Protecting Financial Privacy Act of 2021

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Madam President, you remember the day--you will never forget it--January 6. Here we were in this Chamber in the process of certifying the electoral college votes. It was a pretty solemn occasion because this happens once every 4 years. We have documents coming from the States telling us what happened in the election of last year for President of the United States. It is our job to make sure that those reports are documented and that the ordinary process of the democracy proceeds.

This January 6 was not an ordinary day by any means. Before we set about our task here in the Senate and the House, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, held a rally, claiming that, in fact, he didn't lose the election, that he won the last election, and he alleged all sorts of fraud and misconduct on the part of Democrats and others that resulted in this faulty report that somehow or another he had lost the election.

Well, his crowd got so fired up that they decided to march on the Capitol as we were counting the electoral college ballots. I can remember it well. Vice President Pence was sitting where you were, I say to the Presiding Officer. We were going through the regular process, and it was a little after 2 o'clock in the afternoon. All of a sudden, that door opened over there, and people came in in suits I had never seen before and literally yanked the Vice President off the podium and pulled him out that door.

It was only a minute or two later that a member of the Capitol Police--the men and women who guard us and guard the visitors to this Capitol--a member of the Capitol Police stood where you are sitting and reported to us that there was a demonstration outside and that we should remain in this Chamber, in this Senate Chamber, because they were going to make it a safe room in the Capitol. At that time, I noticed staff people were being brought in and lined up along the back of the room itself.

It wasn't 10 minutes later until the same member of the Capitol Police stood up and said: Change in plans; everybody leave as quickly as possible. And we all did, filing out toward the back of the room, every Member of the Senate. Luckily, the Parliamentarian or some other office decided to grab the boxes with the electoral college votes in them to preserve this important piece of history from possible mob action.

As we were filing out of the Capitol, I couldn't help but look out the window and see the mobs coming on the Capitol, converging on the Capitol, carrying Trump signs. We went to a safe location and waited it out and later that evening resumed our activities on the floor of the Senate, counted the votes, and made it official, with the Vice President present.

It was an important part of history. You would think that would be enough of an embarrassment to President Donald Trump that he would drop his claims that the election was stolen. He has done just the opposite. He has intensified these false, malicious claims that somehow or another the vote was rigged or stolen, whatever his term might be--a fraud on the public--despite clear evidence to the contrary.

He pointed to a number of States that he said proved his point, where he just could not have lost--Donald Trump could not have lost these States--so clearly, he argued, something happened there that was criminal or wrong, and an investigation would show it.

Well, one of those States was Arizona. Joe Biden carried Arizona by roughly 10,500 votes. Forty-five thousand Biden votes came from Maricopa County, so it was obviously crucial to his win. So the Republicans in Arizona decided they were going to zero in on Maricopa County and prove once and for all that Donald Trump didn't lose that county by 45,000 votes. Well, they went to great lengths to do it.

First, they gathered all their rightwing groups and Trump's defenders and raised $5.7 million in donations. Then they hired a group with the unlikely name--I am looking for it here; something to do with ninjas. I am sure it will pop up. Oh, Cyber Ninjas. This group has no experience analyzing an election. Yet they turned over all the ballots from Maricopa County to them to recount.

Well, they pursued many bizarre theories, one of which I think was promulgated by the ever-reliable Rudy Giuliani that somehow or another there were bamboo fibers found in these election ballots, and those were an indication of wrongdoing and can connect the conspiracy maybe even to international sources.

The Cyber Ninjas rolled up their sleeves, pulled in the boxes of ballots, and started their count. They were determined to prove, once and for all, that the result that was announced that Biden carried the county by 45,000 votes was wrong. And they proved it. Through all their hard work and all the money that was spent, it turns out the draft report from the company, Cyber Ninjas, found that there were 99 additional votes for Joe Biden, rather than the amount presented by the 261 fewer votes for Donald Trump in Maricopa County, just the opposite of what they had predicted.

Well, you would think that President Trump would at least be quiet or maybe even acknowledge that he was wrong. Come on, you remember him. Here is what he said in a statement after the review was announced. He said the review ``has uncovered significant and undeniable evidence of FRAUD! Until we know how and why this happened, our Elections will never be secure.''

He just won't quit. And the problem, of course, is that so many Americans are buying it, primarily Republicans, increasing their numbers, believing his Big Lie about the election being stolen

from him. God forbid this man could lose an election. Who would ever dream of that? He can't think of the possibility. And they are joining him in the chorus, despite hard evidence that proves time and time and time again that he lost.

It was a spirited election--Joe Biden and Donald Trump--and when it was all over, the American people made their choice. They accepted the reality of change. Now it is time for Donald Trump and his followers to do the same.

I don't know if the cyber ninja turtles, or whoever they are, are going to go at it again in some other State, pick another State to do some investigation. More power to them. They are building up the majority for Joe Biden--just the opposite of what was predicted.

Debt Ceiling

Madam President, I would like to speak on another topic, if I might.

We are going to have a vote later this afternoon, and it is not an ordinary vote in the U.S. Senate. We are voting on what is called the debt ceiling.

The debt ceiling is the acknowledgement of the government's debt. It looks backward, and it says: Over a period of time since we last expanded the size of the debt, we have incurred more debt, and, therefore, we have to acknowledge the new debt ceiling in order to establish that the United States is going to pay that debt--which, of course, we want a reputation for paying just bills. And, in this situation, these were bills for debts incurred during the Trump administration.

It should be a rather routine thing. In fact, one might make the argument that the Senate and the House should not even be involved in this acknowledgement; it is simple accounting and should be announced to the American people. But for the time being, it is subject to a vote in the House and the Senate, and that is where the problems arise.

