[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 192 (Tuesday, November 2, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7580-S7581]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Government Spending

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, in all of the time I have been in 
Washington, in both the House and the Senate, I have seen Republicans 
in control, in the majority, and I have seen Democrats in the majority. 
I have been on both sides of that, and I have seen Republican 
Presidents and Democrat Presidents. But one thing that doesn't change 
is that, when Democrats get power in Washington, they want to expand 
government, they want to grow government, they want to spend money.
  If you just look throughout history, at least since the time I have 
been here, that is just a fact. We have already seen them this year--
since the President came to power and the Democrats have had narrow 
majorities in the House and Senate, which they have interpreted somehow 
as being a mandate, but is a dead-even U.S. Senate--push through on a 
partisan basis a $1.9 trillion spending bill which expanded government. 
There is a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that has passed the Senate 
in a bipartisan way, on which there was some agreement, and it is still 
awaiting action in the House of Representatives.
  Already--already--in this new administration, that represents over $3 
trillion in spending, which is on infrastructure and some core hard 
infrastructure with respect to the bipartisan bill.
  The other bill was of a lot of things that the Republicans felt 
weren't necessary, particularly after the five bills we passed last 
year in 2020 in response to the pandemic.
  By the way, every one of those was on a bipartisan basis. So a lot of 
spending went on in responding to the pandemic--trillions and trillions 
of dollars.
  The first thing that happened when the Democrats came to power was 
that they passed another $2 trillion, and then an infrastructure bill. 
So we have already got over $3 trillion spent at a time when we have 
$30 trillion in debt--and growing by the day. Yet the Democrats' now 
proposal is to spend $3.5 trillion. Some on their side want to spend up 
to $6 trillion to grow and expand the government.
  So I guess it doesn't come as any surprise that that is what 
Democrats do. When they gain power, when they get majorities, they want 
to grow; they want to expand government; they want to spend more money 
and raise taxes to do it. It is almost like kind of a rite of passage 
in that, if you are going to be a good Democrat, this is what you do.
  As I said before, you know, after last year, in coming through the 
pandemic at a time when the country had to and both sides agreed to 
address the concerns and the needs that were out there--to keep people 
employed, to keep businesses operating and workers employed, to support 
our healthcare industry, to support our schools--there were enormous 
amounts of money that went into the economy last year.
  You would think that when the Democrats took power this time that 
they might want to dial it back and just think about seeing how the 
economy reacts before going on a full-blown effort to grow and expand 
government once again, but what we saw right out of the gate, 
immediately--and, again, in a very partisan way--was a $2 trillion 
spending bill.
  I say that again because we all know that the amount of debt that we 
have today dwarfs, eclipses, anything--anything--in history even close 
to what we are talking about. Even if you go back to the thirties and 
the big expansion of government then--and, by the way, I think part of 
this is that President Biden was convinced that he could be the next 
FDR. And to do that, you have got to spend lots of money. And so trying 
to find stuff to spend it on has been a challenge. They have come up 
with a big list, and a list, again, that would be financed with a lot 
of tax increases that, I think, would be incredibly harmful to the 
economy.
  But what I want to talk about briefly this morning is just what has 
happened as a result of the spending that has already occurred and 
what, I think, is going to happen if the massive amount of spending 
they want to do from here forward actually happens.
  Like I said, we will do everything we can to stop it. I think it is 
just an absolutely disastrous prescription for the economy right now 
and as to what people are already experiencing in their daily lives.
  Last week, we learned that economic growth for the third quarter had 
fallen short of expectations, largely driven by a deceleration in 
consumer spending and supply problems of goods and labor.
  Meanwhile, American families continue to deal with what is rapidly 
becoming a serious, long-term inflation problem that is attributable, 
in many respects--again, as I will get to later--to the amount of 
spending and the number of dollars that have been flooding the economy.
  Last month, consumer prices rose at the fastest pace in 30 years. A 
recent estimate from the chief economist at Moody's Analytics suggested 
that an average household is having to spend an additional $175 a month 
on basics, thanks to inflation--175 bucks a month.
  That may not sound like much to a wealthy Democrat politician, but 
that is a lot of money for an ordinary American family. Having $175 a 
month can be the difference between putting something away in savings 
and living paycheck to paycheck. It can be the difference between 
whether or not you can afford braces for your child or whether you have 
the money to replace a broken appliance or to make a needed car repair.
  Our inflation problem has gotten to the point that it has overtaken 
wage growth. Inflation is growing faster than wages, which means that 
many American families have received a de facto pay cut. The growth in 
wages isn't keeping up with the increase in costs in their lives.
  So how did we end up here?
  As I said, a lot of the problem traces back to this past March, when 
the Democrats decided to pour a lot of unnecessary government money 
into the economy under the guise of COVID relief. By the time the 
President and the Democrats took office in January, Congress had passed 
no fewer than five bipartisan COVID relief bills--the most recent of 
them in December. The December COVID relief bill that we passed 
contained almost $1 trillion in funding and met, essentially, all of 
the pressing COVID needs the country was facing.
  But that didn't matter. That didn't matter to the Democrats. Now that 
they were in charge, they were eager to take advantage of the 
opportunity the

