Midterm Elections and New Senators

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, last week, our narrowly divided country went to the polls and elected a narrowly divided Congress, including a very narrowly divided U.S. Senate.

The next couple of months will see a number of long-serving Senate all-stars taking retirement, but today we are getting to welcome and meet our new soon-to-be colleagues on both sides of the aisle as the new Senators-elect arrive here in the Capitol for orientation. Among their ranks are an all-star lawyer and leader from Alabama, the attorney general from the great State of Missouri, the Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania, a businessman and best-selling author from Ohio, and three distinguished Members of the House of Representatives.

Exactly 25 years ago, in remarks welcoming the new Senate class of 1996, Senator Robert Byrd told them that service in this body is both ``a supreme honor,'' ``a serious responsibility,'' and ``the highest political calling in the land.'' The famous student of the Senate's rules and history, our former colleague from West Virginia concluded that ``as long as the Senate retains the power to amend and the power of unlimited debate, the liberties of the people will remain secure.''

So, Mr. President, it is a high bar to earn the trust of one's neighbors to represent them and fight for their home State here in this Chamber. Each of our soon-to-be colleagues has cleared this high bar. I am proud to welcome members of what will be the 118th Congress freshman class. I hope sincerely that each of our incoming colleagues will embrace the honor of this immense responsibility. Of course, our half of the Chamber hopes that, even after this week, we will be not quite through with welcoming new Senators.

Democrats' unforced policy errors over the past several years have hit working families in the State of Georgia especially hard. Under one-party Democratic control in Washington and one-party representation here in the Senate, the Peach State has paid an especially painful price.

Since President Biden took the oath of office, Georgia families have watched prices rise nearly 15 percent. They have shelled out hundreds of extra dollars every month just to foot the bill for the massive, reckless spending binge their two Democratic Senators pushed through with deciding votes. Needless to say, this completely avoidable Democratic inflation tax put Georgia workers and small businesses in a heck of a bind.

``It's absolutely murderous,'' one man in Columbus, GA, told reporters. ``Food, gas prices. Inflation is awful.''

Of course, it didn't have to be this way. The people of Georgia's Senators didn't have to vote in lockstep with Washington Democrats to overheat our economy with reckless spending. Georgia's two Democratic Senators didn't have to vote for the $2 trillion in inflationary spending. They didn't have to vote for hundreds of billions of dollars in leftwing climate policies. But every single time that the hard- working people of Georgia have needed a check and balance, their Democratic Senators only gave them a rubberstamp. When Georgians needed their Senators to stand up with independence, they just fell in line.

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