[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 123 (Tuesday, July 18, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2972-S2973]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                Michigan

  Mr. President, I come to the floor today first of all to say that, as 
everybody in this Chamber knows, I am extremely proud to be from 
Michigan. We are the State of innovation. We built the automobile, the 
automobile assembly line, and the American middle class as a result.
  In Michigan, we make things and we grow things. Just take a look at 
recent headlines: Ford chose Marshall, MI, as the site of a new battery 
plant. It is expected to create 2,500 jobs when it opens in 2026.
  In June, I was at the groundbreaking for a new UL Solutions battery 
lab in Auburn Hills. Their work is going to improve the batteries that 
go into electric vehicles like my Bolt, which I love.
  Hemlock Semiconductor, a proud Michigan company that manufactures 
products used in the semiconductor and solar industries, is expanding 
its plant by creating an industrial park that will create 170 new jobs, 
and I expect a lot more jobs will be coming after that.
  We are also attracting businesses from Europe and around the world. 
This spring, Norwegian company Nel Hydrogen announced that it is going 
to build a manufacturing plant in Michigan that is going to create more 
than 500 jobs.
  Exciting things are happening--and not just in Michigan. All around 
the country, all across the country, manufacturing facilities are 
opening, small businesses are launching, and folks are headed to work 
at good-paying jobs. This past month, 209,000 jobs were created--
209,000 jobs were created last month--which means there have been 13.2 
million jobs created since President Biden took office. This is in less 
than 3 years. It is in less than 2\1/2\ years--in about 2\1/2\ years, I 
guess.
  We are announcing an unemployment rate that is 3.6 percent. It has 
been under 4 percent for the last 17 months in a row--17 months in a 
row. There have been 13.7 million jobs created in about 2\1/2\ years, 
and this is coming out of a pandemic and all that surrounded it with 
supply chain breakdowns and all of the challenges. Yet, because of what 
we are doing, we are seeing the strength in the underlying 
economy. That is the longest stretch in over 50 years, when we look at 
the unemployment rate--the longest stretch in over 50 years--50 years.

  The highest number of Americans age 25 to 54 are now in the 
workforce--the highest number--since May of 2002.
  The percentage of women who are working set a new record for the 
third month in a row.
  Wages are up. Inflation is going down. It is down at the lowest level 
in 2 years. We have got more to do, but it is going in the right 
direction.
  This is Bidenomics in action. This is not by accident that all of 
this is happening. We are growing our economy from the middle out and 
bottom up, not the top down. It is the opposite of trickle-down 
economics. It is the opposite, not giving everything to those at the 
top--the very wealthy--who can then take their dollars and go anywhere 
in the world and be able to invest in a race to the bottom on jobs, 
which is what we have seen for decades, which, by the way, got us the 
supply chain problems, when over half of the chips going into our 
automobiles and other electronics were made from one company in Taiwan.
  We are now turning that around. We are making smart investments in 
America, including in our infrastructure--rebuilding America--in 
manufacturing, in clean energy, and actually making sure we are saying: 
If you want those tax credits that we want to support you to create 
those jobs, you have to make it in America. You have to make it in 
America, not just take the dollars from America and then put them 
somewhere else. You have to actually make it in America. That is what 
we are doing.
  We are empowering American workers through higher wages and better 
training and more support for unions.
  We are lowering costs for the things that Americans need, starting 
with prescription drugs, by the way, capping the cost of insulin per 
month at $35 for our seniors and people on Medicare. We are laser-
focused to do more, by the way, to make that cap for everybody who is 
on insulin, and on all the other changes to bring down healthcare costs 
and prescription drug costs. We are laser-focused on taking on the drug 
companies to be able to do that.
  We are making sure small businesses have the support they need. I am 
excited that we have seen the largest number of Black small businesses 
being created in the last couple of years. We are seeing so many more 
opportunities for entrepreneurs, for small businesses across the 
country, which are so much a part of the backbone of our economy. We 
are seeing that as well.
  We are basically seeing what we call Bidenomics because it is growing 
the middle class. It is aiming at the American middle class. It is 
saying we want to support you, but the jobs have to be here in America. 
We want to rebuild and invest in America for the future and in all of 
our technologies, from high-speed internet to our roads and

[[Page S2973]]