Senator McConnell, the Republican leader from Kentucky, is hoping that the American public will not clearly understand the gravity and the importance of this vote. He has announced that he is going to boycott this vote and not a single Republican will vote to acknowledge the true debt of the United States of America.

I don't know if he will be able to keep his word and whether every Republican Senator will march blindly behind him. They did once before, under the American Rescue Plan, when Joe Biden proposed that we do the things necessary to bring this pandemic to an end and get America back on its feet. Not a single Republican would vote for it.

We promised cash payment of $1,400 for every family in America. It was in the American Rescue Plan. The Republicans all voted against it. We passed the money, billions of dollars, so that we could actually administer the COVID vaccine across America. We had discovered the vaccines, but, of course, there is a huge infrastructure needed to make sure that they are safely administered to the American people. That was in the American Rescue Plan, and all the Republicans voted against it.

There was also a provision in there to deal with helping businesses reopen their doors. Saturday night in Chicago, I spoke to a restauranteur who told me about problems he had faced and the debts he incurred to get back on his feet. The American Rescue Plan helped Americans. And every Republican voted against it. Not a single Republican Member in the House or the Senate would support it.

We are getting the same threats that the Republicans will walk out of the room. Resolving the debt ceiling is necessary to pay for decisions made. This is debt incurred during the Trump administration. And lest you think that this fiscally conservative Donald Trump was a good Republican when it came to debt, think again. The greatest increase in America's national debt in any 4-year period in our history, a 36- percent increase.

Let me repeat. Raising the debt ceiling has nothing to do with future spending. We are paying Donald Trump's bills. We are acknowledging what was done by the House and Senate, Republicans and Democrats--what was spent and now has to be repaid. This is about paying what we already owe, and it is also about averting an economic catastrophe.

As a candidate, Donald Trump used to brag that he was ``king of debt.'' How about that. ``King of debt'' is what he says. Well, he proved it. His reckless spending as President, with America's credit card, added nearly $8 trillion to our national debt--$8 trillion. This is a third of the entire debt. It was incurred during the Trump administration.

And now the Republicans, his party, refuse to acknowledge that debt and the fact that we have to pay it back. He racked up all that debt in 4 years. Two trillion of that $8 trillion in Trump debt, incidentally, was spent on tax cuts for the richest people in America. Yes, that was the Trump plan, supported by the same Republicans who today are saying they won't even cast a vote to acknowledge that they did it, and it added to the deficit.

By 2027, 83 percent of the benefits of the Trump tax cuts, supported by Senator McConnell and the Republicans, will go exclusively to the top 1 percent of wage earners in America. Republican Senators passed those tax cuts all on their own through reconciliation.

I will tell you this. I didn't vote for it. No Democrats voted for it. What we are doing today is paying the piper, acknowledging that this is a legitimate debt of this country. We can change policy going forward, but since we enacted those tax cuts 4 years ago, it has added to the national debt. And we acknowledge it today, and Senator McConnell and the Republicans refuse to acknowledge it.

During Trump's one term in office, the national debt increased by almost 36 percent--4 years: 36 percent. Our Republican colleagues voted to raise the Federal debt ceiling once and to suspend it twice during Donald Trump. And the Democrats stood with them because we understood that this is just basic requirement 101 of constitutional government. We shared the responsibility not because we agreed with his policies-- we don't--but because we understood that defaulting on the national debt could cause real damage to America.

What would the costs of defaulting on our debt be exactly? According to some economists, we would see an estimated $15 trillion of household wealth wiped out, 6 million jobs lost, and a 9-percent unemployment rate. Every last American would feel the pain. If it continued for any period of time, it would threaten retirement funds, Social Security checks, even job security.

Mark Zandi, a pretty well-respected economist with Moody's, warned that a default on America's debt would trigger ``financial Armageddon,'' threatening America's status as a world reserve currency, all because the Republicans refuse to acknowledge debt they voted for and created under Republican President Donald Trump.

Even toying with the notion of default would have severe consequences. Back in 2011, House Republicans initially refused to raise the debt limit. America's credit rating was downgraded because of it. The result: higher borrowing costs and confidence in American leadership shaken globally.

We will see if every Republican will fall under the dictates of Senator McConnell when it comes to defaulting on America's debt for the first time, and we will also see what the reaction to that is going to be.

This measure we are going to vote on in about 2 hours suspends the debt ceiling to avoid default by the government, and it keeps the government open, just that basic. After all that we have been through and what we are going through with the pandemic, how can the Republicans play with this deadly economic strategy?

Without a continuing resolution, the Federal Government will shut down in less than 4 days. With the Delta variant still taking 2,000 American lives a day, this is no time to shut down the Federal Government. With victims of hurricanes and floods and wildfires desperate for help, this is not the time to close the doors of the Agencies that can help them. With our economy still recovering, now is not the time to damage it, intentionally, for political reasons.

Right now, our No. 1 priority is keeping our Nation's economy on a path to recovery and helping families through a difficult time. We need to come together and fund the government. That is our fundamental responsibility. We need to pay our bills on time. We need to provide financial relief to Americans

who are battling disasters, whether they are in California or Oregon, Louisiana or Illinois, or Hawaii. And we need to grow our economy for future generations, increasing funding for childcare and healthcare and help for working families.

President Biden's Build Back Better plan is a proven investment in our economic future. It includes the largest middle-class tax cut in history.

Do you know what the Republicans call the largest middle-class tax cut in history? Socialism. Socialism. I heard Senator McConnell say it: They just want to pursue socialism. The largest tax cut for working families and children in American history.

