[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 144 (Thursday, September 8, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4503-S4509]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Socialism

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I am a firm believer in the American 
dream. People come to this country, perhaps as legal immigrants, start 
with little, invest themselves in a lot of hard work because they don't 
have anything else to invest, provide for their families, maybe even 
eventually start a small business of their own, create jobs and a means 
to earn a livelihood for their employees. That is what I think most 
people think of when they think about the American dream.
  And it is built on an economic system known as capitalism, as 
distinguished from socialism. And capitalism has lifted more people out 
of poverty than any other economic system known to humankind.
  There are those who have a different point of view. They call 
themselves democratic socialists.
  I actually have here before me the Democratic Socialists of America 
web page that asks the question: ``What is democratic socialism.''
  They start first with the criticism of capitalism. They say:

       Capitalism is a system designed by the owning class to 
     exploit the rest of us for their own profit.

  That is an incredibly cynical and, I think, misguided view, but that 
is their opinion.
  And they go on to say:

       We must replace it with democratic socialism.

  And there are a number of Members of Congress, notably the junior 
Senator from Vermont here who is an advocate for democratic socialism. 
I have read where he gave a speech explaining why he thinks that is a 
better way to go.
  And then there are a number of Members of the House known 
colloquially as the Squad, who are members of the Democratic Socialists 
of America and advocate their particular point of view.
  Even though Joe Biden was elected President of the United States in 
2020, he essentially has embraced the democratic socialist agenda--the 
Green New Deal, Medicare for All, free college, free childcare, free 
everything.
  Well, to no one's surprise, once people called it what it was and 
what it is, it didn't make it very far. The American people experienced 
a severe sticker shock when they heard the cost of these proposals.
  One estimate pegged the cost of the Green New Deal at a whopping $93 
trillion, an absolutely unfathomable amount of money.
  And much to our Democratic colleagues' surprise, families do not want 
the Federal Government managing every little detail of their lives, 
from making their childcare arrangements to determining which doctors 
they can see or, rather, which doctors they can't see.
  Our Democratic friends found that socialism wasn't as popular as they 
hoped, but they weren't ready to give up on the bigger government 
dreams so they made a few marketing changes.

[[Page S4504]]

