[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 2 (Tuesday, January 4, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S15-S17]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Biden Administration
Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about
the Democrats' agenda for the new year.
The American people have just come back from the most expensive
Christmas in our Nation's history, coronavirus cases are breaking
records all around the country, and many Americans spent their
Christmas with their travel plans canceled.
Joe Biden now enters his second year in office with record-high
inflation, record-high coronavirus cases, and a record-low approval
rating. Now, Joe Biden is breaking all kinds of records, and each of
these records reflects an America that is heading in the wrong
direction.
The American people have two major concerns right now: coronavirus
and what it costs to live their daily lives. Yet these two issues are
not even on the radar of Democrats in Washington, DC.
In fact, Democrats have only made these problems worse. First,
Democrats have unquestionably driven up the cost of living on American
families. Inflation shot up after Democrats put $2 trillion on
America's credit card this spring.
Democrats told us inflation was transitory. They said it month after
month after month. On the day after Christmas, Margaret Brennan of CBS
News asked the Vice President a very basic question. She asked: Was it
wrong to consider inflation transitory?
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It is not a gotcha question. It is a question American families have
asked themselves month after month after month, as they heard Democrats
say it was transitory. Well, to the American people the answer is very
clear. It is obvious. Of course, it was wrong by the administration, by
the President, by the Vice President to try to mislead the American
people by claiming that inflation was transitory.
So what did we hear from the Vice President in response to this
question that has been of great concern to the American people?
What we heard was 118 words of incoherent rambling. She was like a
deer in headlights on a basic question on the top issue of the day.
Either the Vice President is out of touch with the needs of the
American people or she just didn't want to admit that the Biden
administration had been wrong month after month after month, until the
inflation numbers hit a 4-year high.
It has gone on now for 9 months and, you know, it is only going to
get worse. That is what the experts are telling us. In October, we saw
the worst inflation in 30 years, and, in November, it became the worst
inflation in 40 years.
Prices have gone up faster than wages. This means the average
American family can purchase a lot less today than they could when Joe
Biden took office.
And the biggest price increases, of course, have been in energy. In
November, we saw the biggest energy price increase in 10 years. CNBC
reports that one-fifth of American families couldn't afford to pay an
energy bill this past year. Roughly the same percentage have kept their
home at an unhealthy temperature because they can't afford the cost of
providing heat.
People who travelled for Christmas faced some of the highest
Christmas Day prices in history. Gas cost $1 more a gallon this
Christmas than it did last Christmas--1 year, $1 a gallon more.
Many people couldn't travel because of coronavirus. Americans broke
records for coronavirus cases twice last week. Ohio, Maryland, and here
in the District of Columbia, all broke records for hospitalizations due
to coronavirus.
Now, remember when Joe Biden ran for office? He said he was the cure
for coronavirus. This guy ought to be sued for medical malpractice.
He came into office with two safe and effective vaccines. Millions of
people have already been vaccinated. Yet more Americans have now died
from coronavirus under President Joe Biden than under the previous
President. From day one of this administration, this President has been
inconsistent, incoherent, and incompetent.
The flip-flop on masks for the vaccinated has continued. The
administration kowtowed to the teachers union on mask mandates for
toddlers. They flip-flopped on booster shots. They flip-flopped again
on testing.
For months now, countries like the United Kingdom have sent rapid
tests to their citizens through the mail. On December 23, President
Biden told ABC News: ``I wish I had thought about ordering . . . [at-
home test kits] two months ago.''
Well, it turns out the White House did think about it. The media is
now reporting that the White House turned down a plan to mail test kits
in October.
In early December, the White House Press Secretary was asked why the
Biden administration wasn't mailing out tests. After all, the
Democrats, on a straight party-line vote in March, put $2 trillion on
our Nation's credit card under the guise of COVID relief. Only 9
percent of the money went for healthcare. Where did that money go?
Billions and tens of billions of dollars, so-called for testing, in the
bill that the Democrats forced on a party-line vote, and yet there
aren't tests in the country because people are lined up around the
block waiting for tests that the President wished he had thought about.
That is what he told the world. That is what he said on ABC News.
In early December, the White House Press Secretary was asked why the
Biden administration wasn't mailing out tests. She mocked the idea.
