52 Weeks of Broken Promises
Floor Speech
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Mr. BANKS. Madam Speaker, today, at least on one question, Americans are more united than ever before. This week, as we mark the 1-year mark of the Biden Presidency, the vast majority of the American people agree that the Biden Presidency has been a failure.
After 1 year in office, President Biden's approval rating is the lowest ever recorded after the first year in office of any President in American history.
Why is no mystery. By every measure, Americans are worse off today than when Biden took office. Inflation, crime, the debt, the border, Afghanistan, a never-ending pandemic, Americans have endured humiliation abroad and division at home, and all of these disasters are man-made.
Everyone knows why inflation is at a 40-year high. Everyone knows why Americans' wages have been cut by 3 percent or more. Democrats spent trillions and then passed the largest Federal budget in history.
How, in less than a year, did we go from energy independence to begging Saudi Arabia for oil? Well, maybe it has something to do with the President banning new natural gas production in the United States.
You see, the media wants to make things complicated. They want you to believe that no one really knows why you are paying close to $4 per gallon at the pump. They want to separate the consequences of the last year from its cause. But don't be fooled, Madam Speaker.
There is a border crisis because the Biden administration stopped building the wall, cut deportations by 90 percent, and reversed every single one of President Trump's successful border enforcement measures.
Fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45 because it, too, is pouring across a wide-open southern border. It is that simple.
Crime immediately shot up after Democrats' antipolice riots, because of Democrats' antipolice riots.
There are still hundreds of Americans stranded in Afghanistan because the Biden administration didn't prioritize its own citizens for evacuation.
President Biden's COVID policies do not work. That is why COVID cases, hospitalizations, and deaths all rose during the Biden Presidency. Americans endured mandatory vaccinations, pointless mask mandates, endless school closures, and never-ending Dr. Fauci interviews. And it was all for nothing.
Americans can see what is in front of them. That is why they have rejected this administration. The proof is in the pudding, and the pudding is stale.
The question is, can Americans endure 3 more years just like the last one? I believe that they can, but they shouldn't have to. That is why the Republican Study Committee is here tonight. We will hold the Biden administration accountable every step of the way. We will make sure that the past year of crises and catastrophes never repeats itself.
Madam Speaker, tonight, I will yield to a number of my colleagues, like the next speaker. The gentlewoman from the great State of Indiana (Mrs. Walorski) is going to share some thoughts with us.
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Mr. BANKS. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from the great State of Indiana for her comments. I know she and I both agree that Hoosiers are sick and tired of this leadership, or lack thereof, that we have seen from President Biden over the last year.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx), the ranking member of the House Education and Labor Committee and a great mentor and colleague.
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Mr. BANKS. Madam Speaker, from Indiana to North Carolina to Kansas and beyond, the American people are feeling the effects of this disastrous administration.
I yield to the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Estes), my colleague and my friend, a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee, and a leader in the Republican Study Committee.
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Mr. BANKS. Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Estes for his comments.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Moore), one of our leaders in Congress on the Republican side fighting for veterans every day on the Veterans' Affairs Committee, and my colleague and friend.
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Mr. BANKS. Madam Speaker, as President Biden continues to fail the American people in so many ways and his poor leadership has created crisis after crisis after crisis, I can't think of anywhere in the country that shows us just the opposite type of leadership than the free and open State of Florida.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Cammack), one of Florida's great leaders, a freshman leader in the Republican Study Committee, my colleague and friend.
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Mr. BANKS. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Florida for her comments.
I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Grothman), one of the greatest voices of common sense in the entire Congress, a senior Republican leader on the House Education and Labor Committee, my colleague, and friend.
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Mr. BANKS. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Fitzgerald), my colleague and a freshman Member of the House.
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Mr. BANKS. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Garcia), a fellow veteran and friend.
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Mr. BANKS. Madam Speaker, thanks to our next speaker, I have been to the border in Arizona and Texas, both during President Trump's Presidency and now during President Biden's Presidency. What our next speaker has taught me along the way is the night-and-day difference. The border was under control under President Trump; it is wide open under President Biden.
What I have learned and what I have stressed more than ever before is that what is going on at the border impacts my district in northeast Indiana every single day.
Our next speaker is the co-chair of the Border Security Caucus. No one does more in Congress to highlight these issues and work toward protecting and securing our border than Dr. Brian Babin.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Babin).
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Mr. BANKS. Madam Speaker, when I became the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, which is not just the largest conservative caucus in Congress but the largest caucus overall in the entire United States Capitol, I had to choose someone to lead the Republican Study Committees' Budget and Spending Task Force.
For almost 50 years, this task force and the Republican Study Committee has put forth a fiscally responsible balanced budget in the Congress to lead the way toward fiscal responsibility. And no one has done a better job of that in my time in Congress than Kevin Hern, a small business owner from the great State of Oklahoma. He has chaired and run this effort well.
Over the last year, we put out a budget that we showed to the Congress. We could balance the budget in 6 years. That is in stark contrast to what the Democrats and President Biden have done to put forth the largest budget that this country has ever seen.