They switched branding. They adopted a new strategy, and now what we 
are seeing, I believe, is the new socialism.
  Now, it is not as in your face, not as startling as what we saw a 
couple of years ago when people openly advocated democratic socialism, 
but the new socialism, I believe, is just as bad and even more 
dangerous because this time it is actually coming to fruition.
  You don't need to look very far. Just look at President Biden's 
claimed authority to ``forgive'' student loans. The President announced 
that he would cancel student loans for millions of borrowers. Any 
family with a mortgage or car payment or credit card debt knows there 
is no such thing as canceling debt. Every dollar that was borrowed will 
have to be paid back by somebody. Traditionally, and legally, that 
responsibility lies with the borrower--the person who took out the tens 
of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans 
without a thought about how they might eventually pay it back.
  But the President decided to throw tradition, personal 
responsibility, and, I would argue, the law, out the window in favor of 
a socialist approach where everybody chips in.
  To state the obvious, not every taxpayer has outstanding student 
debt. Many of our fellow Americans never went to college. Many have 
very good-paying jobs because they have pursued a trade--carpentry, 
plumbing or the like or they may decide they want to be a teacher or 
perform some other work that doesn't pay perhaps as well as a Wall 
Street job.
  Many people who did get a degree decided they needed to work at least 
part time to help pay for their bills. And then many, perhaps most, 
decided they had to pay the loans back after they graduated, just as 
they had agreed to do.
  Still, every person without a college debt will be expected to 
shoulder the cost, under President Biden's proposal, for someone else's 
degree, regardless of their ability to pay it back.
  College degrees are not a public good that should be covered by tax 
dollars. We provide a lot of generous support for higher education, and 
we should--Pell grants. Many colleges and universities have huge 
endowments that they use to give scholarships and financial aid to 
students.
  But this is not something that ought to be placed at the foot of the 
American taxpayer, in this form certainly. Once somebody has agreed to 
pay back their student debt, to be able to just walk away from it, to 
me, encourages all sorts of irresponsible conduct and expectations.
  These aren't shared expenses like commonly used roads, hospitals, or 
police departments. The individual who decides to borrow the money so 
they can attend college alone reaps the benefits of that degree. And, 
in fact, if you do go to college, your chances of earning more income 
tend to go up.
  But the real kicker here is that student loan socialism will cost the 
American taxpayer roughly half a trillion dollars--all to pay off the 
debt that the individuals involved knowingly and willingly took on.
  Of course, President Biden isn't the only one forcing more socialism 
on the American people. Our Democratic colleagues have gotten into the 
action too.
  Last month, they passed a reckless tax-and-spending spree that 
included enough handouts to make Fidel Castro proud.
  First are the expanded Affordable Care Act subsidies. Originally, the 
subsidies were provided, back when ObamaCare passed, to provide 
subsidies for people earning less than 400 percent of the Federal 
poverty level.
  But our Democratic colleagues last month not only increased the 
amount of assistance people can receive, they also expanded 
eligibility; in short, giving more people more money, regardless of 
their ability to pay for their own expenses, shifting that, again, out 
of the pockets of middle-class taxpayers into the pockets of those who 
don't need the subsidies and especially those who can pay for their 
expenses themselves.
  Our colleagues said this was a temporary provision that was critical 
to the pandemic response, but here we are, a year and a half later, and 
they have already extended it.
  The people who gained insurance coverage because of this proposal 