Unlike President Trump's tax giveaway to the rich, which Senator McConnell voted for and doesn't want to pay for, the Build Back Better plan will have the corporations pay their fair share.

No one--this is a promise by President Biden to be held to--no one who makes $400,000 a year or less will pay more in taxes. He has been pretty clear on that, hasn't he? So this notion that we are going through some socialist tax-and-spend scheme here just isn't true.

Seven months after he signed his tax cut into law, Donald Trump told the effervescent Sean Hannity of FOX News that: ``When [the Trump tax cut] kicks in, we'll start to pay off the debt like it's water''-- Donald Trump. That was a con.

Now the bills are coming due, and the Republicans are racing for the exits. It is time to stop this ruse and fraud on the American people. We need to pay our bills, act responsibly, and actually help working families.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

I announce that the Senator from California (Mrs. Feinstein) is necessarily absent.

Mr. President, you know, these days, information is only a few clicks away on your computer, and there is more information to be consumed than there are hours in the day. It is information overload, and it is overwhelming to sift through all the noise. But no matter the narrative being pushed, one thing remains: the facts. The facts don't lie. It is information overload.

The facts tell the story better than anyone. Facts take many forms and play out in many ways. They are the impacts of decisions made and actions taken, whether we like it or not. But it doesn't take long for anyone to see this fact: The decisions coming out of the White House have followed one overall thought, one guiding ideology. It is not a unifying ideology that protects the freedoms and liberties we hold dear as Americans. It doesn't safeguard the values of our country or promote a vision for a brighter tomorrow and a more prosperous nation for future generations. It is a Big Government, socialist ideology. It is a vision of transformation. It is a strategy of undoing everything done by the previous administration even if those policies were successful.

Since President Biden's inauguration, every executive order, every regulatory rollback, and every message of so-called unity we were once promised has been in the spirit of doing the opposite of the previous administration, with an emphasis on the ``woke'' transformation of America's founding principles. ``But not Trump'' is not a strategy. It is not a policy stance. It is a reactionary and misguided posture that has plunged our Nation into domestic and international disarray.

It is a backward approach to implementing an agenda to transform the culture and the values of America, and we are seeing the on-the-ground effects of this approach in our communities, at our borders, and abroad.

When the singular driving force of your Presidency is simply being the opposite of your predecessor, our country faces the consequences of that decision. We are facing crises that were preventable, crises that are a direct result of policy decisions. This is an uncomfortable and inconvenient fact for President Biden, and Democrats don't seem too interested in the facts about the consequences of this administration's decision, either.

So let me lay them out. Here are some facts. The Biden administration inherited a conditions-based withdrawal strategy on Afghanistan. The idea was that we will have a withdrawal of forces that kept some boots on the ground to maintain stability and limit chaos and, importantly, preserve the progress our troops had made. Instead of continuing this conditions-based approach that would protect our servicemembers, allies, and innocent civilians, President Biden came up with a new plan, one he thought would make for better headlines, rather than listening to our commanders on the ground.

President Trump's plan was to roll people out strategically and maintain our assets to prevent attacks on the United States in the future. The plan certainly did not involve leaving American citizens behind. Instead, President Biden's decision left chaos in its wake. His decision left our troops vulnerable and resulted in the death of 13-- 13--U.S. servicemembers. The average age of these servicemembers was 22 years old.

His decision has disrespected the sacrifices of more than 800,000 U.S. veterans who bravely served during the War on Terror. His decision gave the Taliban their greatest victory to date and made them one of the top 10 most well-equipped militaries in the world, funded by the hard-working taxpayers of this country. His decision abandoned innocent Americans in a country governed by radical terrorists, and it is clear that he ignored the best military advice given to him by his top commanders and ordered our troops to put down their weapons and retreat.

President Biden's decision to withdraw from Afghanistan this way gave the Taliban everything they wanted: control of the region, our own weapons, and, ultimately, a breeding ground for terrorism. The fact of the matter is, our country will be facing the consequences of President Biden's decision for decades--for decades to come.

Our country was safer for the past 20 years thanks to the bravest fighting forces in the world, our men and women in uniform. Counterterrorism is still necessary, but we just made it harder on ourselves by not having ground forces and by closing Bagram Airfield.

The myth from the White House is that our country had no choice but that we were beholden to a deal made before January 20. But the policy decisions made by President Biden emboldened the Taliban, endangered Americans, and encouraged our adversaries.

Tomorrow, the Senate Armed Services Committee will hold the first open hearing--hopefully, one of many--to review President Biden's decision and what caused our time in Afghanistan to conclude the way it did. The American people deserve facts, and I and the rest of our delegation will not rest until we have answers from the people involved.

From abroad to right here at our own southwest border, we are witnessing the disastrous effects of the Biden Presidency play out in epic proportions. The numbers do not lie.

Fact: In July and August, apprehensions at the southern border surpassed 200,000 each month. That is quadruple the amount from this time last year.

Fact: We have seen recordbreaking numbers of illegal immigrants at our southwest border from the day President Biden was inaugurated. Over 1.3 million people have been apprehended trying to illegally cross our southwest border, and that is only the ones we know of. There are hundreds of thousands more getting into our country.

And fact: All of this is a direct result of President Biden's open border policies, a reversal from those of the previous administration.

This is a prime example of the Biden administration putting politics over policy. On January 20, his first day in office, President Biden announced a suspension of the border wall construction. Now billions of taxpayer dollars are being spent to cover the cost of canceling the contracts the Federal Government entered into to build the wall. On the same day, he terminated the Migrant Protection Protocols policy.