I don't just appreciate the leadership of Representative Hern; I am proud of the effort he put forward.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Hern).
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Mr. BANKS. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Oklahoma again for his leadership and the important words that he had to share with us tonight.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Carl), a new member of the House Committee on Armed Services who is playing an outsized role on the Committee on Armed Services as we work hard to support our troops who need our support more than ever before.
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Mr. BANKS. I thank the gentleman from Alabama, Mr. Carl. It is such a powerful statement as we think about the drugs that are flooding over the border, that are impacting communities, destroying families.
The lack of attention by this administration to do anything about it is appalling to the American people. As they see what is going on at the border, they know the border is wide open. They know that this President is responsible for the lack of leadership to secure the border that has allowed drugs to flow into communities and affect and destroy so many families across this country.
Enough is enough. We call on the President. We ask President Biden to step up to the plate and address this issue so that more families aren't ruined, and more communities aren't destroyed because of the amount of drugs and the drug epidemic that is affecting our country.
Again, I said in my opening statement fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45. Why isn't the President paying attention to that statistic and doing anything about it to address it?
Madam Speaker, next, I yield to a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, someone who I know has a heart for our veterans, someone who has served under four Presidents since he has been in Congress. His perspective is powerful.
I yield to the gentleman from South Carolina, (Mr. Wilson), my colleague, mentor, and friend.
Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. As we reach the one-year anniversary of President Biden in office, I borrow from the great Ronald Reagan and his extraordinary question during the 1980 Presidential debate and ask: Are you better off today than you were a year ago? The obvious and sad answer of thinking Americans is no.
Since President Biden took office January 20, American families have suffered under a one-party Democrat rule, destroying jobs. The continued taxing and spending policies of Biden and Democrats have caused inflation. This situation is getting worse and will challenge our children's future, while threatening the savings of retirees.
Bidenflation has hit the highest rate in 40 years, and the astronomical price increases that come with that affect all of our pocketbooks. A few examples include, gas is up 56 percent higher than over a year ago. Propane, kerosene, and firewood are up 40 percent. Beef and bacon are up 19 percent. Chicken is up 10 percent.
Compounding this damaging effect, most workers have not received wages that keep up with inflation, according to The New York Times. Families have actually lost possibly $5,000 in just one year. Also, the December Jobs Report came in at less than half where economists projected.
Since President Biden took office, he has failed to protect our southern border. Over 1.7 million illegal aliens have invaded, benefiting the drug cartels and benefiting the horror of promoting human trafficking.
Energy independence has been replaced by energy dependence, resulting in skyrocketing costs. President Biden's policies worldwide have been disastrous. A feeble response to Putin is putting Ukrainian families at risk of mass murder with already 14,000 people killed; bowing to China as it continues the genocide of weaker Muslims; capitulating to Iran as it shouts death to America, death to Israel; appeasement of Afghanistan leading directly to thirteen American heroes murdered; leaving Americans behind and establishing Afghanistan as a safe haven to attack American families with suicide bombers, as we saw claimed this weekend at the Texas synagogue.
American families have never been at greater risk of attack than they are today in American history. The Democrat elite think they are smarter than everyone, and they think Democrat voters and Democrat media are ignorant to believe $5 trillion in spending costs zero. That is a direct quote from the President.
So I ask the rhetorical and famous question again. Are you better off today than you were a year ago?
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Mr. BANKS. Madam Speaker, last but not least, I yield to the gentleman from the great state of Texas, (Mr. Arrington), my friend, someone who fights so hard for freedom, for families.
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Mr. BANKS. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague and friend for so many important comments that he and the others have shared with us today as we mark the 1-year anniversary mark of President Biden taking office as the current President of the United States.
Once again, this President ends his first year in office with the lowest approval rating of any President in American history. The American people are feeling the decline of America. They see it, and they hate it because they know it doesn't have to be this way. They are crying out for leadership. They are begging the party in power--the Democratic Party that controls the Congress and owns the White House under President Joe Biden--to do something about inflation, because they feel it and see it every day when they go to the grocery store. And they beg the Democratic Party to do so something about it. They are begging President Biden to address inflation, the worst inflation of my lifetime.
They are baffled why the party in power and this President are completely tone-deaf to the needs of the American people as they suffer through this disastrous set of consequences of the policies of this President.
Madam Speaker, you heard a lot tonight about the effects of the COVID lockdowns and policies that have hurt our kids in schools and have hurt so many working Americans as they feel the pressures of these lockdowns and the failed policies of this administration. You have heard a lot tonight about the effects of fentanyl and the drugs that are coming over the wide-open border because of the failed border policies of this President.
You have heard a lot tonight about the embarrassment that Afghanistan has caused the American people on the world stage. The American people know that when we put America's interests first in our foreign policy, the world is safer and better off. But under this President, America is less safe from North Korea to the Middle East, China and Russia, all of these countries are seizing on America's weakness under President Biden's leadership, and the world is less safe because of it.
Madam Speaker, I call on the Democratic Party and President Biden to step up to the plate. America can't afford to suffer another 3 years of what they have suffered through over the last year.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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