aren't low-income families. Those individuals have already been 
eligible for ObamaCare. Assistance now extends to people earning 750 
percent of the Federal poverty level--six-figure earners.
  So, here again, our Democratic colleagues are taking money out of the 
pocket of middle-class taxpayers, who are struggling with inflation and 
trying to make ends meet, and providing enhanced, generous subsidies to 
people making 750 percent of the Federal poverty level.
  So even as this started out as a temporary fix, I don't have any 
reason to believe that our Democratic colleagues will ever allow these 
subsidies to expire.
  In the words of Ronald Reagan, ``The closest thing to eternal life on 
earth is a [temporary] Government Program.'' Our Democratic colleagues 
seem to be intent on proving the accuracy of that statement.
  The Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation 
estimated the cost of permanent expansion, and it is pretty jarring for 
a number of reasons.
  First is the financial cost. By expanding the ObamaCare premium tax 
credits and making them permanent, our Democratic colleagues would add 
$248 billion to the Federal debt over the next decade. Of course, this 
will have an adverse effect on people with private insurance. Under 
permanent expansion, some 2.3 million people will lose their current 
employer-provided coverage. So our country would end up basically 
paying wealthy people to lose their employer-sponsored healthcare so 
they can end up on a taxpayer-funded plan.
  This isn't about helping the uninsured; it is just a backdoor way to 
implement Medicare for All--another Democratic socialist objective. Our 
Democratic colleagues couldn't get enough support for this radical plan 
by trying to build consensus, so they passed it with 50 votes, plus the 
tie-breaking vote of Vice President Harris. So, bit by bit, our 
colleagues are pushing Americans closer to a single-payer healthcare 
system that they do not want.
  Then there is electric vehicle socialism--taxpayer handouts for 
wealthy car owners who buy fancy, state-of-the-art electric vehicles. A 
couple earning up to $300,000 a year can now count on taxpayers to chip 
in for their big-ticket purchase--$7,500 for a new electric vehicle or 
$4,000 for a used one.
  Families are already being crushed by inflation--high grocery costs, 
up 13 percent over the last year alone; high gasoline prices; housing 
prices that are going up dramatically. These families are now being 
burdened with the expense of helping wealthy car owners buy fancy, new 
electric vehicles when they can't even afford to buy one on their own. 
Someone who can only afford a quarter of a tank of gas because they 
can't afford to fill up the whole tank doesn't have $80,000 to spend on 
a fancy, new electric vehicle. Still, thanks to our colleagues' 
electric vehicle socialism, middle- and low-income families are getting 
stuck with the bill, which always seems to be the punch line.
  Well, in order to finance this new socialist redistribution, our 
Democratic colleagues need more money on top of the debt that they are 
adding to. They needed a cash cow, so what they did is they turned to 
everybody's favorite: the Internal Revenue Service.
  Our colleagues voted and passed a bill that will double the size of 
the IRS by adding 87,000 new agents to ensure that those IRS agents can 
squeeze every last penny out of hard-working American families. This 
isn't going to have an impact on the top 1 percent; it will unleash a 
tidal wave of audits on middle-class families and small businesses. 
Families earning less than $225,000 a year are already five times as 
likely to be audited already, and this will just make it even worse.
  The independent Congressional Budget Office confirmed that lower and 
middle-income taxpayers will see more IRS audits as a result of this 
move. The government is about to squeeze, once again, working families 
like a piece of coal, while our Democratic friends say: Well, we are 
just making diamonds.
  I must add, I live in a border State, Texas, where we have seen 2.3 
million migrants come to the border in this last year and a half during 
President

