Government Spending

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to oppose the Democrats' reckless tax-and-spending spree.

On Thursday, President Biden came here to Capitol Hill to meet with Democrats over in the House. Just hours before he got here, economists sounded the alarms once again about the economy that our Nation is facing under President Biden.

Economic growth slowed to just 2 percent. Now, this is the slowest it has been since the post-pandemic recovery began. This was also significantly lower than even the experts expected. So there was a disconnect. It was really low and even lower than they expected.

Growth is slowing down; hiring is slowing down; and shelves are empty all across America. We have a growing supply chain nightmare. Prices continue to go up. I heard about it all across the State of Wyoming this past weekend.

So what did President Biden do in response?

Well, he ignored the alarm bells. He gave his blessing to the latest version of this reckless tax-and-spending bill.

And the new version looks a lot like the old version--just as radical, just as reckless, and just as unpopular with the American public. There is nothing really new in the bill except more budget gimmicks.

And it is interesting that NBC News, this weekend, came out with a poll that only 22 percent--only about one in five Americans think that, under Joe Biden and the Democrats, the country is on the right path. Seventy-one percent said we are on the wrong path.

And the bill that is being proposed by the Democrats is still about 2,500 pages long and still contains the worst parts of the old bill.

So what is in the new one?

Well, here are a couple of things. It still supersizes the IRS. This new bill would still give the Internal Revenue Service $80 billion to hire an army of IRS agents. Now, Democrats know this is unpopular, yet they continue to defend the proposal.

Why would that be?

The American people have spoken out. They complained to Congress. Democrats don't seem to care. That is because Democrats need to squeeze working Americans for more of the hard-earned money they make.

Why do they want it?

So the Democrats can spend it.

What do they want to spend it on?

Well, the largest part of this bill has to do with energy. It would spend half a trillion dollars for parts of the Green New Deal. That includes over $2.5 billion for something they call tree equity.

It still includes enormous handouts to people who buy electric luxury vehicles. Now, we already give billions and billions of taxpayer dollars in subsidy to electric vehicle makers and owners. This would be even more.

Studies show 80 percent of these subsidies go to households making more than $100,000 each. Well, Democrats say that is not enough. This bill still would give $12,500 to couples making up to $800,000 a year to buy luxury electric vehicles.

The bill still includes the $1,500 payouts to people who buy electric bicycles. It is a mystery to me how electric bicycles can be better for the environment than regular bicycles. They are obviously not. It just shows that this policy is really not about the environment; it is about payoffs to Democrat elites in the big cities.

That is why the bill still includes the Civilian Climate Corps. Now, this is an army of full-time, taxpayer-funded climate activists. They would get paid generous stipends and salaries. And what would they get paid to do? To protest American energy projects.

Now, just last week, climate protesters stopped traffic in New York City during rush hour. People were just trying to get to work or get home, just trying to take their kids to school, yet they had to sit in traffic because of professional protesters, and this administration wants to hire up to a million of them.

Now, Democrats know this isn't popular. That is why they changed the name of the Climate Corps in the new bill. They didn't change the purpose. Now they are trying to call it the Land Corps. It sounds like a harmless group. It is the same civilian climate army, a green army to attack American oil, gas, and coal.

Now, this name change alone is an admission that this idea is very unpopular. Democrats know the American people don't want to spend billions of dollars to subsidize protesters.

A recent poll found 90 percent of Americans are unwilling to pay more than $100 a year to fight climate change. We are already paying more than $1,000 a year in energy costs to drive and to heat our homes due to Joe Biden's energy policies. This is $1,000 more than we did last year.

At home this past weekend in Wyoming, I noted and talked to folks while I was filling up that gas is a dollar a gallon higher than it was when Joe Biden took office. Natural gas prices have doubled, and that means a lot because half of the families in America use natural gas to power their homes.

This bill also increases taxes on American energy production. Democrats specifically target a new tax on natural gas production. So this would raise taxes and prices significantly--even higher--for American families who already this winter are facing a 7-year high in the cost of natural gas and are already trying to decide this winter are they going to be able to heat or to eat. That is becoming a concern of families all across America under Joe Biden's agenda and economy.

One in five American families have already cut their spending to pay for their energy bills this year. The American public and people are paying too much for Joe Biden's energy agenda. They don't want to pay a penny more. They are tired of it, fed up.

Democrats know their agenda is unpopular with the American public. That is why this bill would also permanently change the makeup of the country, because the new version of the bill would give amnesty for millions upon millions of illegal immigrants. The Parliamentarian has said Democrats couldn't pass amnesty in the last version of the bill, yet Democrats want amnesty so badly they are going to try it all over again. Apparently, version C is coming soon.

This is supposed to be a spending bill, not an immigration bill. If they want to do an immigration bill, they ought to introduce an immigration bill. Yet Democrats know that they don't have the votes to pass the kind of immigration bill that they want to pass--not at a time when we have a flood of illegal immigrants coming across the southern border, with more on the way.

So they are trying to cram it into this spending bill. They are hoping that the American public won't notice. If Democrats have their way, this would be the most consequential immigration bill in half a century. The bill would give millions of illegal immigrants amnesty and then give them plenty of taxpayer money because this bill includes new permanent welfare programs with no work requirements--none at all--and no citizenship requirements. That is what the Democrats are proposing.

It is no wonder that we have a border crisis at our southern border, a flood of illegal immigrants. With this bill, Democrats are promising amnesty, as well as free childcare, free preschool, and even free college to illegal immigrants. This is in addition to the $300 checks they already sent to illegal immigrants with the spending bill that the Democrats passed along party-line votes in March.

Democrats seem to do everything that they can to reward illegal immigration. The Wall Street Journal reports the Biden administration now wants to give millions of dollars to families who came here illegally in 2018 and were detained for illegal entry. The number being reported is that the Biden administration wants to give them $450,000 a person.

Now, this is more than six times the annual income of a typical American family, Mr. President. It is more than 50 times the per-capita income of El Salvador. $450,000 per person will mean millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars for families who came here illegally. You talk about an incentive for people to come here illegally--this is exhibit A. The total payout could be more than a billion dollars.

Now, let me just contrast that number of $450,000 with the fact that those who lose their lives defending the country, like a marine--a young marine from Wyoming, Rylee McCollum, who was one of the 13 killed in Kabul, Afghanistan--the United States sends to those families $100,000, and Joe Biden is promising 4\1/2\ times that much for people who came here illegally.

Mr. President, the Democrats say this is a new bill. It is the same old Democrat agenda: high energy costs, amnesty for illegal immigrants, welfare and payoffs to wealthy donors.

And this is the bill endorsed by the President of the United States. It is no wonder that 71 percent of Americans this past weekend said this country is heading in the wrong direction. It is the wrong direction under the Democrats and under Joe Biden.

Democrats ought to listen to the American people. People are furious with this administration. Listen to the sirens blaring with the poor economic numbers reported last week. It is time to stop making the Biden economy even worse. It is time to stop the freefall. Stop this reckless tax and spending before the administration does even further damage to our economy and our country.

Thank you, Mr. President.

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