Motion to Discharge

Floor Speech

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Mr. YOUNG. Mr. President, in 2017, my colleague Senator Sanders said:

The function of reconciliation is to adjust federal spending and revenue, not to enact major changes in social policy.

Now, fast forward to 2021, and Senator Sanders and many of my Democratic colleagues have changed their tune. You see, Democrats in Congress are doubling down on their efforts to steer America toward the Democratic socialist policies laid out in Senator Sanders' budget with a $3.5 trillion spending plan that would be the most significant expansion of our social safety net programs since the 1960s.

Democrats are seeking to enact these sweeping changes through reconciliation--a partisan process, which Senator Sanders himself said is not meant to be a vehicle for major policy changes. From job-killing corporate tax hikes to small business money grabs and hidden tax increases on the middle class, the Democrats' plan will punish job creators and workers and make us less competitive on the global stage.

Now, perhaps that is part of their plan--to remake the United States of America in the image of Western Europe. It is as if they want to punish businesses while rewarding unemployment and dependence on the Federal Government.

Republicans want to empower Americans to be self-sufficient, to unleash their God-given potential. That, after all, is the promise at the heart of the Declaration of Independence. It is that promise that has led generation after generation of people to our shores so that they, too, can realize the individual liberty, the promise at the heart of America's Declaration of Independence.

Republicans want to provide employment opportunities and a strong economy. We don't want to make people beholden to the government for their livelihood. It is not healthy. That is not freedom. It is not American.

As a young man, I visited the Soviet Union as part of a junior high school soccer exchange trip. I still remember what I saw there. Food was scarce. The water was, too. There were public water stations, where Russians drank from a communal cup. They were desperate for everyday items Americans take for granted: blue jeans, for example; and chewing gum, too. For decades, Russians were denied this because it was a symbol of American culture.

Now, think about that. A government that gives you everything can also take anything away, even chewing gum. Profligate collectivism--you might call it socialism--creates an environment where citizens progressively give up the right to decide how they spend their earnings, how they educate their children, how they get better when they are sick; a system where citizens are frozen on the lower rungs of the ladder of life's opportunity, where upward mobility is unknown.

That is why the Democrats' reckless tax-and-spend proposal goes against everything we believe in this Nation. Among its many defects, their proposal picks winners and losers. It increases our dependence on foreign oil and allows blatant double dipping.

All of this is, of course, incredibly misguided and simply makes no sense when gas prices have jumped 40 percent since January, directly harming middle-income Americans who can't afford a cent more.

Punishing oil and natural gas producers while propping up renewables--many of which have materials directly sourced from communist China--will have disastrous, wide-reaching effects. A 100- percent renewable energy-supported grid will result in blackouts and will make power delivery less reliable for millions of families, not to mention the job losses for the 10 million Americans employed by these industries.

Democrats are also proposing sweeping changes to Medicare. This is a program that is incredibly popular among our senior citizens, and it is already on shaky financial ground. It is projected to reach insolvency within the next 4 years, prior to any changes by the Democrats that will undermine it. But Democrats are determined to add benefits that private plans already cover more efficiently. Adding hearing, vision, and dental under traditional Medicare is duplicative of the coverage provided through Medicare Advantage.

Seniors enjoy their high-performing Medicare plans, which come at little to no additional cost. Expanding Medicare is unnecessary, duplicative, and will come with higher costs, less access, and harm the quality of care providers are able to provide.

These are just a couple of examples, but the Democrats' reckless tax- and- spend proposal would have harmful consequences across the board for our country and the freedoms we enjoy.

Americans should be outraged--I know Hoosiers are--not only by this radical expansion of government but by the process Democrats are using to ram through their liberal agenda, possibly ramming it through a 50- 50 Republican-Democrat equally divided U.S. Senate.

Now, Republicans have stood up to socialism again and again. And we must continue to do so by opposing this reckless tax-and-spending boondoggle. We must protect the American promise and ensure that this remains the land of the free.

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