[[Page S4505]]

Biden's administration. We have seen 108,000 Americans die of drug 
overdoses, with most of those drugs coming across the southwestern 
border because the criminal organizations that move people and drugs 
across the border understand that if they flood the border with people, 
with migrants, it will divert the Border Patrol's attention, so the 
drugs can come flowing into our country, distributed by criminal 
networks and street gangs who are responsible for most of the crime and 
gun violence in our local communities.
  Don't you think some of the money that our colleagues have spent to 
try to build an army of IRS agents over the next 10 years--that some of 
that could have been spent to help secure the border, to stop some of 
those drugs? Well, unfortunately, the Biden administration has an open 
borders policy. They don't actually believe in enforcing our 
immigration laws, and what we have seen as a consequence is a result of 
that.
  Thanks to our Democratic colleagues' new socialist policies, Texans 
who are trying to save money to go to college or buy a home or prepare 
for retirement are about to get stuck with the bill for massive 
government expansion. And what is this going to do to inflation, which 
is already at a 40-year high? It is going to make it worse. As the 
Federal Reserve ratchets up the discount rate or interest rates in 
order to slow inflation, it is going to slow our entire economy and 
make it harder on middle-class families just trying to get by.
  Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of England, once wisely 
said:

       The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out 
     of other people's money.

  Again, that is true. We have seen approaches of socialism fail over 
and over and over again, and we have seen its leaders oppress their 
people and send their country into ruin.
  Well, right now, we are seeing the new socialism rooted in American 
soil gaining ground in Congress and the White House every day. This new 
socialism may look a little bit different, but the goal is the same: to 
grow the role of government in the lives of everyday Americans and to 
burden them with additional taxes to pay for this bigger and bigger 
government and to take money from people who, by virtue of their hard 
work, were pursuing the American dream and transfer that money to 
someone who is well-off in order to advance misguided policies like 
$7,500 taxpayer subsidies for rich people for electric vehicles.

  Part of it is an attitude or perspective that our Democratic 
colleagues seem to have. They seem to think, We know better; we know 
better what is good for people than they do themselves.
  That is why they want to choose what kind of healthcare plan they get 
or what kind of childcare facilities families get to use.
  They want to take money out of your pocket and redistribute it to the 
chosen wealthy few.
  They want to denigrate the concept of hard work and personal 
responsibility that has made America the economic success that it is 
because of our capitalist system and because of the American dream, 
again, where people can come here, let's say as a legal immigrant, with 
very little, but by virtue of hard work and commitment and 
determination, they can achieve their dream and help others achieve 
their dream at the same time--but not if you eliminate the concept of 
hard work, accountability, and personal responsibility and just 
continue to dole out government handouts.
  So it doesn't really make any difference what our colleagues try to 
call it. They call it the Inflation Reduction Act--the bill they just 
passed, the reckless tax-and-spending bill--when virtually all of the 
outside experts said: No, it won't reduce inflation, certainly not in 
the near term. So it doesn't make any difference how they try to brand 
it; socialism is socialism, and it is leading our country down the road 
to a dangerous destination.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority whip.
  Mr. DURBIN. Socialism. This is all about socialism. I listened very 
carefully to my friend from Texas, and he is my friend--we work 
together on many things--and he believes the downfall of America is the 
advent of socialism. Well, I am not sure what that label means to him, 
but I want to take a look at some of the areas that he made a comment 
on.
  He thinks it is socialist for us to expand the coverage of the 
Affordable Care Act. We are down to 8 percent of Americans without 
health insurance--8 percent. The goal is zero. We may never reach it. 
We have dramatically decreased the number of Americans without health 
insurance.
  Have you ever lived in a situation where you didn't have health 
insurance, when you are a new father of a baby with a health problem 
and no health insurance? I have been there. You don't want to go to 
that place.
  We want to give everybody the peace of mind that they have quality 
healthcare available to them. Is that socialism? Is that the government 
making the decision that you are going to have health insurance? I 
don't think so. Right-thinking people across this country, regardless 
of political stripe, believe that health insurance is critical for a 
happy and healthy family.
  He used the term--he said Medicare is a socialist objective. Ha. Try 
that one on for size in any State. Run your campaign on getting rid of 
Medicare and see how it works. I can tell you what the result will be. 
Medicare, over the last 60 years, has liberated senior citizens in 
America so that they can live longer and live independently and have 
quality care through the later years of their lives. Socialism? The 
government knows better? It is a program which people value, just like 
Social Security. I hope people won't brand that as socialism. Many did 
when it was created. These are programs that families count on, real 
families. These programs are not socialist; they are as American as can 
be.
  The student loan program? I support what President Biden did. I might 
have done it a little differently. But the fact that he is tagging that 
student loan forgiveness to the wealth of the individual and family is 
the right thing to do. A $10,000 student loan forgiven for those with 
individual income below $125,000 a year--that is not unreasonable. That 
means that middle-class and lower income kids are going to have $10,000 
of their student loan forgiven. If they happen to be on Pell grants, 
which means they really were low-income families when they went to 
school, they get an additional $10,000.
  I hear all this lamenting and whining and crying of socialism. Where 
in the heck was this comment about socialism when we were giving out 
PPP loans all across America by the thousands?
  It turns out that some of the harshest Republican critics of student 
loan forgiveness took out PPP loans. Do you know what that meant? They 
were forgiven. They didn't have to pay them back. It was OK when they 
were receiving the money, these conservative Republicans, but the idea 
of some student burdened with student loans having loan forgiveness is 
socialism. Not where I am standing.
  Now, I also want to say something about fiscal responsibility. Do you 
know, after the reconciliation bill, after the Inflation Reduction Act, 
how much we will reduce the deficit this year? One-point-seven trillion 
dollars. How did we achieve this? Well, we achieved it by saying we are 
going to establish a minimum tax for certain corporations. Which ones? 
Corporations that showed an average of $1 billion a year in net 
profit--average of $1 billion in net profit a year--over a 3-year 
period of time will finally have to pay some Federal income tax. Is 
that too much to ask? Is that socialism? No. It is fairness.
  In terms of the EV socialism, this is one where Senators ought to 
take care. When they give speeches on the floor about electric vehicles 
and electrification, they are basically betting that the future is 
going to be a lot different than I see it.
  Why do we have so many electric vehicles? Well, it must be a Federal 
mandate. No, it wasn't. It was a decision by the private sector to 
build electric vehicles and make that the future of transportation in 
America.
  Take a look at Ford Motor Company. We had one of the Ford family come 
and tell us this story. They made a decision that electric vehicles 
were part of their future, a big part of their future, and they made a 
marketing move

