[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 212 (Wednesday, December 8, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S9003]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              THE ECONOMY

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, for Washington Democrats, 2021 will 
have one major theme: ramming through inflationary spending on a 
partisan basis that hurts American families and actually helps China. 
That is how this all-Democratic Government began the year, jamming 
through a wasteful excuse for a stimulus bill that drove up prices and 
made supply chain problems even worse. Not a single Republican 
supported it, and Democrats now want to end the year with another 
massive spree that would make it even worse.
  The whole country understands that Democrats own this mess. They have 
seized one-party control of the economy. So you better believe that 
they will have one-party accountability for the resulting nightmare.
  The President and his allies are badly upside down in overall 
approval ratings, upside down on the generic ballot, upside down on the 
economy. And the more the men and women of this country learn about the 
reckless taxing-and-spending spree that Democrats are planning next, 
the less they want it or anything close to it.
  Democrats have wanted to transform the country alone. They want to 
print and borrow trillion after trillion on their own. They want to 
create even more inflation on their own. So, as the Republicans have 
made clear for months, they will have to own a debt ceiling increase as 
well. This week, the House and Senate have reached a bipartisan 
agreement to make that happen. As the Democratic leader said yesterday, 
the Democrats are ``willing to carry the burden.'' And so they will.

  We have reached an agreement on a one-time, one-shot statutory 
process that will enable Democrats to raise the debt limit at a fixed 
dollar amount, which they will specify. Much like the vote on an arms 
sales resolution that occurred yesterday and the Congressional Review 
Act vote that will occur today, this will be a standard expedited 
process, at a simple majority threshold, established by law. Democrats 
will get one shot at this. They won't be able to add any other 
amendments. And every single Senate Democrat will have to put their 
name to the gigantic dollar amount of debt they are prepared to pile on 
the American people.

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