[[Page S7581]]

COVID crisis presented to push their Big Government agenda. So they 
decided to pass another ostensible COVID bill less than 3 months after 
the December bill and before a lot of money from the December bill had 
even been disbursed.
  They gave $129 billion to schools, even though schools had spent just 
a small fraction of the $68 billion they had already been given.
  They created a staggering $350 billion slush fund for States, despite 
the fact that the majority of States already had the money that they 
needed to deal with the pandemic, and many, many States were operating 
in a surplus situation.
  They extended enhanced unemployment benefits until September of 2021, 
despite the millions--literally millions--of available job openings; 
and they made part of the unemployment compensation tax-free, creating 
incentives for Americans to stay on unemployment instead of returning 
to work.
  Among other things, they provided an additional $21 billion in rental 
assistance, none of which has yet been needed.
  In short, their so-called American Rescue Plan flooded the economy 
with a lot of unnecessary government money, and the results were 
predictable: inflation.
  The definition of ``inflation'' is too many dollars chasing too few 
goods and services, and that is exactly the situation the Democrats 
created. They sent too many dollars into the economy, and the economy 
overheated as a result.
  You don't have to take my word for it. Here is what former Obama 
economic adviser Jason Furman had to say recently when discussing our 
current inflation problem:

       The original sin was an oversized American Rescue Plan. It 
     contributed to both higher output but also higher prices.

  That was from Jason Furman, Obama's economic adviser.
  That quote from Mr. Furman appeared in a recent New York Times 
article that also noted:

       But some economists, including veterans of previous 
     Democratic administrations, say much of Mr. Biden's inflation 
     struggle is self-inflicted. Lawrence H. Summers is one of 
     those who say the stimulus bill the president signed in March 
     gave too much of a boost to consumer spending . . . Mr. 
     Summers, who served in the Obama and Clinton administrations, 
     says inflation now risks spiraling out of control and other 
     Democratic economists agree there are risks.

  So what are congressional Democrats doing in response? Well, they are 
planning to flood the economy with even more government dollars. That 
is right. Instead of keeping a sharp eye on government spending to make 
sure our inflation situation doesn't get worse, Democrats are planning 
to double down on the strategy that got us into this position in the 
first place.
  Democrats are trying to finalize a new--now it is $1.75 trillion--
tax-and-spending spree, the so-called Build Back Better plan, on top, 
as I said, of the $1.9 trillion spending spree from earlier this year. 
And I say $1.75 trillion, but Democrats have only arrived at that 
number through a combination of shell games and budget gimmicks. The 
real cost of this proposal over 10 years is going to be way, way 
higher--way, way higher; some estimates in the $4 trillion range.
  So, once again, Democrats want to flood the economy with government 
dollars, including billions for such priorities as tree equity--tree 
equity--and environmental justice programs at well-funded colleges and 
universities. That is right--Ivy League schools that don't have 
problems financially, where students pay tens of thousands of dollars 
in tuition every year, will get tax credits if they teach courses on 
environmental justice.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be able to complete my 
remarks before the vote begins.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Padilla). Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I am forcibly reminded that the definition 
of ``insanity'' is the doing the same thing over and over again and 
expecting different results. What exactly do Democrats think is going 
to happen to inflation if they pass this $1.75 trillion legislation? Do 
they think that if one round of excessive government spending triggered 
inflation, another round of excessive government spending is going to 
cure it? Do they think that dumping more fuel into an already 
overheated economy is somehow going to put out the inflationary fire? 
If they do, they have got another think coming.
  The only thing Democrats' latest spending spree is going to do is 
make our inflation problem worse. We are already looking at serious 
inflation lasting well into next year. Add Democrats' Build Back Better 
spending spree to the mix, and we could be looking at a very, very long 
period of inflated prices and reduced spending power for American 
families.
  Democrats were warned that their March spending spree could spur 
inflation; they passed it anyway. So I don't have a lot of hope that 
Democrats are going to heed concerns about inflation, even coming from 
their own economists, when it comes to their current tax-and-spending 
plan, but I and every other Republican will stand firm against this 
reckless tax-and-spending spree and will continue to urge our 
Democratic colleagues to rethink their spending agenda before inflation 
soars out of control and American families have to suffer the 
consequences.
  I yield the floor.

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