[[Page S4506]]

that I thought was genius. What were the first two vehicles they 
electrified and advertised? One was the Ford F-150 Lightning--the most 
popular pickup truck in America. A lot of White males drive those 
around. I am sure the Presiding Officer knows a couple. I drive one 
myself. They are going to electrify that vehicle, and they can't 
produce them fast enough to meet the demand.
  So the people who many Republicans feel are the national allies on 
this subject are waiting in line to buy a Lightning, an F-150.
  Then what was the other car they were going to electrify? A Mustang.
  Well, I just want to tell you that certain age groups still dream 
about Mustangs. I can remember in 1964 when they put them on the market 
for the first time. They are going to electrify them. These cars are 
wildly popular, and they can't build them fast enough. So the 
Republicans who are betting that this is just a fad and it is going to 
go away are dead wrong on this. The private sector's production of 
automobiles is moving toward electric vehicles in a big way, and it is 
going to happen.
  I would say the Republicans who believe it is pure socialism to have 
electric vehicles in our future should get out of the way because those 
electric vehicles are going to run all over you in no time at all.
  Also, this idea of 87,000 IRS agents was invented by one Senator who 
came to the floor and made his calculation. It was like the death 
squads. They pick up a phrase, and they say this is the reality--87,000 
IRS agents. That isn't even close to the truth.
  What we know is this: The vast majority of Americans and American 
families pay their taxes legally and on time, and they should be 
respected for doing that. Who we are looking for are the people who 
don't do that--either don't pay their taxes or don't pay what they owe. 
Those people are not accepting their fair share of responsibility for 
this Nation's future.
  The IRS has been starved in the past of basic things--
computerization, for example, and agents to do audits. The President 
has made it clear that his target is never going to be working 
families. His target is those who are defying the law and defying the 
system of taxation. He believes they should pay their fair share, and I 
couldn't agree with him more.
  In terms of this idea--of this socialist mantra--that we know better, 
that the government knows better, it is interesting when it comes to 
personal liberty and freedom. When you get into another area, like the 
reproductive freedom for women, exactly the opposite position is being 
taken by many people on the other side of the aisle.
  Here is the point I want to make: We considered the reconciliation 
bill just a few weeks ago. We had 41 straight rollcalls. I know because 
I was on the floor for every one of them. At the end of the day, we 
passed the reconciliation bill, the Inflation Reduction Act. What has 
happened since? Well, if you want to call it socialism, let me tell you 
what our socialist moves have done so far.
  Tomorrow, President Joseph Biden is going to New Albany, OH, to join 
the CEO of Intel in breaking ground on a new multibillion-dollar 
semiconductor plant. It is one of the largest investments of its kind 
in American history, and it is going to create thousands of good-paying 
jobs for construction workers and engineers. Over the next decade, 
Intel plans to transform New Albany into one of the largest 
semiconductor manufacturing sites in the world. That is a big shift 
from the days when we shipped microchip production overseas to Asia.
  Socialism? Is this Joe Biden's brand of socialism to open up a plant 
that finally is going to make computer chips, which are absolutely 
essential to the growth of our economy?
  This investment in America's future was made possible by the CHIPS 
and Science Act, and I want to give credit where it is due. There were 
some Republicans who stepped forward and joined us in that effort. I 
wish there would have been more. I wish they all would have been with 
us in this effort. We believed--and the President backed us up--that if 
we were going to make this investment in semiconductor chips for our 
future, America was going to be there. I don't think that was inspired 
by socialism; that was inspired by common sense.
  Yesterday, the New York Times reported that, in the weeks since the 
Inflation Reduction Act was signed into law--and that is the one with 
41 rollcalls--companies throughout the country have unveiled ``a series 
of big-ticket projects to kick-start our clean energy future.''
  Socialism--a future that will be made in America by American workers?
  I would like to remind everyone that we passed that law without a 
single Republican vote. Not one Republican Senator would join us in 
this effort.
  Well, what has happened in the 4 weeks since we passed it?
  Well, Toyota announced it is going to invest billions of dollars in 
manufacturing batteries for those electric and hybrid vehicles here in 
America. That has happened since we passed the bill.
  One solar company, named First Solar, announced another billion-
dollar investment to build a new facility in the Southeast.
  Socialism?
  Honda, LG, Samsung--all of them announced billions of dollars in 
investments to make components for electric vehicles right here in 
America.
  In West Virginia, one company plans to build a nearly 500,000-square 
foot electric battery factory. And who is going to be working in it? 
Well, they are targeting laid-off coal miners. They want to put them to 
work first.
  Socialism?
  Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, these jobs aren't going 
overseas anymore. They are staying right here in America.
  New manufacturing projects are lighting up across the country, like a 
constellation of hope, marking a new era of renewal and renaissance for 
American families. I am glad to say that a big piece of it is taking 
place in the Midwest.
  Earlier this week, in my home State of Illinois, the company T/CCI 
announced it is going to invest millions of dollars into retooling its 
facility in Decatur, IL, to make compressors for--hold onto your 
socialist hat--electric vehicles. Here they come again. And our 
Governor, Pritzker, announced that the State will work alongside 
Richland Community College to establish a climate center for innovation 
and research--an innovation hub.
  Socialism?
  This is a chance for the Decatur community to play its part in an 
electric vehicle revolution. Most importantly, once again, these 
investments are going to create good-paying jobs right here in America. 
For cities like Decatur, this is a lifeline. It wasn't that long ago 
that the city was struggling with population decline. Now it is a new 
story.
  Under President Biden and a Democratic Congress, we are leaving no 
town behind. We are investing in the future of every community from 
Chicago to Decatur. In doing so, we are honoring America's history as 
the land of opportunity.
  There is a statue in downtown Decatur. It is a site where it says 
that a 21-year-old, barefoot Abraham Lincoln delivered his very first 
political speech supporting the Whig platform. Just 2 years after that 
speech, Lincoln announced his first campaign for public office in my 
home county of Sangamon. He ran for the legislature.
  So, as we celebrate the new funding for jobs and development coming 
to cities like Decatur, I find it interesting that one of the first 
policies Lincoln supported was known as internal improvements. He 
announced at his first run for office:

       Time and experience have verified to a demonstration, the 
     public utility of internal improvements. That the poorest and 
     most thinly populated countries would be greatly benefitted 
     by the opening of good roads, and in the clearing of 
     navigable streams within their limits, is what no person will 
     deny.

  The challenges we face in America today are more sophisticated, but 
we also passed an infrastructure bill, the largest in the history of 
the United States.
  Under the previous President, Donald Trump, he promised every week 
was going to be infrastructure week. Unfortunately, his response was so 
weak there was never an infrastructure week--never during his 
Presidency--and that is a fact. President Biden turned that around, and 
we passed an infrastructure bill that is putting America back to work, 
as it should. It is about time.

