In Opposition to Democrats' Reconciliation Package

Floor Speech

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Mr. MEUSER. Madam Speaker, I thank my very good friend, the gentleman, Mr. Hern, of the great State of Oklahoma for yielding some time to me this evening.

Madam Speaker, last year, we collectively spent $5.6 trillion of the American taxpayer money for COVID relief and recovery and to create a vaccine, all the while enormously increasing our debt, but we were in a serious pandemic, a serious crisis.

Despite the effectiveness of this relief, the improving GDP and productivity taking place in our economy, the Biden administration and the Democrat Caucus passed the so-called rescue bill that was about three times more expensive than anyone thought needed. This and other erroneous policies set the stage for the havoc infecting our economy today.

We have a serious workforce shortage, hyperinflation--high demand and low supply--strong consumer purchasing but no ``Made in the USA'' goods to fulfill that demand. This is the primary cause of the supply chain bottleneck at our ports. Add to it this administration's not-so-subtle attack on domestic energy production, and you have shortages and inflation not seen since the 1970s.

Worse, it is not the high-earners or the well-off who are suffering from the Biden administration's decisions, it is middle income, working families and small businesses that are feeling the brunt of these ill- conceived ideas.

Madam Speaker, small businesses in Pennsylvania are breathless with anxiety and concern. Literally, every day I have a phone call with breathless constituents. They are rattled. Every one of them has a ``Help Wanted'' sign hanging on their door, offering $20 an hour plus while the cost of everything goes up daily.

What is the Biden administration's and the progressives in this House answer?

Let's spend $3.5 trillion on programs that create more demand but do nothing to increase productivity and the supply of American-made goods, and then somehow calling it ``Building Back Better.''

I would think it would be called breaking backs better because that is what it is doing--breaking the backs of hardworking Americans.

Madam Speaker, this defines the Biden administration and the Democratic Caucus' economic strategy: Big taxes, big spending, big government.

My constituents and I call it economic madness. We must defeat--not reduce, but defeat--this economy-wrecking conciliation.

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