[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 126 (Thursday, July 28, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3766-S3768]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Inflation Reduction Act

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, a few weeks ago, the fate of the CHIPS 
Act, our collective effort to shore up the vulnerable semiconductor 
supply chain, was in limbo. Republicans said we would not move forward 
with what was then known as USICA, the U.S. Innovation and Competition 
Act, while Democrats were crafting a partisan reckless massive tax and 
spending bill behind closed doors.
  Then Senator Manchin, the Senator from West Virginia, made a decision 
that angered most of his Democratic colleagues--he slammed the door on 
the climate and tax provisions and reconciliation. He said:

       Until we see the July inflation figures--

  Which we haven't seen yet--

       until we see the July Federal reserve interest rates, then 
     let's wait.

  He noted that families were struggling to buy such essentials as 
gasoline and groceries and added:

       I can't make that decision basically on taxes of any type.

  That was what I will call the old Joe.
  After we received assurances privately from some Senate Democrats, 
including the staff of the Senate majority leader, that the tax and 
climate provisions were off the table, we were able to move forward 
with USICA and the funding of this vulnerable semiconductor supply 
chain that is an important part of the bill that the House is voting on 
today.
  So Republicans and Democrats went to work, negotiating in good faith 
to reach an agreement because we recognized that the vulnerability of 
our semiconductor supply chain was an economic and national security 
existential threat because 90 percent of the advanced semiconductors in 
the world that power everything from your cell phone to the F-35, to 
the Stinger or the Javelin missiles that are being used in Ukraine 
today--90 percent of those come from overseas, and the United States 
makes zero percent of them. That was the vulnerability and the risk we 
were exposed to, so that is why we worked so hard on a bipartisan basis 
to pass what used to be called Endless Frontier. I guess it has had 
about four or five different names so far, but it started, in my mind, 
with the CHIPS for America Act that Mr. Warner, the Senator from 
Virginia, and I introduced in June of 2020.
  So we all celebrated with a bipartisan press conference just in the 
LBJ Room over here, but then shortly after that bipartisan 
announcement, we learned some astonishing news: The climate and tax 
provisions apparently

[[Page S3767]]

were never off the table despite what we had been told.
  Apparently, Democrats--specifically, the majority leader and Senator 
Manchin--just moved those discussions out of the public eye, into a 
secret back room. And I pretty much believe that other Democratic 
colleagues were not clued in on those negotiations. That is my 
impression. It was a secret deal between the majority leader and 
Senator Manchin.
  Well, as I said, the CHIPS Act was part of this larger China 
competitiveness bill passed around 1 o'clock, and it was just 4 hours 
later that Senator Manchin sent out a press release that ``Build Back 
Broke'' was now on track. After saying repeatedly he would not support 
such reckless policies, he has done an Olympic-worthy flip-flop, and 
there is simply no denying it.
  Let me talk about the new Joe.
  It simply can't be overstated how dramatic this reversal is. 
Democratic Senators called me and texted me yesterday after Senator 
Manchin's announcement.
  One said:

       I am so shocked and upset.

  Another said:

       I am appalled.

  A member of the President's Cabinet said:

       I hope you know and trust that I had absolutely no idea 
     this was going on.

  Just 2 weeks ago, Senator Manchin said he wouldn't support the 
climate policies and tax increases out of fear that it would fan the 
flames of inflation.
  Last month, as we will recall, inflation hit a new four-decade high. 
Everyday expenses for food, groceries, and other necessities of life 
were up more than 9 percent from just a year ago. Our colleague from 
West Virginia said he told the Democratic leader it would be ``wrong'' 
and ``not prudent'' to move forward while inflation was at a record 
high. Unfortunately, it didn't take long for that sense of fiscal 
responsibility to fade.
  I don't know the details about the secret deal between Senator 
Manchin and Senator Schumer that resulted in this reversal, but I have 
to say, it was ugly. Now Senator Manchin not only supports the ``Build 
Back Broke'' bill, he now said it is his proposal--he, in effect, wrote 
it--and it includes the same policies that he previously opposed.
  Tax hikes on working families and small businesses, Green New Deal 
climate policies, socialist price controls on prescription drugs, 
things like subsidies for wealthy purchasers of electric vehicles--
forget the fact that somebody who can't afford an electric vehicle, who 
has to drive an old clunker, perhaps, or buy a used car--they are the 
ones subsidizing wealthy people buying electric vehicles--it is all in 
there.
  Democrats could not have picked a worse time to push this reckless, 
irresponsible bill. This morning's news on the state of the economy 
confirms what millions of Americans have known for months: that the 
Biden recession is officially here. Our economy is not just stuck in 
the mud; it is sinking. Families and small businesses deserve better 
than a toxic combination of higher prices and feeble economic growth. 
Instead of helping the people survive this recession, our Democratic 
colleagues want to push them even deeper into the hole.
  In 2008, Senator Schumer himself, the majority leader, said that 
raising taxes during a recession was a bad idea.
  President Obama said exactly the same thing. In 2009, President 
Obama--in the aftermath of the great recession due to the financial 
crisis in 2008--President Obama said virtually the same thing that 
Senator Schumer said:

       The last thing you want to do is raise taxes in the middle 
     of a recession.