In February, President Biden terminated the asylum cooperative agreements with the Northern Triangle countries established under President Trump. Doing away with these agreements has allowed caravans to travel thousands of miles through multiple countries to our southwest border, without any capacity support from our regional partners.

These decisions have directly contributed to the unprecedented numbers of illegal immigrant encounters we have seen, because with these decisions, President Biden signaled to the world that anyone wanting to leave their country for ours would be admitted to the United States of America.

After months of avoiding the word ``crisis'' to describe the border, President Biden recently said: ``We will get the border under control.'' To even say he will ``get the border under control'' means he acknowledges that it is not under control.

Well, I guess that is one fact that we can all come to agreement on.

The facts that Democrats seem to want to ignore most are those that deal with our economy. The separation from fact to fiction for our friends across the aisle could not be starker than when it comes to the American economy.

It is a fact that inflation is sky high--as high as it has been since 2010. Despite rising inflation and increasing prices, the President is still marching forward with his vision of Big Government--a big government welfare State, enacted through the Democrats' reckless tax- and-spend spree. He wants to create a massive welfare State paid for by staggering--and I mean staggering--tax hikes that would destroy economic growth.

And the Democrats are his captive audience. President Biden's America is one where our businesses and job creators pay for all. That is not ``pay your fair share.'' That is wealth distribution.

He is not interested in boosting the economy and helping Americans. He is interested in remaking the system with subsidies and entitlements--a welfare state to keep everyone beholden to the government--no work requirements, just complete government dependency.

Our country was founded on freedom. It was founded on opportunity-- the opportunity to work hard and to achieve the American dream. That is what this country owes you, not a handout but a hand up.

The programs laid out in the Democrats' reckless tax-and-spend spree are a transparent effort to a woke transformation of the values and culture upon which our country was built. If that wasn't bad enough, they are going to raise taxes to pay for them, picking from a menu of more than 30 new taxes.

Our businesses, small and large, create jobs and grow the economy. Increasing their taxes means they can't spend and invest in their own businesses. If they can't expand, they can't create more jobs. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Businesses will squeeze inward, cutting workers and wages.

A higher corporate tax rate isn't ``paying their fair share.'' It is destroying the blue-collar jobs that have fueled the middle class.

Why would we ever take pride in the fact that our corporate tax rate is higher than China's? When did that become a worthy goal?

I have an answer for you: It is not. But the terrible proposals to offset the cost of this bill just keep on coming.

The Biden administration wants to require financial institutions to report account balances and transactions greater than $600 made by Americans to the IRS, the Internal Revenue Service. Any transaction you make over $600 will be reported to the IRS. That is every taxpayer in this country. Today, only transactions over $10,000, which is a lot of money, are reported.

Yes, that is the same Agency with a long history of data security failures. Earlier this year, the confidential tax information of a number of prominent Americans leaked--surprisingly, leaked--from the IRS and was published in the press.

The Agency also has a history of singling out certain taxpayers for political purposes. You have a rent payment over $600, planning to buy airplane tickets over $600--how about a new hunting rifle? a wedding dress for your daughter? All of this--any transaction over $600--would be sent to the IRS under President Biden's plan. This is Big Brother Government at its worst.

We are talking about routine financial transactions that Americans make every day. The IRS has no business monitoring these--none. The IRS is intrusive enough as it is. This is something Americans of all political stripes should agree on.

Not only would the IRS be looking over Americans' shoulders, but this would place a heavy burden on community banks and credit unions that play a key role in providing financial services to rural and minority communities. These financial institutions cannot afford to monitor and report all this data to the IRS. They can't afford it. It will put many of these folks out of business, destroying mainstream American communities that rely on all of them in the process.

But don't just take my word for it. The Independent Community Bankers of America's Minority Bank Advisory Council wrote:

Our primary concern is that the proposal would undermine

the critical relationship of trust we foster within the

communities we serve--communities prone to distrust of

institutions and government agencies. We fear

that invasive and indiscriminate account reporting would

undermine the policy priority of bringing more people into

the banking system and may drive many of those in the system

to leave.

I couldn't have said it better.

This is one of the most outrageous proposals coming from this administration--and there have been a lot of them over the last 9 months. This is like a shakedown squad coming around to try to get every single cent from you that they can.

So, today, I introduced a bill called the Protecting Financial Privacy Act that would proactively prohibit this. My bill prohibits any Federal Agency from creating, implementing, or administering a financial account information reporting regime that would require financial institutions or individuals to report data on financial transactions or account balances to the IRS in excess of what is already required by the Bank Secrecy Act. The last thing Americans want or need is Big Brother looking over their shoulders.

The President wants to run from the facts. He would rather hide behind them and point fingers. The facts, for him, don't fit. But it is time for the President to wake up. It is time to stop blaming President Trump for disasters that are clearly his own making. It is time to stop an entitlement state of our country that Americans don't want. It is time for the President to face the facts and listen to the American people. He cannot be allowed to deflect responsibility and attempt to distract the American people from crises that were predictable and preventable, especially when the facts couldn't be clearer.

Madam President, I am glad to share that, a few minutes ago, I received a booster vaccination for COVID-19. All throughout the pandemic, I have followed the best advice from experts and especially from my own healthcare providers. It was an easy decision to receive a booster.

I am a survivor of childhood polio from before vaccines--before vaccines eradicated that disease here in our country and around the world now. So I have been a lifelong champion of vaccinations.