Then, just a few weeks later, it became the policy of this same
administration--too little, too late, another flip-flop, another
example of the hypocrisy and the incompetence of this administration.
Someone in the press ought to ask Joe Biden if he still believes what
he said as a candidate. So let's review what he said as a candidate.
In September of 2020, Joe Biden said: ``If the president had done his
job from the beginning''--he was referring to President Trump--Biden
said, ``all the people would still be alive.'' ``All the people,'' he
said. ``I'm not making this up''--Joe Biden once again telling the
world he is not making it up.
I don't know of a single doctor or public health official anywhere in
the world who would agree with that statement by Joe Biden, then
candidate for President. Yet Joe Biden said it repeatedly.
As a candidate, Joe Biden said: ``Any President who is responsible
for that many deaths should not remain as President.''
And to that I say: Joe Biden, you are right now responsible for that
many deaths. So, maybe, you shouldn't remain as President either.
Joe Biden attacked the previous administration for letting Governors
manage the response to coronavirus. Yet just last month, Joe Biden
admitted: ``There is no Federal solution'' to the coronavirus.
Does Joe Biden still believe what he said as a candidate?
Did he ever believe it?
What does he know? What does he think? What does he believe? Or was
he just running for President on the Big Lie?
Now, even for Democrats in Washington, the hypocrisy and the
incompetence are astonishing. Now the American people all across this
country are suffering the consequences of the mismanagement by this
administration.
Flights, train departures, public events are all being canceled due
to the resurgence of coronavirus. Cancellations continue today because
of coronavirus under the President who said he would solve the problem,
to the point that even the majority party's conference, which should
have been a lunch, today was moved to be virtual because of the virus
that Joe Biden said he would eliminate.
Joe Biden's lies and flip-flops continue. Joe Biden said he wouldn't
issue a vaccine mandate. He said it on several occasions and then he
broke his word. In the process, he took a sledgehammer to the American
workforce, forcing people out of their jobs.
The Biden administration has also issued a mask mandate for children
as young as 2 years of age, in preschool.
Just before Christmas, Senator Lummis, also from Wyoming, and I
introduced a bill to stop this mandate. There is no scientific basis
for forcing toddlers to wear masks. This isn't about the science. It
has been shown that the teachers union lobbied for mask mandates in
schools.
On May 13, the Centers for Disease Control issued its mask guidance
for vaccinated people--for people who had been fully vaccinated. The
guidance from the Centers for Disease Control said that fully
vaccinated people could stop wearing masks indoors.
What happened the very next day?
Well, the very next day, the head of the National Education
Association, the teachers union, called the Director of the Centers for
Disease Control. The day after that, the Centers for Disease Control
released new guidance--new guidance--saying vaccinated people should
wear masks in schools. Maybe it was a coincidence. It doesn't look like
it or sound like it to me. This flip-flop looks like a kind of
political pandering, the pandering to union bosses that this
administration has engaged in since day one.
The American people have two big concerns right now: coronavirus and
the cost of living. Democrats on Capitol Hill continue to ignore the
two biggest concerns of the American people.
What are the Democrats in this body focused on instead? Well, for 5
months now, Democrats in this body have tried to pass the largest
spending bill in history.
What is it focused on? Not inflation; not COVID; not crime in the
cities, where murder rates are at an alltime high; not border security,
where the number of people coming in illegally, carrying disease and
drugs, is at an alltime high. No, the Democrats want to focus instead
on climate change and new entitlements. Their bill included
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trillions and trillions of dollars in new taxes and trillions and
trillions of dollars in new debt.
President Biden and nearly every Democrat in Congress went on record
in support of this socialist budget bill. Not a single Republican
supports it, and not even every Democrat supports it. Now Democrats are
fighting among themselves, and it is an absolute disgrace. Democrats
ought to be thankful that bill didn't pass, because if it passed,
inflation would get worse, just in time for elections.
This isn't what the American people want. The American people have
many concerns right now about the direction of this country and the
direction that the President is trying to lead the Nation. The two
biggest concerns are the coronavirus in their communities and the cost
of living that impacts on them, on the people every day. Democrats are
failing on both.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.