[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 2 (Tuesday, January 4, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S20]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Coronavirus

  Mr. President, on a completely different matter, as the Senate begins 
this new year and new session, millions of Americans are yet again 
having life disrupted by a new and surging variant of the coronavirus. 
Thus far, there is cause for optimism. The rapidly spreading Omicron 
variant seems to cause milder disease than previous iterations. By now, 
a huge portion of our population has some immunity through our 
remarkable safe and effective vaccines or through prior exposure, and 
our healthcare providers know much more today than they did 2 years 
ago.
  Unfortunately, the last few weeks have also exposed big gaps between 
the Biden administration's promises and the reality under their 
leadership. In 2020, then-Candidate Biden promised he would ``shut down 
the virus.'' That clearly has not happened. Back when the virus had 
killed 220,000 Americans, then-Candidate Biden said that ``anyone who 
is responsible for that many deaths should not remain as President of 
the United States.'' Now almost four times that many people have died.
  Look, nobody is solely blaming this administration for this mutating 
virus, but nobody forced Democrats to campaign on those promises and 
attacks. They chose to do that, but they haven't governed accordingly.
  It has been nearly a year since President Biden inherited three 
vaccines and a distribution operation that was already putting a 
million shots in a million arms every day. That was before this 
administration took office. What new solutions do Democrats have to 
show for a full year in power? Where is their 2021 equivalent to our 
2020's Operation Warp Speed? What did they produce in 11 months besides 
angry speeches about the vaccines they inherited? Why does the pandemic 
in January 2022 feel so eerily similar to the pandemic in January of 
2021, except that this administration happened to get lucky with an 
apparently less-dangerous variant?
  After a year of this administration, families are still having 
trouble tracking down testing for work, school, travel, or even peace 
of mind. This administration has limited important treatments. They 
dragged their heels on promising innovations. They have been 
inexplicably slow to disburse relief funds for hospitals and providers 
that Congress set aside ages ago. They have used odd, alienating 
rhetoric around the vaccines they inherited.
  And remember, last spring when our Democratic colleagues spent $1.9 
trillion on a supposedly COVID-related spending bill, only 9 percent of 
it went to the actual fight against COVID-19--just 9 percent of the 
$1.9 trillion authorized last March.
  So this all-Democrat government spent its first year distracted, and 
the country is feeling the consequences.