Floor Statements

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Madam President, I come to the floor today to talk about our Nation's defense.

Last week, America marked Veterans Day. I was in Wyoming and started Veterans Day the way I do every year, which is in Douglas, WY, in Converse County, at the American Legion.

We raised the flag at 7 a.m. We kicked off a day of Veterans Day ceremonies all around Wyoming. Last week, I visited with veterans all around the State. I will share with you the things that I hear all across Wyoming.

What I continue to hear is that since Joe Biden took office, our Nation has become weaker--weaker--and the

world has become more dangerous and our Nation is now less safe.

In August, Joe Biden oversaw the tragic and failed withdrawal from Afghanistan. Because of the President's weakness, incompetence, and mismanagement, the Taliban took over Afghanistan in just a matter of weeks. Just before the withdrawal, terrorists killed 13 of our troops. It was the deadliest day for our military in a decade.

One of those fallen heroes was Rylee McCollum of Wyoming. All of Wyoming felt the terrible loss of this 20-year-old marine. He was a statewide high school wrestling champ.

On August 30, the Biden administration left hundreds of Americans behind enemy lines, in spite of the fact that the President said he wouldn't leave anyone behind. The administration has admitted to the Armed Services Committee that more than 400 Americans are still behind enemy lines.

Joe Biden's Afghanistan surrender was a national disgrace. The consequences are being felt all around the world. Our friends are furious. Our enemies are emboldened.

Last month, we saw a hypersonic missile being tested. We see that an emboldened Vladimir Putin now has stationed 100,000 troops near the border with Ukraine. Vladimir Putin continues to speak of Ukraine as if it is part of Russia.

North Korea showed last month that they can launch ballistic missiles from submarines.

Iran will soon have much, much more cash than they did when President Biden took office. You say: How could that be? Well, one reason for the influx of cash is the rising price of oil and a weak enforcement of the sanctions that we have against Iran. It is easier for them to sell and more profitable to do so. The Biden administration is trying to negotiate with Iran from a position of weakness.

Yet the most alarming developments are the strides being made right now in China. Since Afghanistan fell, China has aggressively flown dozens of military planes over Taiwan's air defense zones. The Pentagon admitted recently that China now has the largest navy in the world. China plans to build more than 100 new ships over the next 8 years. China is also building about 300 missile silos and plans to have 1,000 nuclear missiles in the next 8 years. China recently tested a hypersonic weapon capable of use around the world.

These are pressing challenges, challenges like we haven't seen since the Cold War. This administration has been caught flatfooted.

At the White House, utter incompetence. At the Pentagon, complete mismanagement. At the State Department, global weakness. No one has been fired. No one has been held accountable over the withdrawal from Afghanistan. No one has resigned. There has been no accountability.

It is astonishing, but the President must still believe in his statement where he said it was ``an extraordinary success.'' He may be the only one in America who believes that. Our enemies are getting stronger, and the Democrats are asleep at the switch.

The Pentagon Press Secretary was asked last week which is a bigger threat--which is a bigger threat--China or climate change? His response: ``They are equally important.'' This is the Pentagon Press Secretary. This isn't somebody at the EPA. This is somebody responsible for the defense of this Nation. This is not just false; it is absurd for this to be the policy of this administration.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is focused on fighting so-called dissident ideologies in our military. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff testified in Congress that he supports servicemembers studying critical race theory.

Our enemies are not following that path. Oh, no, they are focused on winning wars. The Biden administration seems to be focused on liberal fantasies.

Well, I believe it is about to get a lot worse. That is because President Biden's vaccine mandate will likely cause the discharge of thousands of servicemembers. It is certainly a concern of mine with our National Guard in Wyoming, as it is with troops around the country and around the world representing and defending our Nation.

Recruitment was difficult already. Our troops are feeling the pain of inflation cutting into their paychecks, and now the President seems to be determined to decimate their ranks.

I fully support vaccination. I am a doctor. I am vaccinated; so is my family. I am pro-vaccine. I am anti-mandate.

At a time when our enemies are getting stronger, we don't need to drive the men and women who defend our Nation out of the military.