Mountains of evidence tell us these shots are safe, effective, and dramatically shrink the odds of severe disease or death from COVID. Like I have been saying for months, these safe and effective vaccines are the way to defend ourselves and our families from this terrible virus. They are also how we stay on offense against COVID as a country. All Americans should speak with their doctors and get vaccinated.

Economy

Madam President, now, on a completely different matter, it is not unusual for a President to have a rough spell. Every administration faces a stretch of time where nothing seems to go their way. But what we are witnessing today is entirely different.

President Biden has not been dealt a bad hand by forces outside his control. This White House is not sailing through some unavoidable patch of choppy water. No, the Democrats have steered our country straight into a storm of serious crises all of their own making.

On issue after issue, Americans are hurting because of specific policy choices that Democrats have made over the objections of people who actually knew better. Democrats did not inherit most of the painful inflation that is hammering working families. Their decisions have fueled it. Even liberal economists warned the President that runaway liberal spending could send costs soaring--soaring--for the middle class. Now working Americans are paying dearly at the grocery store, at the gas station, and practically everywhere that matters to families.

And what are Democrats doing today? Putting together yet another reckless taxing-and-spending spree behind closed doors that would make inflation even worse.

Now, President Biden did not inherit humiliation in Afghanistan either; he deliberately chose that as well. The Biden administration's own experts warned the White House that a reckless withdrawal would embolden terrorists and harm our ability to gather intelligence that keeps us safe. But the President clung to his made-up deadline, handed huge momentum to the Taliban and their terrorist friends, and broke his explicit promise to leave no American behind who wanted out. As one former Democratic Member of Congress said last week, ``The way the administration executed that withdrawal last week has been an utter and abject disaster.''

Democrats did not inherit this border crisis either. This security nightmare and human tragedy is yet another direct result of their own policies. President Biden and his allies spent 2 years campaigning on the concept of Big Government giveaways to people here illegally. Then they took office and began dismantling enforcement on the border. So what do they expect? Wave after wave of vulnerable people have been lured into hellish conditions by the mirage the Democrats have set up-- cruelty masquerading as compassion. Untold thousands of people have simply been released into our country with what amounts to a polite invitation to show up--show up--for a hearing. Even before the Biden surge, only about half of individuals actually showed up.

One self-created crisis after another from our unified Democratic Party government. The latest additions are their confusion about how to fund the government and raise the debt ceiling. For more than 2 months now, Senate Republicans have been completely clear about how this process will play out, so let me make it abundantly clear one more time.

We will support a clean continuing resolution that will prevent a government shutdown, get disaster relief to Louisiana, help properly vetted Afghan refugees who put themselves on the line for America, and support the Iron Dome assistance for our ally Israel. We will not provide Republican votes for raising the debt limit.

As we speak, Democrats are behind closed doors, assembling a multitrillion-dollar reckless taxing-and-spending spree. There is no chance Republicans will help lift Democrats' credit limit so they can immediately steamroll through a socialist binge that will hurt families and help China.

There is no particular tradition that the minority will always vote for debt limit hikes during united government. When Republicans had unified control in the early 2000s, then-Senators Biden and Schumer voted no on a debt limit increase and made the party in power handle it on their own--exactly the situation we are in now. The roles were reversed. Bipartisanship is not a light switch--a light switch--that Democrats get to flip on when they need to borrow money and switch off when they want to spend money.

The debt suspension that expired in August covered all the debt that had been accumulated to that point. This is an argument about the future. Democrats want to use this temporary pandemic as a Trojan horse for permanent socialism. They have all but said so. And that is what millions and millions of Americans elected 50 Republican Senators to fight against.

For 10 weeks now--10 weeks--Democrats have known what kind of government funding legislation could pass the Senate and what kind would fail. Republicans are not rooting for a shutdown or debt limit breach. We have given the united Democratic government total clarity about how each can be avoided. Republicans have explained exactly what kind of continuing resolution can pass the Senate with our support.

Late last week, the House Democratic leader publicly said House Democrats are ready to swallow whatever CR the Senate can send them. So the House is ready. Senate Republicans are ready. We could have a bipartisan vote to fund the government today if not for the odd tactics of the Senate Democratic leader.

Before we vote this afternoon, I will ask consent to strike the partisan CR that is dead on arrival and instead have the Senate vote on a clean continuing resolution that could pass this Chamber easily. We will see if Washington Democrats actually want to govern or whether they want to add the prospect of a government shutdown to the list of inflation, Afghanistan, the border, and all the other national crises that are the direct results of their own decisions.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that Senators Cassidy, Kennedy, and I be allowed to complete our remarks prior to the vote.

So, Madam President, the Democratic leader has scheduled a vote today that he knows will fail. For more than 2 months, since July, Republicans have been clear about where we stand: We are willing to work together to keep the government open. We are not willing to help Democrats raise the debt ceiling while they write a reckless taxing-and-spending spree of historic proportions behind closed doors.

Democrats control the entire government--the Senate, the House, the White House. They intend to sideline Republicans and go it alone to slam American families with historic tax hikes and borrowing. So they will need to raise the debt limit on a partisan basis as well. And they have known that for 2 months now--2 months.

Just like then-Senator Biden and Senator Schumer voted no on a debt limit increase and made a unified Republican government handle it alone back in the early 2000s, this has happened before.

Earlier this year, Senate Democrats requested and won additional flexibility to make policy on party lines. They have every single tool they need to do their job.

The Democratic leader, the Speaker of the House, and the President of the United States have had 10 weeks--10--to plan for funding the government and addressing the debt limit. There never had to be one ounce of drama to any of this. Any drama here is self-created by the Democrats. Republicans continue to try to help our Democratic friends avoid multiple new crises of their own making.

