[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 199 (Tuesday, November 16, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8218-S8219]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Biden Administration

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, we are coming up on a year of Democratic 
governance here in Washington, and what do Democrats have to show for 
it? Nothing good.
  On the international front, the President's most significant act was 
his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, which lowered our standing 
with our allies and continues to jeopardize our national security.
  On the domestic front, Democrats have largely ignored a massive 
crisis along our southern border that continues to rage because they 
can't take on the open borders left in their own political party.
  Look at what is happening with the supply chain. There are 90 
containers sitting at the port at Long Beach waiting to get into the 
country, and the President and his team can't really do anything about 
it because they are unwilling to take on the Teamsters.
  If you look at our cities, homicides are up in all of our major 
cities across this country. It seems that perhaps a ``defund the 
police'' approach to communities' safety isn't something that sends the 
right signal to people who want to break our laws.
  Then there is inflation. You might call it the Democrats' signature 
domestic achievement.
  So how did we get here? How did they get us here? Well, despite their 
lack of a mandate and their extremely narrow majorities in Congress, 
Democrats came into office last January determined to expand government 
and implement a far-left, Big Government, socialist agenda. In their 
minds, the coronavirus crisis provided the perfect opportunity to 
advance their plans.
  So despite the fact that Congress had just passed--just passed--a 
nearly $1 trillion bipartisan coronavirus response bill in December--
the fifth, I might add, the fifth bipartisan bill Congress had passed 
in just 10 months--Democrats declared that we immediately needed 
another piece of ostensibly coronavirus relief legislation--and not 
just another piece of legislation, a massive piece of legislation.
  Despite the fact that the December bill had met essentially all of 
the pressing coronavirus needs the country was facing, Democrats 
decided that we needed to spend another $1.9 trillion. Democrats were 
warned that the size of their so-called American Rescue Plan, which was 
substantially in excess of anything the economy required, ran the risk 
of spurring inflation.
  Obama economic adviser Larry Summers warned in the Washington Post:

       There is a chance that macroeconomic stimulus on a scale 
     closer to World War II levels than normal recession levels 
     will set off inflationary pressures of a kind we have not 
     seen in a generation, with consequences for the value of the 
     dollar and financial stability.

  That, again, was Obama economic adviser Larry Summers.
  Well, Democrats passed their bill anyway. They flooded the economy 
with a lot of unnecessary government money, and the results have been 
predictable. Inflation. Significant inflation. Inflation, to borrow a 
phrase from Larry Summers, ``of a kind we have not seen in a 
generation.''
  Last week, we found out that inflation rose 6.2 percent last year in 
a year-over-year analysis, the largest increase in more than 30 years--
30 years.
  Families are facing higher prices at the grocery store. And when I 
say ``higher,'' I mean a lot higher. The price of meat, poultry, fish, 
and eggs was up 11.9 percent year over year in October--11.9 percent. 
Families are also facing higher prices at the gas pump, for housing, 
for electricity, for furniture and vehicles and pets and pet products, 
and the list goes on.
  While wages are rising, they are being outstripped by inflation, 
which means that many families are dealing with a de facto pay cut. 
Think about it--6.2 percent increase in inflation. That is essentially 
a 6.2-percent pay cut for American families.
  A big reason families are struggling with the higher cost of pretty 
much everything is Democrats' decision to flood the economy with 
unnecessary government money by passing the so-called American Rescue 
Plan. You don't have to take my word for it; I quoted Larry Summers 
earlier.
  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.