Now, the Senate has still not passed the National Defense Authorization Act. The Senate went Independence Day, Memorial Day, and Veterans Day with no action on the Defense bill. The majority leader now says the Senate will finally get around to it. Why did it take so long?

The Senate has been debating a reckless tax-and-spending blowout the American people did not ask for, do not want, cannot afford, as prices continue to grow and go up and up and up, when the cost of Thanksgiving dinner is going to be the most expensive in the history of our Nation.

And we are here in the Senate and the House. What are they doing? They are debating taxpayer dollars for illegal immigrants instead of taxpayer dollars for American heroes. We have been debating taxpayer dollars for what Democrats call tree equity. The New York Times even wrote about it today.

We ought to be debating national security. We should be talking about the U.S. Army instead of Democrats who have been talking about an army of climate activists and an army of IRS agents.

We just honored veterans last Thursday. We will give thanks again for all of them next Thursday on Thanksgiving Day.

It is time, today, for the United States to do right and for the Senate to do right by all of them. I urge my colleagues to focus on a bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act, the Defense bill, for the defense of our Nation. It is time we prove to the Nation that we do support our troops and we do protect them against--and protect all of us against--rising threats and keep this great Nation safe.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. President, this morning, the majority leader came to the floor of the Senate to talk about the Democrats' reckless tax- and-spending bill.

Now, he repeated the claim that the bill would actually reduce inflation. It won't. Just like the claim the President makes that the cost of the bill will be zero, the American people know that that is not true either.

The majority leader asked a question. He asked why not a single Republican would support the bill. Well, I am

happy to respond to the majority leader and explain why the American people and the Republicans are rejecting what the Democrats are trying to force through the Congress.

So I come to the floor today to talk about rising prices. Next Thursday will be the most expensive Thanksgiving ever. As the New York Times put it, the Thanksgiving dinner will wallop your wallet. Turkey prices are up 25 cents on the dollar so far this year. Prices for meat, poultry, fish, and eggs are up more than 10 cents on the dollar in just 1 year.

Companies like Nestle and Procter & Gamble, well, they put out warnings that they are raising their prices.

Who would have thought that in just 10 short months of the Biden Presidency we could set a record--a 30-year high record for inflation?

Millions of families this year will sit down for Thanksgiving dinner, and in addition to eating turkey, families around the table will also be talking turkey. They are going to have difficult conversations about how to make ends meet.

According to one estimate, families are now paying about $175 more every month because of inflation for the same things they were getting before Joe Biden became President. This works out to a $2,000 bite out of the paychecks annually of every working American.

So what is happening? Why is it happening?

It is for at least three reasons. First, Joe Biden's incompetence and mismanagement has caused the worst supply chain disruption in at least 40 years.

Now, the supply chain crisis is largely the result of a labor shortage. Last week, the New York Times called the shortage of truck drivers--truck drivers; not of trucks, but of the drivers--the single biggest cause of the supply chain crisis.

We don't have enough goods in large part because we don't have enough workers. This is the worst labor shortage in American history. There are more than 10 million jobs which have gone unfilled in recent months. We have broken new records for unfilled jobs in 5 of the last 9 months that Joe Biden has been in office.

This isn't a coincidence. This is happening because of the policies that have been put in place by the Democrats in this administration.

In March, President Biden and the Democrats extended a bonus payment to people who stayed home from work. Millions of people made more money by staying home instead of going to work. Well, in September, the bonus payment ran out.

Then President Biden announced a nationwide vaccine mandate on the American people. Having been traveling around the State of Wyoming this past week, I will tell you it is a mandate that is taking a sledgehammer to the American workforce.

Now, I fully support vaccination. I am a doctor. I am vaccinated, so are all the members of my family. I am pro-vaccine and anti-mandate. Imposing new mandates on workers during an unprecedented labor shortage is complete incompetence.

Now, this mandate is only making the supply chain crisis worse. The President must have known that many would not comply with this mandate. He must have known that people would be forced out of their jobs by his mandate. It didn't seem to faze him; he imposed the mandate anyway. Now people are losing their jobs, shelves are empty, and prices continue to go up.