  And that is exactly where we are.
  The following year, in 2010, Senator Manchin agreed with Senator 
Schumer and President Obama. He said:

       I don't think during a time of recession you mess with any 
     of the taxes or increase any taxes.

  That is the old Joe. That is the same Senator who is now proposing to 
raise taxes on families in the middle of a recession.
  Now, here is the real joke, but I guess the joke is on all of us: 
They are calling it the Inflation Reduction Act. What an insult to the 
intelligence of the American people. Do they think anybody will be 
fooled? Do they think the American people are so stupid that they will 
believe this is an honest attempt to address inflation? There is not a 
chance. This proposal is a wolf in sheep's clothing. Our Democratic 
colleagues can try to rebrand the ``Build Back Broke'' bill that they 
tried to pass earlier this year all they want, but it is filled with 
the same rotten policies that will hurt families, small businesses, and 
energy producers, while the President, by the way, goes to Saudi Arabia 
hat in hand, asking the leader of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to 
produce more oil overseas rather than encourage domestic production 
here in America.
  If this bill were to pass, it would eliminate any chance we had of 
escaping the recession policies that Democrats have landed us in.
  Families are being crushed by the worst inflation in four decades. 
For every dollar you have, it is worth 91 cents in purchasing power 
because of the broken policies of the Biden administration. But it is 
not the politicians who pay the price; we are doing just fine. It is 
the working families all across this country who are paying the price 
for Democrats' war on American energy, for example. And they are sick 
and tired of being told by Washington Democrats that you can tax and 
spend our way out of this mess.
  I have some bad news: If the Democratic leader can manage to keep all 
50 Democrats on board, it is going to get worse. Our only hope is that 
a single Democratic Senator will oppose this massive, irresponsible 
bill, and it only takes one in a 50-50 Senate.
  Not only will this bill have a devastating impact on the American 
people, it will absolutely paralyze this Chamber.
  There have been recent discussions about, well, amidst polarization, 
there is possibility for bipartisan cooperation, and I have been proud 
to be a part of some of that bipartisan cooperation. I think we have 
done some important things for the American people.
  But the Senate functions on trust. There are only 100 of us, and the 
relationships and the confidence that we have that when somebody looks 
you in the eye and tells you something, that they are going to stick 
with it, is important to negotiating in good faith and building 
consensus that is necessary to pass legislation. That is the only way 
we can pass legislation--work in a bipartisan, candid, good-faith way 
to get things done, like our mental health and school safety bill 
recently. That trust was eviscerated yesterday.
  Senators Manchin and Schumer did not draft this 725-page bill in the 
4 hours between the passage of the CHIPS Act and Senator Manchin's 
press release. They have been working on this the entire time, when 
they told us it was off the table. How is this Chamber supposed to 
function if we don't have at least some modicum of trust in what our 
colleagues tell us? How can we negotiate in good faith, compromise 
where necessary, and get things done together after the majority leader 
and the Senator from West Virginia pull a stunt like this?
  The American people are sometimes left to wonder whether our 
institutions, including this one, can work anymore. Well, I can only 
speak for this Senator when I say: This betrayal is an absolute 
declaration of political warfare.
  For years, many of our Democratic colleagues have claimed that the 
Senate is broken because of the filibuster. They act as though a 
procedural vote with the 60-vote threshold is an end of democracy as we 
know it. But look where we are now. The Democratic leader is crafting 
secret deals in back rooms. He is keeping members of his own political 
party in the dark, such that they have to apologize to people like me 
who have been willing to trust that what people say--that their word is 
their bond.
  Look, if somebody can't agree with me, I would prefer they tell me 
outright, and then we can figure out where we can agree if we can't 
agree in some areas. But to look you in the eye and tell you one thing 
and then to do another is absolutely unforgiveable.
  Now the majority leader is trying to abuse the rules of the Senate to 
pass a $700 billion partisan spending bill in the next week, in the 
next matter of days--a bill that was only announced in a press release 
yesterday.

[[Page S3768]]

  The Senate is not broken, but I am afraid, if this stunt pays off, 
Democrats are about to break it.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Idaho is recognized.