this chance to push the limits of Executive power. When you 
take that together with the incompetence that has been on display since 
January, from the Afghanistan debacle to the crisis at our southern 
border, to our administration's complete disregard for how inflation is 
devastating hard-working families and the poor in our country, I think 
you start to get a good idea of what the Biden administration is all 
about.
  They are going to trample on the Constitution to advance a radical 
left agenda that is truly unprecedented in American history, and they 
don't care how many disasters they continue to create.
  Thank you.
  Madam President, I would ask consent that the 5:15 vote occur 
immediately.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Smith). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

                          ____________________