The second major reason why prices are rising is President Biden's war on American energy. Thanksgiving is traditionally one of the busiest travel times of the year. AAA estimates that more than 50 million Americans will take to the highway and travel next week--pretty standard for a Thanksgiving weekend. Those who drive will pay a lot more for gas than they did last year or the year before. It is the highest in 7 years. Gas prices are up about $1 a gallon in the number of months that President Biden has been in office. It is more expensive to travel.

And it is getting more expensive also to stay warm. One in five American families has already cut spending to pay for their energy bill in the last year. Winter is coming. It is going to get worse. Some will have to choose between whether they can heat their home or whether they can eat a meal. Prices are so high, 11 Democratic Senators are pleading with the President to bring down gas prices.

So what is Joe Biden's solution?

Well, he admits he has no solution. He says that gas prices are going to stay high until the springtime.

One of the President's top nominees for the Treasury Department says she wants to ``starve''--starve--American oil and gas. She actually said that we want--in her mind--``we want [oil and gas companies] to go bankrupt.'' She is the nominee to be the Comptroller of the Currency.

The Secretary of Commerce was asked what the administration was doing to lower energy prices. She couldn't name a single thing.

The Secretary of Energy apparently thinks high gas prices are funny. She was asked what she could do to increase oil production in America. She laughed and said: ``That is hilarious.''

The Secretary of Transportation also thinks it's funny. He is joking around that people need to start Christmas shopping early this year.

So there you have the elites of the Biden administration--the elites of America--the people he has chosen to run these Agencies. They think it is funny. It is no laughing matter for the working families in Wyoming or all across America.

So who gets hurt by high prices?

The poor, people living on fixed incomes, families struggling to get by. Working families cannot afford what the Democrats are offering.

Since Joe Biden became President, prices have gone up much faster than wages. In other words, the American people have taken a cut in the spending value of their paychecks. They can buy less with the same amount of money. And even if they have gotten a bit of a raise, the prices are taking a greater and greater bite out of that paycheck.

So as we approach Thanksgiving, Democrats in Washington want to spend like it is already Black Friday. Democrats seem to think that every day is Black Friday, when you take a look at this reckless tax-and-spending bill where every page is over $1 billion of spending.

They have already put $2 trillion on the credit card earlier this year. This is in addition to the bipartisan coronavirus relief that the Senate passed last year. But for Democrats, there is never enough spending. Taxing and spending: it is an addiction. They want to print more money, they want to spend more money.

And right now, Democrats are pushing a reckless tax-and-spending bill, which will make inflation in this country even worse. Democrats say that the bill that they are proposing in the House right now will cost $2 trillion.

The Congressional Budget Office will give a final report the end of the week. Experts say, if all of the programs they are proposing were to stay in place for the full 10 years in the budget system, the price is much closer--if not exceeding--$4 trillion.

So if the Democrats pass this bill, we are talking about more spending, more debt, and higher prices. We are also, of course, talking about more taxes that ultimately will hit everyone in this country one way or the other.

Last week, the New York Times reported ``many researchers . . . say the bill is structured in a way that could add to inflation next year.'' Not just this year; next year as well.

Experts say this bill could increase the cost of childcare up to $13,000 for each and every family in America whose children need that care. This is already one of the biggest expenses on working families. They will nearly double that.

And, of course, Democrats' spending spree would add over $400 billion in taxes on America's small businesses--the mom-and-pop businesses in the communities all around this country.

Interestingly, at a time of high energy costs--we had a hearing about this this morning in the Energy Committee, the trend in prices on energy. Astonishingly, what the Democrats are proposing at this time are the highest natural gas prices in 7 years, and a tough season coming for the cost of heating oil and heating gas. This could raise taxes on American natural gas as well, when prices are at a 7-year high.

What happens to these costs with these taxes?

Of course, they get handed off to consumers in the form of higher prices.

If Democrats pass this bill, the American people are going to pay more at the pump, more at the store, and more on tax day.

