[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 214 (Monday, December 13, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9112-S9114]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Build Back Better Act

  Mr. President, on the list of people that my Democratic colleagues 
are claiming to help on this Build Back Better Act, there is a huge 
blank.
  I worked in education all my life. I worked around people all my 
life. What is missing from this list is American families, American 
families all over this country. For example, the childcare program in 
this tax-and-spend spree is really about only helping certain families. 
And that is fine--certain families--but we should help all families.
  But my colleagues want to help the ones that are structured toward 
the Democrats that they deem favorable, and that is not the American 
way. If you are in a two-parent, working household, my colleagues' plan 
would cost Mom and Dad thousands more each year to pay for their 
child's care. Think about that: thousands more. And this means tax many 
and give to a few. Well, that is not what we do here.

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  Additionally, a once bipartisan initiative, the child tax credit, is 
being reworked. The cost of that dramatic expansion will be paid for by 
joint filers; meaning, in other words, couples--our families--will pay 
the cost.
  I want to take a moment to contrast this attack on the family. It is 
an attack on the family approach with actual American families around 
the country are facing as we speak. This anti-family bill is not only 
coming at a time when families have to pay more for groceries and pay 
more for gas and higher prices at the gas pump but also when families 
are silently fighting other unnamed pandemic and problems. Those are 
the worsening problems of mental health and drug addiction issues in 
our country today, of which they are abundant.
  So I ask my colleagues: Why this bill? It doesn't build families back 
better. It builds them back broke. It helps a few, not all. It doesn't 
create jobs or support working families. It creates more reliance on 
Big Government socialism. And why now, when inflation is so high and 
when so many of our friends and families are struggling to find the 
help that they need?
  It goes without saying that the COVID pandemic has played and is 
playing a large role in the staggering rise in drug overdoses and 
increase in mental health crises and homelessness over the past couple 
of years. Americans were locked down unnecessarily long periods of 
time. Jobs were lost. And the economic engine of our Nation was brought 
to a screeching halt.
  Children lost out on valuable education opportunities and wondered 
when they were going to be able to see their friends again. Students' 
college experiences were forever changed, and working parents had to 
juggle schooling and full-time childcare in addition to holding down 
their own jobs.
  Throughout this turbulent time, Americans felt lonelier and more 
detached than ever before, especially in my lifetime.
  It is a dream too often turned into a nightmare for an increasing 
number of Americans, a promising future robbed by deadly drug 
addiction. And sadly, it is more common now than ever before. According 
to the latest data from the National Center for Health Statistics, we 
lost over 100,000 American lives due to drug overdoses from April 2020 
to April 2021. That is not including the last 8 months.
  This is an increase of 30 percent from the year before. Think of all 
the open seats that will be at the dinner table for Christmas lunch or 
dinner, the futures that will never be fully realized, the families 
forever mourning the loss of a loved one. It is happening every day.
  We have these known issues made worse by a pandemic; there is no 
doubt. Yet Democrats' response has been to open our borders and allow 
cartels to profit off of trafficking fentanyl and other deadly 
substances into our country. It is hard to imagine.
  Through the first 9 months of this year, the monthly average of 
fentanyl seized was 830 pounds--a month, 830 pounds. Compare that to a 
monthly average of 321 pounds from 2018 to 2020. Now, that is way too 
many--but 830 pounds a month. Two thousand pounds can kill 200 million 
people--200 million. That is three-fourths of the people in this 
country.

