H.R. 3684

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, after weeks like this, I find it hard to explain to Floridians back home how Congress is actually working on behalf of their families.

I think it is safe to say that every Member of the Senate believes we should be investing in infrastructure. For me, it is pretty simple. I believe we should invest in real infrastructure: roads, bridges, airports, and seaports.

As Governor of Florida, I did just that. Over my 8 years as Governor, Florida invested $85 billion in real infrastructure across our State, and we did it while cutting taxes and fees 100 times and paying off a third of our State debt. In other words, we paid for these big investments in infrastructure by growing our economy and supporting job creation. That is what is important to Floridians, and I am immensely proud of our accomplishments.

So I support doing the exact same thing at the Federal level. But what we are doing here just doesn't make any sense. Nowhere in the world does business happen like it does here in the U.S. Congress.

We started this week with ongoing negotiations about a big infrastructure deal. Of course, outside of the small group involved in these negotiations, no one here had any clue what was actually being debated. We had no text; we had no real information on how much was being spent; and we certainly had no idea how this was all supposed to be paid for.

Then, on Wednesday, we got the big news: A deal had been reached. Well, that might be great, but we still had no real details. We still don't have the text of the bill.

Now the majority leader expects us to start voting on amendments, and maybe even this whole package, this weekend. This is insanity. Nowhere in the world would this be the process. We are expected to make a decision on spending $1.2 trillion of American taxpayer dollars, and no one in the U.S. Senate has had the chance to even read the bill.

Typically, the Congressional Budget Office would score a bill like this before the Senate considers it. That score gives us important information about the true cost and financial impact of the legislation on the Federal Government and the American people. Of course, that is not the case with this bill. The CBO hasn't had the chance to review it at all.

Do you think any company would sign off on a massive expense without all the details? Would a family make a huge purchase without knowing exactly what it is for? Of course not. But that is how things work here in Congress, and that is not right.

This is exactly why I ran for the U.S. Senate, to make Washington work for Florida families and stop this madness of reckless spending and backroom deals that don't deliver and aren't paid for.

Speaking of pay-fors, well, they just don't exist in this bill. This is how backward and awful Washington is. People up here think they can just make big, empty promises and sell it to the American people. They think families will just buy whatever they are selling, no questions asked.

Nope. It is time for some accountability. My friend from Indiana, Senator Braun, recently did a great job of laying out the claims and facts of the so-called pay-fors in this bill, so I am going to borrow from him a bit to show what is really going on here. Here are just a few of the most ridiculous examples.

First, half of this bill is supposedly paid for with $550 billion from the highway trust fund. That fund is $100 billion in the red. The money isn't there. So that is not real.

The bill also proposes using billions of repurposed COVID relief funding. I am all for repurposing this money, but we borrowed it to begin with, so this is robbing Peter to pay Paul. It is not like it is free money.

They also want to use $49 billion in savings for delaying a Medicare Part D rebate rule and another $9 million paid for another year of mandatory sequester. Why would we cut Medicare to pay for roads?

The 4.6 million seniors in Florida deserve better. Any savings in the Medicare Program should stay in the Medicare Program. Let's all remember, the Medicare trust fund is actually heading toward bankruptcy.

And, of course, there are a handful of other fee increases thrown in there with lofty and unrealistic revenue estimates that they will claim will get us fully paying for this $1.2 trillion package.

What they won't say is that these fees will almost certainly increase the costs of everyday goods and make it more expensive to get a mortgage and afford a home.

There is no shame in Washington; just greed. Everyone wants so badly to say that they have given you something, but they always forget to mention the cost and that you actually have to pay for it. The cost is important.

I have said it a million times, and I will say it again: Reckless government spending causes higher inflation. It is a proven fact. And we are seeing the consequences of reckless spending across America right now.

Eighty-seven percent--eighty-seven percent--of Americans are worried about inflation. Low- and fixed-income families are having to cut back on purchases because of rising costs. I am hearing it from families across Florida who are worried.

A father of three in Jacksonville is temporarily helping take care of two other kids because their father is out of work. He has started working a second job driving Uber just to pay for groceries that are rapidly increasing in price. Now his Uber job is becoming less and less profitable because of the rising price of gas. Gas is up over 50 percent in 1 year.

A mother of four in Wauchula said that she used to be able to go to the grocery store and spend a certain amount for an entire month's groceries. Now she can't. Two hundred dollars in meat is no longer enough to feed her family of five. She has been forced to choose between gas to get to work and groceries for her family and is picking up extra jobs just to make ends meet.

I can relate to this. I grew up in a poor family. My mom would take in ironing for extra money. She would give either my older brother or me the exact change to go to the grocery store, but she said: You have to check the price of everything because things are going up in price, and if we don't have enough money, you cannot buy it.

A restaurant owner in Tampa told me that the cost of meat has gone up from $9 a pound to $18. Gas prices and food prices, coupled with the struggle to find workers, have been very hard on his business.

Another family in Kissimmee told me how hard it is to keep food on the table because everything is so expensive. They are having trouble keeping their car because of the cost of maintenance and gas, but if he doesn't have a car, he wouldn't have a way to get to work to take care of his family.

The price of gas affects nearly everyone. Right now, average gas prices are up nearly a dollar since last year. For a family who fills up their gas tank once a week, if they drive a car, that means Joe Biden raised their expenses $600 a year. If they drive a truck, Joe Biden raised their expenses by $1,000 a year.

So next time you hear a big promise, remember these stories. These are real people bearing the real cost of the Democrats' reckless spending in Washington.

Biden and the Democrats say they care about people, but they have done absolutely nothing to help families struggle to keep up with inflation. Their plan is to spend more money, not less.

We have nearly $30 trillion in debt, and there are no plans to slow down. And that is exactly what we are seeing in this bill. We can't forget that this is just the start. Chuck Schumer said it on the floor yesterday. This is just part one and leads to Biden's and the Democrats' $5.5 trillion tax-and-spending spree on their liberal priorities. These two bills are together. They are welded together. There is no separating them.

Right now, the message that President Biden and Democrats here in Washington are sending to the American people is clear: They don't care about inflation. They don't care that their reckless spending is causing prices to skyrocket. If that is the cost of getting their liberal wish list, so be it. They aren't focused on inflation or spending, just on more government dependency and control.

Just look at what is happening this week with new COVID mask and vaccine mandates. I had COVID, and I got the vaccine. I think people should get vaccinated. But that is not what this is about. It is not about taking a measured approach and following the science and telling exactly how they came to the conclusion. It is about creating fear and chaos to grab power and control you.

I am here to say that enough is enough. It is time to wake up to reality. It is time for every fiscally responsible Member of the Senate to join me to say we don't accept the status quo. We won't watch in silence while the futures of our children and our grandchildren are mortgaged and this Nation is driven deeper in debt with reckless and wasteful spending. We won't stand by while inflation wreaks havoc on our families and businesses. We can get spending under control, but we have to start accepting responsibility, and the time to do that is now. This isn't political. It is good government, and it is common sense.

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