So, last week, the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center said this bill would raise taxes on nearly one-third of middle-class families.

Didn't Joe Biden say he wasn't going to do that?

Well, who is right: the President of the United States, whose approval is at an all-time low and only 21 percent of Americans think the country is going in the right direction, or the Tax Policy Center that says that a third of all middle-class families will end up paying more taxes if this is signed into law?

This is a blatant violation of the President's campaign promises. The last thing the American people need right now is higher taxes, more debt, and higher prices. The last thing the American people need is this reckless tax-and-spending spree.

It is no wonder that 71 percent of Americans think our country today is on the wrong track, and this includes many Americans who actually voted last November for Joe Biden.

What do the American people want?

Well, they want us to produce more American energy so they can pay less for energy. They want us to make it easier for people to get back to work. They want higher wages and lower prices.

That is not what we are hearing from the Democrats.

So that is my response to the majority leader when he asks why not a single Republican would support this reckless tax-and-spending spree.

With Thanksgiving coming, we need to stop this reckless spending ``cold turkey.''

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, I come to the floor today to oppose the Biden administration's agenda, which is anti-American energy. That is what we are facing in the country today.

President Biden just got back from a trip to Europe. He went there to attend the United Nations' Climate Change Conference. I noted the previous speaker said he was jetting off to there this weekend, heading to Scotland.

He also made reference to the Climate Corps, which is part of President Biden's agenda. He said: Who could criticize it? Well, I am happy to criticize it. That legislation is asking to hire 1 million Americans--1 million Americans--to protest, to wage war on oil, gas, and coal jobs, energy jobs in this country. This is at a time when we have 10 million open jobs in this country and ``Help Wanted'' signs all around my State and the States of all the Members on the floor today. Yet the Biden administration's answer to rising energy costs is to hire a million people to protest American energy and American jobs as the prices continue to go up and inflation continues to ravage the paychecks of the American people.

So, yes, they are flying off to Scotland, so many of the Members on that side of the aisle. The Democrats have joined John Kerry. Nancy Pelosi is heading there. Many in this body from the Democratic side of the aisle will be

joining them, heading there soon. Well, back at home, people are struggling with inflation that is at a 30-year high as a result of the policies of this administration.

One in five American families has cut their spending this year. Why? To pay for the energy bills that are being brought forth by the policies of this administration, which is anti-American energy.

The cost of a gallon of gasoline has gone up a dollar a gallon since President Biden has come into office. It means the cost of everything else is up as well because higher prices aren't just prices you pay at the pump; they are prices you pay at the grocery store.

At the same time, the cost of natural gas has doubled, and it is now at a point where it is at the highest price it has been in 7 years. Half of the homes in this country are heated with natural gas. Winter is coming, and it is going to get worse.

This leaves less money in people's paychecks. They pay so much to fill up, so much to heat their home, there is less money for their family. That is why the New York Times' front page story last week talked about Thanksgiving and the cost of walloping the wallet of American families. People are soon going to have to decide whether they will have the money to heat or to eat.

That is what we are facing as a result of the agenda of this administration. So what is the President doing about it? Well, he went to Europe, and, astonishingly, he apologized to the world for America. He made unrealistic pledges to cut emissions. He said he was going to cut 1 billion tons in the next 8 years and went so far as to say the United States would reach zero emissions in 28 years. That would be a most dramatic change in the history of the American economy. It is a reckless promise. Yet the President did get the applause from the global elite. Well, the American people aren't applauding. The American people are wringing their hands today.

The average European doesn't have reason to applaud either. Joe Biden left out a few important facts in his speech in Europe. He forgot to mention he had given Vladimir Putin the green light to build the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany. He failed to mention that Putin can now hold half of Europe hostage with natural gas. He failed to mention that today--today--in America, we are using more oil from Vladimir Putin's Russia than we are from the State of Alaska.

Listen to this, Senators from Alaska, who follow these figures every day. The President failed to mention that he is actually asking Vladimir Putin to sell more oil to the United States, pump more oil, because he doesn't want it produced in the United States, and he is willing to kill American jobs in the process.