On the debt limit, Democrats have all the time and all the tools to do what they have to do, and I have explained in detail how they need to proceed. Because Democrats ignored our warning back in July, they must amend their previous budget resolution with debt limit instructions and proceed through a fast-track process.

On the more urgent issue, government funding, Senator Shelby and I have a clean CR that could pass today. Our bill tracks with bipartisan talks. It would keep the government open, fund disaster relief for Louisiana, and fund defensive assistance for our ally Israel and their Iron Dome, and it drops the debt limit language that Democrats have known is a nonstarter for more than 2 months.

The Senate could advance this bill tonight. If Democrats will let us, we could take a bipartisan step tonight toward guaranteeing there will be no government shutdown. If the Democratic leader lets us, the Senate could advance government funding legislation with a big bipartisan vote yet tonight.

The House Democratic majority leader has said they will take up whatever CR the Senate sends them. The House is ready. Senate Republicans are ready. The only holdout is the Senate Democratic leader and his partisan tactics.

So, in just a moment, I will ask consent that Democrats forget about the vote they know will fail and instead let the Senate vote on a bill that can actually pass.

It is up to the Democrats. We can either move this legislation forward tonight or we can have a show vote, which they know will fail, and inch closer toward another crisis of their own making.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to Calendar No. 137, H.R. 5305. I further ask that the first amendment in order be the Shelby-McConnell amendment to the text of which is identical to Calendar No. 135, S. 2789; that there be 2 hours of debate, equally divided between the two leaders or their designees, and upon the use or yielding back of that time, the Shelby- McConnell amendment be agreed to; finally, upon disposition of the Shelby-McConnell amendment, the bill, as amended, be read a third time and the Senate vote on passage of the bill, as amended, with a 60- affirmative-vote threshold required for passage.

Madam President, I know the speeches on the other side have gone a little longer than we expected, so I ask unanimous consent that I have time to complete my statement on the continuing resolution and national debt, which will be relatively short.

Madam President, today, the Senate will hold a vote to allow for the consideration of a temporary, stopgap measure to keep the government funded through December 3. The measure also provides $28 billion to help States ravaged by hurricanes and wildfires, like Hurricane Ida that recently tore through both the South and the Northeast. It provides critical assistance to Afghan refugees who fled the Taliban in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Finally, it will raise the debt ceiling to December 2022, including the $8 billion of debt that was incurred under President Trump.

Now, this shouldn't even be a close call. A government shutdown, if we had one, would needlessly cost the taxpayers billions of dollars-- billions of dollars--throughout our country. It would throw hundreds of thousands of people out of work. A government default would be catastrophic. And that is all completely avoidable.

Yet, in the wake of the deadliest pandemic our country has seen in over 100 years and in the wake of natural disasters that have left a trail of death and destruction, the Republican leader and his party have decided to play a dangerous game of political brinksmanship. They have chosen--and it was a free choice on their part--to withhold their votes and prevent this bill from even being debated, threatening to shut down the U.S. Government--the U.S. Government--and have it default on its debts for the first time in the history of our great country.

I think that is the height of irresponsibility and callousness. It is also pretty hypocritical, because who pays the price for this political brinksmanship? Not the Republican leadership careening us towards disaster but the American people. A government shutdown has serious consequences for people just trying to make ends meet--support their families, live their lives.

Important food and nutrition programs--SNAP and WIC--would dry up in a matter of days, leaving millions of Americans in the wealthiest Nation on Earth without the help they need to put food on the table.

Also, I look at our Nation's schools that are struggling to reopen after a pandemic. Assistance to those schools would be delayed.

Then we look at our public health response to the mental health and substance abuse crisis. That would be severely hampered. And we cannot forget that we have an epidemic of drug overdoses in this country happening alongside the COVID pandemic.

The Small Business Administration that provides so much assistance to our Nation's small businesses--I believe, as I said many times on this floor, that small businesses are the backbone of the American economy-- would be forced to close the door.

More than half of the CDC would be furloughed just weeks after COVID deaths passed the grim toll of the 1918 pandemic in our own country and right before the start of the annual flu season.

These are just a few examples of the needless pain a government shutdown would cause.

As painful as a government shutdown would be, the consequences of defaulting on our debt for the first time, the first time in American history--that is even worse. The government of the wealthiest country in the world would not have funds to operate, meet its obligations, and pay its debts.

The last time we even toyed with such an irresponsible idea, the credit rating of the U.S. Government was downgraded for the first time in history, and, boy, that cost every American, directly or indirectly, money. It certainly hurt businesses all over our country.

If we were to default on our debt, then the women and men of the military would be handed IOUs in exchange for their bravery defending our country; Social Security checks that people earned and rely on to survive would stop; and the economy would take such a hit from which it would be hard to recover. The stock market would no doubt take a dive and then put millions of Americans' lifetime savings at risk. All of this as we are still recovering economically from the last 18 months of a global pandemic. And for what? So Republicans can make campaign commercials claiming they are the party of fiscal responsibility and do that with a straight face? Come on.

While President Trump was in office, U.S. debt increased by $8 trillion--$5\1/2\ trillion alone since we last raised the debt ceiling under President Trump. Incidentally, on that one, because it was so important to the country, there was bipartisan support for it.

Republicans' irresponsible tax cut for the wealthiest Americans is partly to blame, but Democrats still supported the Trump administration when it needed to raise the debt limit to account for the resulting bills because, if we did otherwise, everybody in this country was going to be hurt. It would have been irresponsible. It would have been dangerous for the U.S. economy.

