[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 205 (Monday, November 29, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S8769]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          GOVERNMENT SPENDING

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, now on a related matter, why do our 
Democratic colleagues want to shortchange our national defense? Well, 
to free up their time and attention for another massive, reckless 
taxing-and-spending spree, a radical wish list that would hurt American 
families and help China.
  Working families are already getting slammed by runaway costs because 
the Democrats' last massive spending spree drove up inflation. Gas 
prices are up about 50 percent, used car prices are up more than 25 
percent, and grocery prices across practically every category are up 
significantly over this time last year.
  But, in response, Washington Democrats want to print, borrow, and 
spend trillions more. Even if you accept all their budget gimmicks at 
face value, this bill alone would unleash $800 billion in not-paid-for 
spending in the next 5 years. Years 5 through 10 are when their 
crushing tax hikes and phony accounting would actually begin to kick 
in. But even then the bill is not paid for.
  President Biden promised Americans over and over that this 
legislation would cost zero dollars. Obviously, that is false. The 
Congressional Budget Office says that after 10 years, after their tax 
hikes and fake offsets are factored in, their spree would still add up 
to $367 billion and add that all to the deficit.
  President Biden said the deficit impact would be zero. In reality, it 
is hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars.
  President Biden promised Americans something else too. He said he 
would never raise taxes on the middle class. People earning less than 
$400,000 per year were not to pay a penny more. He has completely 
broken this promise as well.
  Among the $1.5 trillion in job-killing tax increases are new burdens 
for small businesses, family farms, and direct hikes on middle-class 
families earning less than six figures. Meanwhile, amazingly, Democrats 
did find room in their plan to include $300 billion in tax cuts for the 
wealthiest blue-State ZIP codes in New York and California. Our 
colleagues want to pretend they are launching another New Deal. Yet one 
of the biggest components is a direct cash giveaway to their richest 
constituents.
  So the cost of this spending spree would be astronomical, and the 
massive tax hikes that would only partly pay for it would literally 
crush an already fragile economy.
  Well, what about the content of the liberal wish list? If Democrats 
get to steal the American people's credit card for this historic 
spending spree, what would our citizens even get to unwrap?
  Well, there would be massive government giveaways to supposedly green 
initiatives, giving rise to a whole new generation of waste and abuse 
like Solyndra.
  There would be a gigantic slush fund so that HHS Secretary Becerra, 
the culture warrior who sued Catholic nuns, could take over daycare and 
prekindergarten across America. He would be in charge of subsidizing 
certain kinds of private family choices but not others and tilting the 
playing field against faith-based childcare.
  There would be a continuation of inflationary welfare payments that 
Washington is sending out with zero work requirements whatsoever, and 
illegal immigrants would get the money as well. Oh, and, as we speak, 
Senate Democrats are still trying desperately behind the scenes to get 
sweeping amnesty included in the bill as well.
  So it goes on and on like this, a hodgepodge catalog that is built to 
satisfy the demands of activists, not the needs of families. If you ask 
any working-class or middle-class American family for their top 
concerns, you aren't going to hear many people pining for massive tax 
hikes, electric car charging stations, and woke bureaucrats getting 
control of their kids' early childhoods.
  My colleagues across the aisle seem determined to spend the weeks 
ahead on ways to waste Americans' money while making Americans' 
problems even worse. So let's hope enough of our Democratic colleagues 
step back, take stock, do the responsible thing, and kill this bill.

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