[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 141 (Wednesday, September 11, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5958-S5959]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Bidenomics

  Mr. President, on another matter, since President Biden took office, 
consumer prices have increased more than 20 percent. That is the hard 
truth of the monthly inflation report, and it is worth remembering 
where it came from.
  Vice President Harris has said:

       ``We are very proud of Bidenomics.''

  Well, she should be. After all, it was the Vice President herself 
whose vote here in the Senate helped send our economy into a historic 
inflationary spiral. Back in March 2021, she cast the tie-breaking vote 
on the motion to proceed to the so-called American Rescue Plan, and in 
August 2022, she did the same for passage of the so-called Inflation 
Reduction Act.
  Sure enough, the Vice President is rather proud of this record. The 
way she tells it, ``Through all our work, President Biden and I are 
building an economy that works for working people.'' But does it 
really? Does it really work for working people? If you ask some of the 
folks I talked to last month, you would likely hear a different story.
  Two years on, high prices in the wake of the Inflation Reduction Act 
are still forcing working Americans to make tough choices. A mother in 
North Carolina told a reporter recently:

       Sometimes I have to choose whether I am going to pay the 
     light bill or pay all the rent or buy food or not let my son 
     do a sport.

  Surging prices are especially challenging for seniors on a fixed 
income. One Pennsylvania retiree observed recently that she was ``down 
to eating ramen for lunch, which I never ate in my life until recently. 
If it is not marked down, I just don't eat it. I haven't eaten beef 
since I don't know when. I can't afford it.''
  This is the economy that Vice President Harris has said is working 
for working people. This is Bidenomics in action--or perhaps it is time 
to give the economy the Vice President is so proud of a new name.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. 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the quorum call be rescinded.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.


          23rd Anniversary of the September 11, 2001, Attacks

  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, before I begin, I want to take a moment to 
acknowledge what today is: 23 years ago, terrorists flew planes into 
the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and 23 years since a heroic 
group of Americans prevented even greater tragedy by bringing down a 
fourth hijacked plane before it could crash into another target.
  As on every September 11 since that black day, we remember the heroes 
who rose up--at the World Trade Center, at the Pentagon, and in that 
bare field near Shanksville, PA--and we mourn all those who were lost.
  My prayers, as always, are with the families of all those who still 
grieve their fallen loved ones and with all those whose calling is to 
respond to danger and stand between us and terror.


                             2024 Elections

  Mr. President, there has been a dizzying amount of change in the 
Democrat Party over the past couple of months. First, and obviously, 
there was the replacement of President Biden with Kamala Harris on the 
ticket. Democrat voters who had gone to the polls in the primaries and 
cast a vote for President Biden were informed that, in fact, the 
delegates they had chosen would be supporting Vice President Harris 
instead.
  That was a big change but not the only one. There is also the new 
Democrat nominee's attempt to reinvent herself. It began 5 short years 
ago since Kamala Harris was running for President in the Democrat 
primary as a leftist. She endorsed, among other things, a ban on 
fracking, taxpayer-funded gender reassignment surgeries for detained 
immigrants, decriminalizing drug possession, decriminalizing illegal 
border crossings, mandatory buybacks of certain guns--and I could go 
on.
  Of course, none of that was a big surprise. After all, then-Senator 
Harris--a supporter of a government takeover of healthcare and the 
budget-busting Green New Deal--regularly made lists of most liberal 
Senators. But what is surprising is the apparent 180-degree flip she 
has made in the past--well, let's say, 7 weeks or so in this campaign.
  She opposed a border wall; now she apparently supports one. She 
supported a ban on fracking; well, now she opposes one. She supported 
Medicare for All--the Federal takeover of healthcare--and now says she 
won't push for it if she is President. She supported mandatory gun 
buybacks; now she won't push for them. She supported an electric 
vehicle mandate; and now, apparently, she doesn't.
  I could go on, on that list. It is amazing what a brief 7 weeks or so 
can do or perhaps I should say it is amazing what getting nominated for 
President can do. But it seems that despite her apparent move to the 
center, progressive voters should not be alarmed.
  A far-left compatriot of the Vice President, the senior Senator from 
Vermont, whose Medicare for All government healthcare takeover she 
cosponsored, was asked on ``Meet the Press'' last weekend whether he 
thought Vice President Harris was abandoning her progressive ideals. 
``No,'' he answered, ``I don't think she's abandoning her ideals. I 
think she's

[[Page S5959]]

trying to be pragmatic in doing what she thinks is right in order to 
win the election.''
  ``I think she is trying to be pragmatic and doing what she thinks is 
right in order to win the election.''
  Well, nothing like saying the quiet part out loud. I suspect he is 
right, and I suspect that one of the Senate's most liberal Senators 
could quickly become one of the Nation's most liberal Presidents.
  I think it is fair to say we have gotten a taste over the last 4 
years as to what government under Kamala Harris looks like, and so far 
it mostly looks like a historic inflation crisis, a raging border 
crisis, and uncertainty on the global stage.
  When I say the past 4 years have looked like a historic inflation 
crisis and a raging border crisis, I do mean the past 4 years. 
Inflation started spiking within 2 months of President Biden and Vice 
President Harris taking office, thanks in large part to Democrats' 
American Rescue Plan's spending spree, a spending spree, I might add, 
for which Kamala Harris cast the deciding vote. And almost 4 years 
later, inflation is still above the Federal Reserve's target inflation 
rate. Americans are now paying a staggering $13,000 more a year just to 
maintain the same standard of living they enjoyed when President Biden 
and Vice President Harris took office--$13,000.
  Vice President Harris recently said in her speech at the Democratic 
National Convention that her administration would work on lowering the 
cost of everyday needs like groceries. Well, why hasn't she tried that 
already? She is not an outsider coming into office. She has been in 
office for the past 4 years. If there was something she thought she 
could do to bring down prices, why hasn't she done it already?
  And Democrats' nearly 4-year inflation crisis has been matched by the 
Biden-Harris border crisis. Border numbers started spiking almost 
immediately after President Biden and Vice President Harris took office 
after they sent the message on day one that border security was at the 
bottom of their priority list. The ensuing crisis has raged for almost 
the entirety of the Biden-Harris administration until fears of losing 
reelection prompted President Biden to at least take some too-little-
too-late action this summer.
  I could go on and talk about the Biden-Harris administration's 
disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan or the deep uncertainty on the 
world stage that has characterized their tenure. I could also talk 
about the ways that they are putting us on track for an energy crisis, 
but I will stop here. Suffice it to say, after the past 4 years, no one 
has to wonder what Democrat governance would look like, and I hope our 
country and American families will be spared another 4 years of it.
  I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The majority whip.