Build Back Better Agenda

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, this week, voters delivered a clear message to the Democratic Party: You were not elected to radically change America. You were not elected to radically change America-- period.

The message was clear on inflation and economics. The message was clear on keeping woke propaganda out of public schools. The message was clear when even the citizens of blue New York--blue New York--voted down leftwing changes that would weaken elections, similar to what has been proposed here multiple times, and the message was clear when citizens pushed back on anti-policing and on anti-law enforcement attitudes.

Even in the most liberal cities in the most liberal States, Americans told Democrats to leave their extreme campaign to ``defund the police'' behind.

Let's take Minneapolis, for example. Last summer, one local Congresswoman called the police department ``rotten to the root'' and insisted that ``no one is saying that the community is not going to be kept safe.''

Well, what happened?

Homicides are on a pace for the highest annual count in decades. So this week, Minnesota voters rejected a ballot measure that would have removed the police department--listen to this--from the city's charter.

Or take New York City, where violent crimes, like robbery and auto theft, have seen 10- to 15-percent jumps just in the last year. This week, voters chose for their mayor a former police captain whose platform declared: ``If we are for safety, we need the NYPD.'' That is the new mayor of New York.

Upstate, in Buffalo, a socialist challenger had won a primary against the incumbent mayor, promising in part to defund the police. But even though prominent New York Democrats endorsed the radical who won the primary, the incumbent won the race on a write-in--on a write-in.

Our people have just lived through the biggest nationwide jump in homicides in more than a century. In my hometown of Louisville, murders in 2021 have already more than doubled the annual total from just 2 years ago.

So, look, Americans do not want less public safety. They actually want more. No wonder that, over the summer, one survey found that a majority of Americans, including majorities of Black and Hispanic respondents, called violent crime a ``major crisis,'' ahead of any other issue.

But it remains to be seen whether Democrats here in Washington are getting the message. After all, just a few days ago, the Attorney General still seemed more focused on intimidating America's parents out of their First Amendment rights.

For the sake of public safety across our country, let's hope that Tuesday's election results compel our friends across the aisle to come back--back into the mainstream. Climate Change

Madam President, on another matter, President Biden spent much of the past week participating in a U.N. summit on the so-called Paris climate accords.

The event was billed as a serious meeting of world leaders committed to taking action on climate policy. More than 1,000 VIPs arrived in a parade of no fewer than 400 private jets--400 private jets; a mode of transportation that some climate activists say is up to 14 times more polluting than commercial aviation.

Hypocrisy was on full display at that meeting.

The topic of discussion was a bad deal that, after 6 years, has failed to hold any of the major signatories to their commitments on reducing emissions. But, of course, that hadn't stopped President Biden from rejoining it. The President went as far as apologizing-- apologizing--that the previous administration had let the U.S. reduce its emissions from outside the deal. He pledged that, now, the United States ``will do our part.''

Now, exactly what that means is not clear. The United States exceeded in cutting its emissions more from outside the Paris deal than any other major country managed from inside the deal.

So President Biden apologized for outperforming the deal, and his counterparts welcomed America's new commitment to reduce U.S. emissions 50 percent by 2030, without a single specific on how to achieve it.

Now, while America's emissions have fallen, the world's leading carbon emitter apparently has a free pass to keep on increasing its emissions until 2030.

According to China's own representatives, their massive and thriving economy is still in a ``special development stage.'' ``Special development stage.''

We are talking about a country that built more than three times as much new coal power capacity as the rest of the world combined in 2020.

Meanwhile, one outside analysis indicates that getting America even close to net zero emissions by 2050 would mean cutting our own GDP by nearly 12 percent annually. That is trillions of dollars shipped out of this country every year. Competitors, like China, are licking their chops.

And what would this self-flagellation get us 39 years from now?

According to that same outside analysis, based on the U.N.'s own model, this economic hemorrhage would purchase us a reduction of three- tenths--three-tenths--of 1 degree in global temperatures.

Meanwhile, the same Washington Democrats who think that this nightmare sounds like a good deal are pushing a reckless taxing-and- spending spree that would hammer American families and the affordable energy they need to power and to heat their homes and to drive their cars.

After less than a year with Democrats in power, America has already more than doubled imports of Russian oil from December 2020 levels-- double the dependency on Russia in less than 12 months--America's energy future, as imagined by our colleagues on the left.

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