  Instead, we need to look at how we can address mental health and 
break the cycle of drug addiction and homelessness. That should be a 
priority in this building. There are solutions out there if we approach 
the problem the right way. It is clear that the money we are spending 
and the programs that we have in place are not working.
  We need to open our eyes. We should be strengthening the family. We 
know strong families are the backbone of a strong community, and right 
now, Democrats are too focused on sneaking in these progressive wish 
list items--like climate policy and taxes that put us on par with 
communist countries--into a bill under the guise that it will help all 
Americans. I am here to help Americans but the right way--all 
Americans.
  Last year, Congress got to work on passing bills to help with COVID 
relief. While some relief funds were certainly necessary for those who 
needed it the most, the government's role quickly went from providing 
targeted stimulus to unchecked spending month by month. And this year, 
my Democratic colleagues assumed a predictable response to every 
problem they faced: Just throw money at it.
  Folks, money is not the answer. People are the answer. And the money 
they want to use will be paid for, yes, by the American people. It is 
not government money. It is the American people, and it is the 
taxpayers' money.
  But pumping more money into the economy is not the solution. It did 
not work for American families earlier this year when was passed a $1.9 
trillion spending package that was passed off as COVID relief. It 
caused prices to rise and inflation to spike. It didn't address most of 
the issues families still face today.
  We spent all this money, and we have got worse problems. We throw 
money around in the name of solving problems. And if we do it this 
time, it won't work this time either. We are putting the country more 
in debt, and we are making problems worse. People are starting to 
figure it out.
  You know, as a football coach for 40 years, I know a little bit about 
strategy. I was a defensive guy. I like strategy. That is part of 
playing defense.
  A good defensive player must make a decision based on what is learned 
in practice and what their experience tells them, then they have the 
confidence to commit to that decision. But the key to winning the 
matchup is to always watch where the ball is if you are on defense. We 
always taught our players to play the game with your eyes. If you go to 
any practice, you will hear this: Defensive players, play with your 
eyes and trust your eyes.
  Offenses will throw motion across formation. They will run a trick 
play. They try to get your eye off the ball. You have the chance to go 
out there and stop the play if you trust your eyes.
  The same thing is happening right now. We are playing defense, and we 
cannot take our eye off--not the ball, but this bill. We have got to 
trust our eyes. The American people have to trust their eyes. 
Democratic colleagues are trying all sorts of tricks and political spin 
to convince Americans that their Build Back Better bill is a 
championship-caliber win. They are banking on Americans to be too busy 
and be too caught up in the holidays to understand what is really in 
this bill.
  But here is the thing: Americans should know that the Democrats' 
reckless tax-and-spend spree is nothing more than a gimmick, a trick 
play designed to fool the defense or the American people, to help a 
few, not everybody.
  The American people should trust their eyes. This bill is not 
thoughtful policy that will change American lives. It is a way to 
increase Big Government socialism and pay for it by increasing taxes on 
not a few in the 1 percent, but everybody in this country.
  Because of the way they are doing this bill, using an obscure 
procedural tool that is called reconciliation, everything in this bill 
has to be budgetary, as in related to the budget. Sometimes, this is 
useful, when you are trying to create a fairer, simpler Tax Code or 
make tax cuts. It is also a tool used to bypass the majority because it 
only needs 51 votes.
  But the reconciliation process actually limits what Congress can do 
to address most issues facing Americans because everything in this bill 
has to be budget related. Reconciliation does not allow Congress to 
thoughtfully construct policy or to make improvements that do not spend 
money. Throwing money at existing programs or even creating new 
programs that simply send out checks is not the same as making 
meaningful change.
  So when my Democratic colleagues say that their bill will help 
Americans, it will--a few--but not very many. All it does is throw 
money at problems, which is, as we have seen, not what our country 
needs. This reckless tax-and-spend spree creates a cradle-to-grave 
entitlement society but does not actually help people in that society.
  If we really wanted to help American families, we would start with a 
bipartisan effort, meaning that we would discuss the needs of all 
Americans, not just a few. In this very tough time, all citizens need 
help. Everybody needs help. It has been a tough time. It has been a 
tough couple of years. But this has just been a one-way street.
  We have folks who represent urban and rural areas, talking with each

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other about what American families actually need and what actually 
works. We could create targeted, thoughtful bills that didn't rely on 
budget gimmicks or party lines to pass.
  So we can't let our Democratic colleagues fool Americans. Their Build 
Back Better bill isn't making American families better. It is not 
helping Americans who are suffering from mental health issues. It is 
not helping our country's drug addiction problems. It is an anti-family 
bill that will make our country more dependent on Big Government, and 
it is spending money the wrong way.
  I yield the floor.