bridges and airports and rails and all the other things that will allow 
us to be leading the pack in a global economy and competing. We want to 
bring those jobs home.
  Then we are laser-focused on lowering costs for folks. If that means 
taking on the oil companies or taking on the drug companies, so be it. 
But we are laser-focused on bringing down costs.
  That is what Bidenomics is all about. Bidenomics, the opposite of 
trickle down--the opposite of trickle down.
  Meanwhile, what are our Republicans colleagues doing? Unfortunately, 
the same thing they have been doing for decades. By the way, they have 
never met a problem that a tax cut for the wealthy wouldn't solve. I 
remember so many times, when the economy was doing well 20 years ago: 
Oh, we should do a tax cut for the wealthy.
  And then, when the economy was down, and when we had Wall Street 
crash: Oh, we should do a tax cut for the wealthy.
  It doesn't matter what the problem is, the solution is a tax cut for 
the ultrawealthy of the country, with the idea that it will trickle, 
trickle down. Unfortunately, what has happened with that is it never 
trickled down, at least not for the people in Michigan. Of course, they 
are waiting for it to trickle down.
  But it did blow up the deficit. It did blow up the deficit. In fact, 
25 percent of all of the debt accumulated by the country ever was in 4 
years of President Trump. Twenty-five percent of all of the deficit and 
debt created ever in the country was under 4 years of President Trump.
  And the 2017 Trump tax giveaway exploded the deficit. That is why 
that was happening. It exploded the deficit by nearly $2 trillion and 
gave the ultrawealthy massive tax breaks.
  So we have come out of this manufactured crisis around the debt 
ceiling, taking the country to the edge of default, and all the talk 
about how much debt we have, and then, as soon as that gets resolved 
and President Biden brings everybody to the table and there is a 
bipartisan agreement not to have our country crash and default because 
of, unfortunately, the manufactured antics on the other side, what 
happens next? Our Republican colleagues have a new tax package. After 
talking about the debt and the deficit, they have turned around again 
and want another tax cut for the wealthiest and the largest 
corporations. In fact, Big Oil will get another $10.5 billion tax break 
under their latest tax cuts, on top of the embedded tax breaks that 
have been there for 100 years with Big Oil.
  These tax breaks are supposed to help folks get started in the 
industry--and I think they are pretty much established in our country, 
after 100 years of this. But, no, a $10.5 billion tax break, in 
addition now, is what is being proposed in the House.
  Their proposal would roll back clean energy tax credits that are 
creating jobs. The things I listed at the very beginning as I was 
talking all relate to the focus on investing in clean energy and saying 
it has to be a production tax credit. So you don't get it unless you 
are making this in America, and this is key. This has not been 
happening for decades, and it is now happening.
  They want to roll that all back--roll back all the things we are 
trying to do to combat the climate crisis, which is hitting us over the 
head every single day, destroying homes and creating havoc and costing 
lives. All that is happening because of excess carbon pollution that is 
in the atmosphere, and that has been here for as long as we have been 
using fossil fuels.
  I wish the oil companies would take some of the hundreds of billions 
that they have been given on tax breaks and put it back into technology 
to stop pollution. That would be very helpful, if that were where they 
had put that. But instead what they have done is put it into funding 
efforts to say the climate crisis isn't real, that it is all a hoax, 
that everybody is making it up. And we see where we are today because 
it is not made up. It never was made up.
  When they got the first tax breaks 100 years ago, if they had put 
part of that into technology to make sure that what they were doing was 
not polluting the atmosphere, we wouldn't even be here today talking 
about the climate crisis. And, certainly, Mr. President, with what is 
happening in your home State of Vermont, you see how it destroyed a 
town. It is extraordinary what is happening with the weather and all 
the damage.
  Our Republican colleagues want to roll back all the efforts right now 
to try to clean up things and for a cleaner environment. They want 
another big tax break for Big Oil. They are going to endanger about 
150,000 good-paying jobs, and, on top of that, it would balloon the 
deficit again by another $300 billion just over the next 3 years.
  If Republicans extend all of the Trump tax giveaways, we would add 
another $2.5 trillion--``t''--to the deficit if they got what they have 
been proposing.
  Again, we have tried trickle-down economics, with tax breaks for 
those at the top, slashing investments for America, and shipping good 
jobs overseas. That has been the strategy or the result of the 
strategy--not that they were saying: Oh, we are going to ship jobs 
overseas. No, they just let it happen by giving tax breaks to folks who 
did that with no accountability. That is trickle-down economics.
  Now, we have what we are proudly calling Bidenomics: investments in 
America, empowering workers, lowering costs, and helping small 
businesses. And it is actually working.
  Let me go back to the slide. It is actually working. When we look at 
just last month, there were 209,000 jobs. And every month there is a 
jobs report--more jobs, more jobs, more jobs. There were 13.2 million 
jobs created in the last 2\1/2\ years. That is real. There are 
economists talking about that--good-paying jobs for people, jobs you 
can raise a family on; 3.6 percent unemployment rate and under 4 
percent for the last 17 months, the lowest in 50 years.
  It is not about just debating rhetoric back and forth. What we have 
is something that has never worked, which is trickle-down economics, 
but is used over and over and over again.
  I shouldn't say it never worked. It never worked for the majority of 
people. It never grew the middle class. It worked for a few people. It 
worked for a few people really, really well, but it has not worked for 
the majority of Americans.
  And now we are turning and saying: Let's focus on something that 
does--investing in America, bringing jobs home, tackling the big 
special interests that are causing all of our costs to go up, like the 
drug companies and oil companies, and bringing down the costs. And, by 
the way, the engine of our economy, the small businesses, let's make 
sure we are laser-focused on helping our small businesses.
  We have tried Republicans' trickle-down economics. Surprise--it 
didn't work. It never worked. The wealthy keep buying bigger yachts, 
while everybody else is left treading water.
  Bidenomics is different. It is investing in us--all of us. It is 
investing in our shared future. It is growing the middle class. And it 
is working.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Iowa.