[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 199 (Tuesday, November 16, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S8216]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Build Back Better Agenda

  Mr. President, make no mistake, we will keep going in the weeks ahead 
by passing the rest of President Biden's Build Back Better agenda.
  It is very simple. If we want to create more jobs, if we want to 
fight inflation, if we want to help families lower costs, the best 
thing we can do is pass Build Back Better.
  Let me repeat that. Want to fight inflation? Support Build Back 
Better.
  For all of 2021, we have seen a historic and unprecedented economic 
recovery compared to where we were at the depths of the COVID crisis. 
But there is no denying that, as our recovery continues, we must work 
to address supply chain troubles that have exacerbated inflation in 
recent months.
  Build Back Better is exactly what the doctor ordered. No fewer than 
17 Nobel Prize-winning economists and economists across the political 
spectrum have said repeatedly that Build Back Better and infrastructure 
together will reduce--reduce--inflationary pressures.
  In just, I think it was, this morning's Washington Post, Larry 
Summers, one of the inflation hawks in this country, recommended 
passing Build Back Better as a way to reduce inflation.
  The childcare investments alone will save parents thousands of 
dollars a year. Right now, families pay an average of $10,000 annually 
on childcare for each kid under 4. Many pay more than that. That is a 
backbreaking expense that too many families--the majority--simply 
cannot afford.
  Build Back Better will provide the largest investment in childcare 
ever. Extending the childcare tax credit will help parents save on 
things like diapers and groceries and gasoline.
  And, of course, Build Back Better will finally empower Medicare to 
directly negotiate drug prices in Part B and Part D, lowering costs for 
millions of seniors and American families. On insulin alone, our plan 
would make it so that Americans with diabetes won't pay more than $35 a 
month for insulin.
  Mr. President, none of the things I am talking about are luxuries; 
none are handouts. They are daily essentials that families need to 
thrive and which, over the years, have grown expensive.
  And America is behind this. In every poll you see, they are for of 
all these things.
  Why will not a single Republican vote for it? Why will not a single 
Republican vote to reduce insulin costs to $35, not a single Republican 
vote to help Americans with childcare, not a single Republican vote for 
the best way to reduce inflation, even though they talk about it a lot?
  It is profoundly disappointing to see our Republican colleagues more 
focused on exploiting problems faced by the American people. Just 
recently, my colleague, the junior Senator from Florida, told Americans 
precisely how he feels about the rising costs, inflation costs, faced 
by families. His quote: ``[It] is a gold mine for us.'' It is a gold 
mine; that is what the Republican junior Senator from Florida said.
  How cynical, how low, how wildly out of touch is that?
  The same Republicans who spent years under Donald Trump cutting taxes 
for the wealthy are now opposing relief for the middle class and 
cheering for costs to go up. I hope the American people remember that. 
Democrats are fighting to pass legislation to lower costs. Republicans, 
on the other hand, think inflation is ``a gold mine'' for them and are 
rooting for prices to go up. These are the same partisan, shortsighted 
games that have frustrated American families, who have increasingly 
wondered who in government is looking out for them.
  Well, yesterday, Americans got to see one shining example of what can 
happen when elected officials do look out for them. Build Back Better 
is another opportunity to do the same, and we will not let up until we 
pass Build Back Better and keep our promise to recapture that sunny 
American optimism that has long been the key to our success.