[[Page S4507]]

  For decades, the Republicans have prayed to the altar of trickle-down 
economics. They call every initiative that we have on the Democratic 
side socialism: Social Security, socialism; Medicare, socialism; this 
idea of leading into the electric vehicle revolution, socialism; the 
government knows best.
  Well, I will tell you they are wrong. What we see is leadership and 
leadership that is long overdue. We can't leave working families behind 
in this country. Four decades of cutting taxes for the rich on some 
wild theory that this was somehow going to lift all boats just turned 
out to be false.
  I will tell you this: Roads and bridges crumbling beneath our feet, 
generations of good-paying jobs going overseas, the world's wealthiest 
trying to save a few bucks, and skyrocketing economic inequality is not 
American. Fixing it is not socialism; it is just fairness.
  The last President spent 4 years declaring infrastructure week but 
had nothing to show for it. In less than 2 years, President Biden and 
the Democrats have delivered on their promise of rebuilding America and 
putting American workers back to work. We have had the largest growth 
and job creation--ever in the history of the United States--in the last 
year and a half under President Biden, and 660,000 of those jobs are 
manufacturing jobs--real jobs with a good paycheck. We are investing in 
the interest of industries of the future. More importantly, we are 
investing in American families.
  The policies we have enacted during this Congress are going to help 
move America forward. Together, they represent a new vision for 
America's future: roads and bridges, microchips, wind turbines, deep 
research into advanced technologies like quantum computing. What does 
it mean for the American people? Take a look at the auto industry. 
Today, the industry, which with Barack Obama as President was saved 
despite Republican opposition, is an industry in which major 
manufacturers are betting big on its electric future.

  Members of the Republican Senate caucus may not see electric vehicles 
in the future, but they have closed their eyes if they are in that 
position.
  With the infrastructure package, we are going to create good, good 
jobs--union jobs--of fixing and building our roads and installing 
charging stations all across America.
  With the CHIPS and Science Act, we are shoring up the domestic supply 
of semiconductors so we can assemble the next generation of electric 
vehicles in American factories. That chips bill also authorized 
billions of dollars in funding for scientific research--laboratories 
like Argonne and Fermilab. This research even has the potential to 
unlock new discoveries in battery technology.
  Now, with the Inflation Reduction Act, we are making life more 
affordable for working families. That is not just to bring down costs 
of prescription drugs and energy bills; it will help lower the costs of 
American-made electric vehicles so more families can buy one.
  This is the Democratic platform in action: building products and 
components we depend on here at home, pioneering technology 
breakthroughs to change the world, and leveling the economy so that 
every family has a fighting chance. Thanks to the policies we have 
passed so far under the Biden administration, we are rolling.
  I do want to tell you this for the record: On my way to catch the 
plane at the airport in St. Louis earlier this week, I saw gasoline for 
sale at $3.46 a gallon. That is still high, but it is a heck of a lot 
better than the $5-plus we were paying just a few weeks ago. Is that 
socialism? I think it is the government at work, and this President has 
done everything he can to bring down the cost of living that families 
face.
  It is still a challenge. We haven't conquered it, but we are moving 
in the right direction, and this economy is moving in the right 
direction. I wish we could have had some Republican support for that 
effort.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.
  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, I want to go into some comments about 
some things that I heard from Oklahomans in August--in, thankfully, a 
deep-breath moment when we were not in session here for a little while. 
But I first need to just make a couple of quick comments for folks who 
might have just heard my colleague before, from Illinois, saying that 
Republicans believe that electric vehicles are socialism if you promote 
electric vehicles and that we oppose electric vehicles and 
electrification. Actually, I just have to make a quick comment about 
that.
  I don't hear that Republicans are in opposition to electric vehicles. 
I hear Republicans in opposition to handing companies billions and 
billions of dollars of taxpayer money and saying: If you will produce 
electric vehicles, then we are going to give you these billions of 
dollars to be able to do it.
  I also hear Republicans, like myself, in opposition and saying: 85 
percent of the world's lithium, which runs these electric vehicles, 
comes from China. So, until we can actually get our own supply of 
energy for lithium, we shouldn't be running toward electric vehicles, 
because if you run toward electric vehicles and then you are dependent 
on communist China for your fuel, that is a bad idea.
  I also hear Republicans saying: Our infrastructure is not ready for 
this. This is not some fairytale. Today, in California, they are 
telling people to turn up their thermostats because they don't have 
enough electricity, and don't charge your electric vehicles.
  So what I hear is a little bit of common sense on our side of the 
aisle to say: We don't have a problem with electric vehicles. People 
should be able to choose to drive whatever vehicle they want to be able 
to drive and that the consumer will actually purchase. But when you 
hand companies billions of dollars and say that you only get this money 
``if'' and if you push people to use a fuel that is dominantly coming 
from a communist nation and we don't have the infrastructure to 
actually support it but say you need to get it anyway, we think that is 
a challenge.
  The market is going to drive this. People will make choices, and the 
market will be able to keep up. But when government arbitrarily pushes 
that forward faster, that causes a problem in our economy, and we have 
seen it already.
  As I traveled around the State, our State, like several other States, 
goes back to school early. It is always funny to me when I return after 
Labor Day and people are talking about their kids are going to school 
this week. I always smile and say: Our kids returned to school 3 weeks 
ago, actually.
  August is a great time to be able to see families getting organized, 
people heading back to school, talking to teachers and superintendents 
and talking about their hope and prayer for a normal school year, where 
there aren't mask mandates and all the things coming down on them.
  It is time for me to actually, some evenings, be able to stand out in 
the yard and be able to talk to my neighbors. It is great to just be 
able to visit and catch up, to be able to chat with someone in my 
Sunday school class and to be able to hold their young child and to be 
able to look in the face of a new baby.
  I had the opportunity to be able to be home and to be able to stand 
in a funeral home with a law enforcement officer who was murdered in 
the line of duty.
  It was an opportunity to be able to talk to some of our electric 
cooperatives that are getting power to our rural areas and making such 
a difference.
  It was an opportunity to stand and pray with a cancer survivor in 
Guymon who has had a really--the past couple of years, it has been 
tough.
  It was an opportunity to be able to visit with an aerospace company 
in Oklahoma--in fact, several that are doing the technology and the 
innovation that are making quite a difference in both our national 
security and in our own aerospace safety and to visit with small 
business owners who are making things work in a very tough economy 
based on their work, not based on what is happening in Washington, DC--
based on their work.
  August is an opportunity to go visit the stockyards and feedlots and 
get a chance to be able to talk to folks who are, every day, making our 
food supply work. It is an opportunity to be able to visit with big 
companies based in Oklahoma that have large facilities like