  Now, you might think that the inflation that has resulted from the 
American Rescue Plan would be giving Democrats pause right now. You 
might think that they would be putting a hold, you know, tapping the 
brakes a little bit on any more big spending until inflation calms down 
somewhat from its 30-plus-year high. But you would be wrong. Democrats 
are actually planning to double down on the strategy that helped cause 
so much inflation in the first place and pass another giant spending 
bill.
  That is right.
  Democrats are trying to finalize a new $1.75 trillion tax-and-
spending spree, the so-called Build Back Better plan--on top of their 
$1.9 trillion spending spree from earlier this year.
  I say $1.75 trillion, but Democrats only arrived at that number 
through a combination of shell games and budget gimmicks. An honest 
accounting of the cost of this proposal over 10 years would reveal a 
much higher pricetag--some analyses and assessments suggest as high as 
$4 trillion or more.
  And if Democrats succeed in passing this latest partisan spending 
spree, Americans should brace themselves because this new flood of 
government money will undoubtedly make an already serious inflation 
situation much worse.
  It is no exaggeration to say that Democrats' main focus this year has 
been growing the size of the Federal Government and expanding its reach 
into Americans' lives. No sooner had they passed their massive $1.9 
trillion spending bill in March, then the Democrats moved on to their 
next massive spending proposals which have been coalesced into the so-
called Build Back Better bill the House is planning to take up later 
this week.
  Other government business has been forced to take a backseat. 
Democrats have ignored, as I said earlier, the massive--massive--crisis 
at our southern border. They have ignored our inflation crisis. And 
they have pushed consideration of essential legislation in favor of 
working on their tax-and-spending plan.
  This week, the Senate will finally--and I say finally--consider the 
fiscal year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, a month and a half 
after the 2022 fiscal year has started. Shipbuilding projects, military 
infrastructure projects, development of new combat systems, a pay 
increase for our troops, they have all had to wait--all had to wait--
while Democrats negotiated over their Big Government socialist spending 
spree.
  And about that socialist spending spree, despite the fact that 
Democrats have pushed aside most other matters in favor of focusing on 
their spending plan, they still haven't managed to come up with a bill 
that can pass the House and the Senate.
  And the tax proposals they plan to use to--and I say partially--
partially pay for the bill seem to change on a daily basis. And I say 
partially because, again, a great independent analysis from places like 
Penn Wharton suggest that the revenue that they would raise to pay for 
all the spending in the bill would fall somewhere between $2 and $2.5 
trillion short of the

[[Page S8219]]

cost of the bill. That is $2 to $2.5 trillion that would be added to 
the already $30 trillion national debt.
  Let's just say, for example, that these ideas they have to partially 
pay for this bill seem to change on a daily basis. A corporate tax 
hike? No, let's change it to a corporate minimum tax. A new death tax? 
No, let's change it to a new tax on wealth--something we have never 
talked about before in this country, taxing unrealized gains. That is 
taxing income before people have actually seen the income--the realized 
income.
  Funding for their bill seems to be a matter of throwing spaghetti at 
the wall on a daily basis to try and see what sticks. There isn't a day 
that went by in the last couple of weeks, when we were in session the 
week before last, where there wasn't another horrible idea that came 
from that side of how to raise revenue to finance this massive, 
reckless, and radical spending bill. And of course all of Democrats' 
current funding proposals put together will not be able to pay for 
their legislation, especially when you remove, as I said earlier, the 
budget gimmicks that are disguising the true cost of their plans.
  As their narrow majorities made clear, the 2020 election did not give 
Democrats a mandate for Big Government socialism. And if that wasn't 
clear to Democrats in 2020, it should certainly be clear to them now 
after the election for the Virginia Governor this month, which saw 
Republicans win statewide for the first time since 2009. Voters in 
Virginia sent a clear message to Democrats that they weren't looking 
for far-left government or a far-left social agenda that would seek to 
circumvent parents' role in their children's lives and education. But 
just as inflation concerns have not stopped Democrats, it has become 
clear that their rebuke in Virginia won't stop them either. In fact, 
some Democrats seem to think that their response should be to run 
faster and further to the left.
  So the big agenda item for Democrats for the rest of the year 
continues to be passing their partisan Build Back Better tax-and-
spending spree, which means Americans will be able to look forward to 
further inflation and a weaker economy, not to mention increased 
government control of their decision making.
  It is a poor legacy for Democrats' first year in office, but it seems 
to be the legacy Democrats are determined to secure.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Padilla). The Senator from Virginia is 
recognized.
  Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, I am glad to follow my colleague from the 
Dakotas because I would certainly never attempt to interpret the 
electorate of another State.
  I can tell you about the Virginia elections that happened a couple 
weeks back. The message, I think, from our voters pretty loud and clear 
was: We want you to get stuff done. If we in the Senate and in the 
House had passed the infrastructure bill and passed the Build Back 
Better bill before the Virginia election, I think the outcome would 
have been different.
  What we were hearing again and again from voters is: We gave you a 
majority. Please act on it, especially at this time when Americans are 
so challenged by now nearly 20 months of pandemic and economic 
devastation.
  So I stand on the floor as a proud Virginian, very focused on 
celebrating the accomplishment of yesterday--President Biden's 
signature on the infrastructure bill--but also saying we have to pass 
the Build Back Better bill in order to respond to what our constituents 
are asking of us at this challenging time.