Well, due to the policies of this President and his radical attacks on American energy, Vladimir Putin has hit the jackpot, and he is going to cash in for years to come.

Working families all across Europe know better. They have seen this movie before. That is why, this morning, I have released a report. I have it here. It is called ``Europe's Energy Crisis: A Warning to America.'' The subheadline: ``Democrat plans to mimic Europe's energy and climate policies will lead to sky-high prices, less reliability, and shortages.''

That is where President Biden is leading the United States. It is no wonder that the national poll released last Sunday by NBC News showed only 22 percent of the American people believe the country is heading in the right direction under the Democrats and under this President.

This report details how Europe has tried many of the environmental policies that the Democrats are proposing and want to pass today. The consequences have been devastating to families there and will be devastating to families here.

Because of the policies, Europeans are paying some of the highest energy prices in the world, and much of the energy they use is undependable and unreliable.

Prices are really high in America right now, but they are even higher in Europe. This spring, gasoline prices were at least 65 percent higher in Europe than they were in America. From 2005 to 2020, the cost of energy in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom increased between 28 and 71 percent, depending on the country.

European industries pay at least 90 percent more for natural gas than American industries do. This is a major competitive advantage for American companies. Yet President Biden is doing everything he can to throw our competitive advantage away.

This President is trying to pass legislation that will make it worse here at home. The largest piece of the President's spending bill is over $500 billion for the heavily criticized Green New Deal. It includes high payoffs for electric vehicle owners and an army of full- time climate activists that I just talked about. It includes higher taxes on American energy and higher prices for consumers. It would ban exploration for oil and gas off our shores and in the Arctic. All of these ideas will raise costs additionally for working families.

My new report shows that Europe already tried the Democrats' environmental policies. The results were disastrous for Europe. They will be disastrous here.

I urge my Democratic colleagues: Don't make this same mistake. Don't subject the people of the United States to the same punishing pain of the high cost of energy that people are sustaining right now in Europe. Stop raising prices. Stop making life harder. The American people and American producers and American families deserve better.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I come to the floor today to oppose the Democrats' reckless tax-and-spending spree.

On Thursday, President Biden came here to Capitol Hill to meet with Democrats over in the House. Just hours before he got here, economists sounded the alarms once again about the economy that our Nation is facing under President Biden.

Economic growth slowed to just 2 percent. Now, this is the slowest it has been since the post-pandemic recovery began. This was also significantly lower than even the experts expected. So there was a disconnect. It was really low and even lower than they expected.

Growth is slowing down; hiring is slowing down; and shelves are empty all across America. We have a growing supply chain nightmare. Prices continue to go up. I heard about it all across the State of Wyoming this past weekend.

So what did President Biden do in response?

Well, he ignored the alarm bells. He gave his blessing to the latest version of this reckless tax-and-spending bill.

And the new version looks a lot like the old version--just as radical, just as reckless, and just as unpopular with the American public. There is nothing really new in the bill except more budget gimmicks.

And it is interesting that NBC News, this weekend, came out with a poll that only 22 percent--only about one in five Americans think that, under Joe Biden and the Democrats, the country is on the right path. Seventy-one percent said we are on the wrong path.

And the bill that is being proposed by the Democrats is still about 2,500 pages long and still contains the worst parts of the old bill.

So what is in the new one?

Well, here are a couple of things. It still supersizes the IRS. This new bill would still give the Internal Revenue Service $80 billion to hire an army of IRS agents. Now, Democrats know this is unpopular, yet they continue to defend the proposal.

Why would that be?

The American people have spoken out. They complained to Congress. Democrats don't seem to care. That is because Democrats need to squeeze working Americans for more of the hard-earned money they make.

Why do they want it?

So the Democrats can spend it.

What do they want to spend it on?

Well, the largest part of this bill has to do with energy. It would spend half a trillion dollars for parts of the Green New Deal. That includes over $2.5 billion for something they call tree equity.

It still includes enormous handouts to people who buy electric luxury vehicles. Now, we already give billions and billions of taxpayer dollars in subsidy to electric vehicle makers and owners. This would be even more.