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Amazon and Macy's--major companies that are out there that are doing 
business across our State and, quite frankly, to be able to interact 
with companies that are just as large that are also coming toward my 
great State of Oklahoma because it is a great place to be able to do 
business.
  There were individuals whom I got a chance to be able to visit with 
in the fire training center, many of them volunteers who come to this 
fire training center because they want to be able to learn better about 
how to be able to fight fire because this is literally neighbors taking 
care of neighbors. I hear so much conversation in Washington, DC, about 
how Washington, DC, is solving all the problems in the country. But 
when I meet with volunteer firefighters, they know full well it is 
everybody taking care of everybody's neighbors, doing what they can to 
be able to help each other.
  I had the opportunity to both sit in church and watch 25 people get 
baptized on one Sunday and see life change literally happening before 
my eyes.
  I also had the opportunity to be able to visit with folks in nursing 
homes and visit with their staff who are really struggling under some 
of the mandates that are on them still. I have to tell you, for many of 
the families who are living with nursing homes and are dealing with CMS 
right now and some of the mandates that are still on them, it seems 
like life is returning to normal for many places, but the mandates are 
still on prisons, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and Head 
Start facilities. For those kids and for those seniors, it is tough, 
and they are looking for relief from DC.
  I had the opportunity to be able to go through No Man's Land Beef 
Jerky, some of the best beef jerky in the country. You ought to try it 
sometime for folks who haven't. You walk through No Man's Land Beef 
Jerky, and there is a lot of meat there, let me just tell you, as they 
are hand-trimming each section and dehydrating and preparing it for 
customers all over the country--quite frankly, many places around the 
world.
  I was able to visit VA centers, talk with their staff, talk with 
veterans who are there getting care, able to go to our military bases 
and able to talk with leadership there about what do they need because 
they work every day to be able to protect our Nation's future. I was 
able to visit our inland water ports. Yes, there are ports in Oklahoma. 
For those of you all who are not tracking geography, Oklahoma has the 
northernmost inland ports in the country, and it is a vital link to the 
Midwest, getting fertilizer and getting wheat out, taking care of heavy 
steel and supplies. They are a vital part of our technology and of our 
transportation.
  There are too many places to be able to name, but I do have to be 
able to call out some amazing folks who are in New Leaf. New Leaf is a 
group of people who have dedicated their lives to helping the 
developmentally disabled. There are hundreds of people who serve there, 
serving hundreds of people. These are developmentally disabled adults 
who have hopes and aspirations. They want to work. They have dreams and 
goals for their life as well. They want to get married; they want to 
engage; and they want to have friends. They are a group of people who 
have wrapped around these families and are blessing them in ways that 
most folks would never know. It is neighbors helping neighbors.
  As I traveled around the State, literally from Guymon all the way 
across to the east of my State--as I traveled across the State, I heard 
the same comment over and over and over again: When is inflation going 
to come down? When is the cost of living going to get better?
  From every small business that I talked to, they would talk about 
supply chain issues and the costs and the contracts and the prices that 
they are selling things for and the prices that they are getting things 
for and the challenges they face.

