[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 27 (Thursday, February 9, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S273-S274]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                       State of the Union Address

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, 13 percent of the American people 
believe the state of our Union is strong--13 percent. Just 16 percent 
say they are better off financially today than they were 2 years ago. 
But on Tuesday night, it took President Biden the most words in the 
history of the State of the Union to declare that everything is 
actually going swimmingly and he doesn't plan to change a thing.
  To working families, who have been crushed by historic inflation 
because of his policies, President Biden offered to cut a few dollars 
off the fees of concert tickets and hotel stays they can't afford 
anyway. To Americans who are worried that he just let a Chinese spy 
balloon surveil our country from coast to coast, the President 
described his slow and unsteady reaction as a big success. To a country 
that is already teetering on the brink of recession because of him, 
President Biden proposed even more gigantic new tax hikes. To the 
American people who are frightened and curious about surging violent 
crime, President Biden took aim at the Second Amendment rights of law-
abiding citizens and implied that taxpayers need to pay for even more 
welfare spending before we can expect people not to commit murder.
  The President paid lip service to the obscene quantities of foreign 
fentanyl that flow across our open borders and kill our people, but his 
main border proposal was to dangle the prospect of amnesty for people 
who come here illegally.
  He repeated his broken promise not to sign tax hikes that hit the 
middle class when he has already hiked taxes on American jobs and 
American energy.
  The country got to hear a lecture about treating political opponents 
with respect from the President who lied about State voting laws and 
compared half the country to Bull Connor and Jefferson Davis and a 
lecture about our democratic institutions from the President who 
endorsed permanently breaking the Senate so that his party could grab 
more power.
  President Biden expressed not one ounce of contrition or 
accountability

[[Page S274]]

for the failures that have hurt families, cost his party the House, and 
left only 16 percent of Americans better off financially now than they 
were on Inauguration Day.
  And the President's thin and paltry discussion of his failing foreign 
policy was downright alarming. Europe is in the grip of the continent's 
worst violent conflict since World War II. China is gaining as the 
largest strategic threat to American security since the Soviet Union. 
The Taliban has reinstated their oppressive regime and safe terrorist 
haven that America and our allies chased out more than two decades ago.
  North Korea continues to modernize its nuclear and missile programs, 
making steady progress toward the leader's goal of being able to 
deliver Armageddon to our doorstep.
  The Iranian regime continues to advance its own WMD programs while 
sponsoring terror campaigns all across the Middle East. Make no 
mistake, this radical regime is willing and eager to kill Americans if 
it is not deterred. And while the Iranian people protest nationwide 
against a brutal theocracy, President Biden couldn't even muster one 
mention of their struggle.
  This is the state of the world on President Biden's watch. This is 
the state of America's interests under his leadership. But President 
Biden did not even mention the grave and growing challenges we face 
from abroad until the tail end of his lengthy remarks.
  The President downplayed the threat posed by the People's Republic of 
China and claimed without any evidence that the United States was in 
its strongest position to compete with China in decades. I am not sure 
in what universe those remarks apply. Here in the real world, China's 
intelligence services just got a closeup look of the entire U.S. 
mainland. Reports indicate Chinese hypersonic weapons and land-based 
ICBM launchers exceed our own. And President Biden's last budget 
proposal tried to cut our national defense funding after inflation. The 
Commander in Chief seems more preoccupied with hidden ``resort fees'' 
than hidden Chinese malware in our phones, computers, and high-tech 
infrastructure.
  Then there is Ukraine. President Biden said Putin's invasion of 
Ukraine has been a test of America's and our allies' resolve. That is 
certainly true, but, like the Chinese balloon, the Ukraine crisis was 
also a test of the Biden administration's response time, and they fell 
quite short.
  Republicans tried to push the administration to better equip Ukraine 
to defend itself before the tanks rolled and to act more quickly and 
decisively in the early weeks to try to prevent a protracted stalemate. 
The indecision, hand-wringing, and sluggishness have carried a heavy 
price indeed. The President can't even get the bully pulpit right.
  There is an overwhelmingly persuasive case that aiding Ukraine 
strongly and directly serves our core American national interests, but 
President Biden seems incapable of articulating any of it. It is top 
Republicans who are filling the leadership vacuum, connecting the dots, 
and making the case. Yet again, Presidential leadership is missing in 
action, and it is Republicans filling the void. So let's hope President 
Biden's upcoming defense budget request will treat our national 
security challenges more seriously than his speech did on Tuesday 
night.
  With fewer than one in five Americans calling the state of our Union 
strong, President Biden needed to pivot, but he failed to. He spent the 
wordiest State of the Union in American history making excuses, 
doubling down, and spinning alternate realities. But if Washington 
Democrats will not pivot, the American people will pivot away from 
them. It is already starting.
  Seated behind the President Tuesday night was the new Republican 
Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, and following him on the airwaves 
was the youngest Governor in America, Sarah Huckabee Sanders of 
Arkansas--part of a whole wave of Republican Governors who are laser-
focused on fighting crime, improving education, and lifting more 
working families into prosperity.
  The American people know which principles and solutions will bring 
our country back, and they are seeing which party actually provides 
them.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REED. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.