The argument made by my colleagues that Republicans will not support raising the debt limit because they are not going to support the tax- and-spend policies of the Democrats--well, it is probably just as well that many people wear masks these days because it hides their smiles, because that argument does not hold water. The bills they falsely claim to be socialist bogeymen have not even passed Congress, let alone been signed into law, and they are going to be fully paid for. In 2017, my friend the Republican leader chose not to take that path when Republicans passed a massive tax cut--massive tax cut--for the wealthiest in this country, and that was not paid for.

Raising the debt limit is about meeting obligations our country has already made, and many of those obligations were made under President Trump. So playing political games with so much on the line--that is as irresponsible as it is irrational.

The bill before us today provides a path out of this made-in- Washington crisis--a path that could help all of our country. It can fund the government through December 3. It can raise the debt limit through December 2022. It could provide relief to communities all over our country that have been devastated by natural disasters and provide assistance for the brave Afghans who supported our mission through two decades of war.

So we really have an off-ramp from this crisis. I wish my colleagues would take it. Vote to advance this bill. Stave off an unnecessary crisis. Put the American people first, ahead of the party. That is actually, I think, a pretty simple choice.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, reserving the right to object.

I have listened to this debate. I have also listened to my two dear friends from Louisiana speak about the disaster recovery, and I support disaster recovery for that. But I would just point out that on the proposal of the Republican leader, there would be no funds in the Treasury to pay for disaster recovery or for writing a check to Israel for the Iron Dome because it doesn't raise the debt limit.

And the substitute offered by my friend, introduced by my dear friend the vice chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Shelby, does not solve the problem in front of us. It doesn't address the looming debt crisis facing our Nation, so it ignores that that exists.

Now, perhaps my colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to wash their hands of this. They can. Much of that debt was incurred under a Republican President and under a Republican-controlled Senate and debt racked up by irresponsible tax cuts championed by the Republican Party for the wealthiest of Americans. And, yes, debt also occurred in a bipartisan fashion to deal with multiple crises that faced the Nation: Disaster assistance in the wake of hurricanes and wildfires keep getting worse every year because we don't combat climate change; COVID relief to keep this country from careening head first into economic disaster in the wake of a worldwide pandemic; historic levels of support and investment in our Nation's military and our men and women in uniform.

And to try to put this all at the feet of President Biden's Build Back Better agenda, a yet-unpassed reconciliation bill that is not the law--it hasn't been passed--is ridiculous. We are talking about debt we already incurred, not spending in the future.

And as my Republican colleagues know, we expect to fully pay for those investments. They may not like how we are going to offset the spending, but that is what the legislative process is for, to debate them. At least we are willing to pay for the bills we incur, which is more than could be said for the Republicans when they pushed a massive tax cut for the wealthy that was not paid for.

So let's stop this political brinksmanship. Let's secure the full faith and credit of the United States. Let's pass and increase the debt limit. To do otherwise puts our country and our economy at risk.

The substitute also scales back the assistance provided to Afghan refugees that was included in the House-passed bill.

Now, I was pleased when we reached bipartisan and bicameral agreement of $6.3 billion in the House-passed bill for much needed assistance for the brave Afghans who supported our mission through two decades of war. It is our duty; it is our obligation to support them.

But the substitute bill they are seeking to pass would shorten the length of time we provide assistance to thousands of Afghan women and men who fled to the United States to escape the wrath of the Taliban-- food, medical care, housing, basic things they need.

The bill also eliminates their right to obtain a REAL ID-compliant U.S. driver's license, yet we want them to go out and seek jobs.

How are they going to do that if they can't drive?

There shouldn't even be a debate. I could give a dozen more reasons, but I know people are ready to vote, so I object.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Madam President, in recent days, much has been said about Afghanistan. I spoke about it last time on September 15, and most of my colleagues have spoken on the very same subject. I come to speak more about it. Today, I will look at it from a very different angle. I am going to look at it from the angle that you see through the Inspector General lens.

The sudden collapse of the Afghan Government and the Afghan Army threw me right back to years of oversight work and audits conducted by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. Now, the terminology ``Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction'' goes by the acronym SIGAR. That person goes by the name of his real name, Mr. John Sopko.

SIGAR, in its reports, pulled no punches. Report after report over the years exposed and documented grim allegations of weak security, systemic

corruption, and waste--waste of taxpayers' dollars. Those core problems were brushed aside and allowed to eat away at the foundation of our commitment. In other words, our leaders were not heeding the warnings from the Inspector General, Mr. John Sopko.

An inability to solve these problems prompted SIGAR to send warning signals. Those warning signals said our mission in Afghanistan was failing. And that is not a recent conclusion; that is things he stated over and over, over the years. This was all to the detriment of U.S. foreign policy and our national security--the fact that most of SIGAR's advice fell on deaf ears. SIGAR was like a lone wolf, howling out there in the wilderness.

As the final scene of the Afghan tragedy unfolded, as we all saw on television at the Kabul Airport, in those circumstances, President Biden cut and run. He assigned blame squarely on the Afghans' shoulders, but that is not the whole truth. Just pick up any SIGAR report; it is plain to see in those reports that something was wrong. We were the chief architect and financier for the lion's share of the construction in Afghanistan that collapsed. If we are to learn from this experience, we need to begin by looking in the mirror.

SIGAR's ``lessons learned reports'' clearly indicate that security against the Taliban threat was a top priority. According to SIGAR, security was never achieved. Based on repeated assessments of the army's readiness, SIGAR concluded that the Afghan Army lacked the capability to independently defend the country against internal and external threats, contrary to President Biden's hailing the capability of the Afghan military to preserve the country and defend it from the Taliban.

