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Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, over just the last couple of weeks, the people of Wyoming have celebrated two very important events: July 4, Independence Day, as America turned 250; and July 10, Wyoming Statehood Day. My home State of Wyoming turned 136 that day. We celebrated both of those great occurrences all across the State for a full week.

We had the iconic Cody Stampede Rodeo in Cody, WY. We saw volunteers in Gillette serve over 4,000 hot dogs at the Independence Day community celebration. We saw the Boy Scouts in Sheridan serve over 1,000 pancake breakfasts. And my Rotary Club in Casper celebrated the values that started our country. We had Wyoming best-selling author C.J. Box read the Declaration of Independence at a community gathering in Carbon County. The streets were packed for the Independence Day parade in Cody, and people then gathered at Veterans Park for the annual ``Let Freedom Ring'' celebration. The seats were full for the Big Wyo Rodeo in Sheridan and the Casper Rodeo finals just this past Saturday night. Our entire congressional delegation attended parades and festivities all across the Cowboy State.

This is the America that we saw these past 2 weeks. Yet there is another vision being offered to this country today, and we see it on the other side of the aisle. It is the vision being offered by the Democrats, and it is a dark vision, indeed. It is a vision of open borders, of high taxes, and of lawlessness. It is a vision that damages our communities and disrespects the values that Americans hold dear.

Today's Democrat Party has taken a radical turn to the left. Today's Democrat leadership is enabling it. America's largest city--the hometown of the minority leader, Senator Schumer--is now being run by a professed socialist. Our Nation's Capital is about to elect one as well.

People proclaiming to be socialists are winning Democrat primaries across the country. In Michigan, a Democrat front-runner for the U.S. Senate is campaigning with an extremist who blames America for the September 11 terrorist attacks. These were the attacks that 25 years ago cost the lives of 2,977 Americans.

Extremism drives the Democrat Party, and its influence within the party is growing. Here is what they want: Democrats want open borders. Democrats want to defund the police. Democrats want to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Democrats want to abolish the U.S. Border Patrol. Democrats want to weaken law enforcement. They want to make it harder to remove illegal immigrant criminals from our communities. Democrats want to pack the Supreme Court. They want judges who will rewrite the law and ignore the Constitution. Democrats want to abolish the electoral college. They want to make it possible for only a handful of big cities in blue States to control the selection of the next President. Democrats want higher taxes. They want hard-working American families to pay for healthcare for illegal immigrants. Democrats want to keep affordable, available, reliable American energy in the ground.

That is today's Democrat Party. They are radical, they are extreme, they are dangerous, and they are scary.

You may have noticed that, in the middle of a heat wave, the new Democrat mayor told New Yorkers to turn up their air conditioning to 78 degrees. Why? Because the New York power grid was collapsing.

How could that be? Why was the New York power grid collapsing? Well, because New York Democrats--pressured by climate extremists--shut down reliable nuclear powerplants.

Welcome to the Democrat Party of 2026.

Alarmingly, in this very Chamber, Democrat leaders are cheering on the radical left. After socialists swept their primaries this summer, one Democrat Senator said that ``this is a very good trend.''

Another said it is a sign that their party is ``alive and well.''

Another said we are now seeing the ``future of the Democrat Party.''

By contrast, Republicans continue to deliver results. We passed the Working Families Tax Cut law. We stopped the largest tax increase in American history. We put more money back into the pockets of millions of hard-working Americans. Ninety-six percent of Americans who make under $200,000 a year benefited from the Working Families Tax Cut law.

Republicans secured the border. We passed the largest investment in border security in American history. We fully funded ICE and Border Patrol for the next 3 years, and we are deporting illegal immigrant criminals.

The contrast is clear: Democrats stand for high taxes, open borders, and lawlessness. Republicans stand for freedom, liberty, and American greatness.

America is worth defending. America is worth celebrating. America is worth fighting for. That is what Republicans are committed to doing, and that is what we did as the people of Wyoming over the Fourth of July.

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