  NFIB works with a lot of small businesses around the country. They do 
an optimism index every year. Thirty-seven percent of small business 
owners now report their single biggest issue as a small business owner 
is inflation.
  I got into a lot of conversations with a lot of folks, as probably 
many people in this room did. But I can't even begin to tell you the 
number of conversations I got into that, within minutes, the 
conversation turned to the price of eggs, to say: Wow, have you bought 
eggs yet? They seem to go up every single week.
  If it feels that way for folks, I can tell you it actually is that 
way for folks. The data continues to be able to show that. Studies 
show, in Oklahoma, relative to January of 2021, Oklahomans are paying 
$593 more a month right now than they were just in January 2021. That 
equals out to $7,115 more a year that each family is paying this year 
than they were 2 years ago--$7,115. This is a real effect on families.
  While all of us are grateful that the price of gas seems to be coming 
down little by little--everyone is celebrating that gas prices are only 
$3.50 now--we understand that just a year and a half ago, gas prices 
were a dollar and a half less than what they are now.
  The single biggest effect on our economy right now--single biggest 
effect--is the price of gasoline and the price of energy. As energy 
prices rise, and they continue to stay high, it continues to drive the 
cost of every other product because you have got to move products to 
actually be sold or to be manufactured.
  Gasoline right now, this July, is 44 percent higher than it was last 
July--44 percent. And while it has come down, we forget how fast and 
how high it rose. People seem to be relieved now that it is only three 
and a half bucks, knowing that that is 44 percent higher than it was a 
single year ago.
  The cost of breakfast cereal is 16 percent higher than it was a year 
ago. The cost of chicken is 18 percent higher than it was just a year 
ago. The cost of milk is 16 percent higher than what it was a year ago. 
The cost of coffee is 20 percent higher than what it was a year ago. 
The cost of butter is 22 percent higher than what it was a year ago. 
Baby food is 15 percent higher than what it was a year ago. And just 
household cleaning products, it is 11 percent higher than what it was a 
year ago.
  For many people who hear this outside of this room, they would say: 
Yes, all those things are true. They are obvious. But I have yet to run 
into a family, as I traveled around my State and engaged with so many 
great Oklahomans--I didn't hear a single one say: I am so grateful that 
we are going to have more IRS audits in the next couple of years 
because that is going to bring down inflation. I didn't have one. I 
didn't have anyone say: I am so glad there are going to be additional 
subsidies for electric vehicles because that is going to bring down the 
cost of eggs.
  There is a real concern here. People are worried because they don't 
know what happens next.
  For retirees, the latest study that came out, $3.4 trillion--$3.4 
trillion--has been lost from IRAs in the past year--$3.4 trillion. So 
the mix that we have right now are individuals who are worried about 
just paying for the next thing, when the cost of living for them is 
$7,000 more this year than it was last year, just trying to be able to 
keep up. And the challenge for retirees, watching the value of their 
retirement go down, as many who are on a fixed income also realize, the 
costs have gone up dramatically. It is real, and people do feel it.
  While in Oklahoma, I interacted with lots of folks who are neighbors 
taking care of neighbors. There is a very real concern about 
Washington, DC, and what they will do to them rather than for them, and 
people are worried about it.
  I would say we, as leaders, have a responsibility to be able to set a 
direction to be able to take care of other people's money--that is the 
tax dollars that are there; that is other people's money--to be able to 
manage the debt of this Nation that has accelerated dramatically in the 
past several years, much of it due to COVID, much of it not. We have 
some responsibilities to take care of. I hope everyone had the 
opportunity to be able to listen to people in their own States and to 
be able to hear what I was able to hear in August.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. King). The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.

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  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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