And without security, nation building was a nonstarter. Now we question whether or not nation building ought to be part of the policy, but it seemed to be too often.

When coupled with the systemic corruption I just mentioned--and SIGAR characterized that as an ``existential threat . . . that eroded army readiness''--prospects for survival of the government and the army of Afghans doing their job were very dim.

Against advice that I have given previous administrations, the President announced the date certain for pulling out the U.S. military. And, by the way, that wasn't wise because you never tell your enemies what your plans are.

So within days, the Taliban eliminated the Afghan Army with hardly a struggle. The Taliban then seized U.S. military assets.

The Biden administration left Americans and Afghan allies behind enemy lines. Adding tragedy to the deeply flawed military exit, a U.S. drone strike killed 10 civilians.

There is clear and present urgency for accountability. Do my fellow Senators pay appropriate attention to the work of the IGs throughout government? Maybe not often enough, but surely listening to SIGAR, not enough of us listened to him.

Afghanistan's collapse underscores the merits of SIGAR's work out of three dozen confirmed IGs. IGs do important work, and their work should be considered greatly. And the fact that we ignored SIGAR's work in Afghanistan is a tragedy, particularly when the people in the executive branch of government ignored it.

SIGAR was created to watchdog the huge sums of money pouring into Afghanistan. Mr. Sopko, the IG, did his job well. He issued aggressive, hard-hitting reports, documenting egregious waste and blatant corruption on both sides--our side and the Afghan side. Large sums of money simply disappeared.

In a recent report, SIGAR served up a classic case of waste and corruption, and he did it on a silver platter. It is symptomatic of the rot that derailed our efforts in Afghanistan.

One example involved the purchase of 20 refurbished Italian G222 medium-lift aircraft for the Afghan Air Force. They added $549 million to the taxpayers' tab. These aircraft were needed but unsupportable and inoperable.

The squandering on this project was matched by others exposed by SIGAR, like the 64,000 square-foot surge command center that was built for $34 million but never needed and never occupied.

The G222 aircraft was just another notch in Uncle Sam's belt of wasteful spending. Those planes were thrown in the junk heap because of crooked mismanagement--and that was on our side.

The Air Force general who led the program while on Active Duty, and then as vice president for the company selling the Italian aircraft, allegedly violated criminal conflict-of-interest statutes.

SIGAR wanted to pursue criminal charges, but the Department of Justice refused to prosecute. The Department of Justice turned a blind eye to the general's alleged misconduct. Let that sink in.

A half-billion taxpayer dollars went up in smoke, and no one was held to account. At a minimum, this reckless spending demanded disciplinary action. With little or no accountability, it was easy for crooks to line their pockets with schemes like the G222 aircraft.

Now, SIGAR exposed that. It wasn't prosecuted, but SIGAR nailed quite a few. Investigations resulted in 160 criminal convictions. Corruption was found on both sides.

The convicted included 42 Afghanis, 58 U.S. military personnel, 49 U.S. contractors, and 11 U.S. Government personnel and citizens.

Some money was recovered, but obviously you don't recover all of it. However, in such a target-rich environment, I suspect that SIGAR's investigators barely scratched the surface.

Unfortunately, while SIGAR's finger was stuck in the dike, Uncle Sam kept spending money--kept the spigot wide open. Some estimate that over $2 trillion flowed through the pipe to a government and an army known by SIGAR to be riddled with systemic corruption. We tolerated it, and the money kept flowing.

What happened in Afghanistan boils down to the fundamental principle of good government. Oversight is critical to accountability. SIGAR has more work to do. SIGAR will need to provide a full accounting for all the captured and abandoned weapons and equipment.

You see a figure of $85 billion of that stuff left over there for the Taliban to use for whatever they want to use it for--hopefully, never against the United States.

The IG will need to track down unexpended dollars in the pipeline, estimated at $6\1/2\ billion or more, so those tax dollars can be returned to the Treasury or allocated for other legitimate and needed purposes.

The IG will need to investigate allegations that high officials fled with hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars in cash. And we are told that one of those was the former President. The most recent President of Afghanistan got away with millions and millions of dollars.

Now, if true, this would be more proof of systemic corruption that was the country's undoing. Stolen tax dollars should be recovered.

The House Defense authorization bill already instructs SIGAR to address these and other issues. I call on the Senate Armed Services Committee to adopt those same measures and authorize funding needed to finish the job by SIGAR.

Congress needs to know why SIGAR's alarm bells on poor security, corruption, and waste were largely ignored. They were unmistakable indicators of the impending collapse that we now know has happened to the country of Afghanistan--to the Taliban.

Once the decision was made to pull out U.S. troops in early 2020, preparations for evacuations were mandatory. So then why did our President make such a panicked and haphazard exit? Did no one see the warnings coming and the signs that showed what would happen? Did the military fail to develop an orderly exit strategy and evacuation plan, as alleged by Secretary Blinken?

If true, who is responsible for that blunder? A congressional autopsy might help us avoid the same mistakes in the future. It might help us put forward a better foot to strengthen strategic alliances.

As painful as it may be, we must never give up trying to learn from our past mistakes. We still face threats from terrorist groups with the same ideology as the 9/11 attackers have. And you know where they got their training--in Afghanistan.

We still have troops in many countries combating terrorism in partnership with local forces. We can't afford

to sweep mistakes under the rug and just move on and forget about it.

Without some soul searching, America risks further humiliation like we have just witnessed, which will only embolden our would-be adversaries.

I yield the floor.