Studies show 80 percent of these subsidies go to households making more than $100,000 each. Well, Democrats say that is not enough. This bill still would give $12,500 to couples making up to $800,000 a year to buy luxury electric vehicles.

The bill still includes the $1,500 payouts to people who buy electric bicycles. It is a mystery to me how electric bicycles can be better for the environment than regular bicycles. They are obviously not. It just shows that this policy is really not about the environment; it is about payoffs to Democrat elites in the big cities.

That is why the bill still includes the Civilian Climate Corps. Now, this is an army of full-time, taxpayer-funded climate activists. They would get paid generous stipends and salaries. And what would they get paid to do? To protest American energy projects.

Now, just last week, climate protesters stopped traffic in New York City during rush hour. People were just trying to get to work or get home, just trying to take their kids to school, yet they had to sit in traffic because of professional protesters, and this administration wants to hire up to a million of them.

Now, Democrats know this isn't popular. That is why they changed the name of the Climate Corps in the new bill. They didn't change the purpose. Now they are trying to call it the Land Corps. It sounds like a harmless group. It is the same civilian climate army, a green army to attack American oil, gas, and coal.

Now, this name change alone is an admission that this idea is very unpopular. Democrats know the American people don't want to spend billions of dollars to subsidize protesters.

A recent poll found 90 percent of Americans are unwilling to pay more than $100 a year to fight climate change. We are already paying more than $1,000 a year in energy costs to drive and to heat our homes due to Joe Biden's energy policies. This is $1,000 more than we did last year.

At home this past weekend in Wyoming, I noted and talked to folks while I was filling up that gas is a dollar a gallon higher than it was when Joe Biden took office. Natural gas prices have doubled, and that means a lot because half of the families in America use natural gas to power their homes.

This bill also increases taxes on American energy production. Democrats specifically target a new tax on natural gas production. So this would raise taxes and prices significantly--even higher--for American families who already this winter are facing a 7-year high in the cost of natural gas and are already trying to decide this winter are they going to be able to heat or to eat. That is becoming a concern of families all across America under Joe Biden's agenda and economy.

One in five American families have already cut their spending to pay for their energy bills this year. The American public and people are paying too much for Joe Biden's energy agenda. They don't want to pay a penny more. They are tired of it, fed up.

Democrats know their agenda is unpopular with the American public. That is why this bill would also permanently change the makeup of the country, because the new version of the bill would give amnesty for millions upon millions of illegal immigrants. The Parliamentarian has said Democrats couldn't pass amnesty in the last version of the bill, yet Democrats want amnesty so badly they are going to try it all over again. Apparently, version C is coming soon.

This is supposed to be a spending bill, not an immigration bill. If they want to do an immigration bill, they ought to introduce an immigration bill. Yet Democrats know that they don't have the votes to pass the kind of immigration bill that they want to pass--not at a time when we have a flood of illegal immigrants coming across the southern border, with more on the way.

So they are trying to cram it into this spending bill. They are hoping that the American public won't notice. If Democrats have their way, this would be the most consequential immigration bill in half a century. The bill would give millions of illegal immigrants amnesty and then give them plenty of taxpayer money because this bill includes new permanent welfare programs with no work requirements--none at all--and no citizenship requirements. That is what the Democrats are proposing.

It is no wonder that we have a border crisis at our southern border, a flood of illegal immigrants. With this bill, Democrats are promising amnesty, as well as free childcare, free preschool, and even free college to illegal immigrants. This is in addition to the $300 checks they already sent to illegal immigrants with the spending bill that the Democrats passed along party-line votes in March.

Democrats seem to do everything that they can to reward illegal immigration. The Wall Street Journal reports the Biden administration now wants to give millions of dollars to families who came here illegally in 2018 and were detained for illegal entry. The number being reported is that the Biden administration wants to give them $450,000 a person.

Now, this is more than six times the annual income of a typical American family, Mr. President. It is more than 50 times the per-capita income of El Salvador. $450,000 per person will mean millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars for families who came here illegally. You talk about an incentive for people to come here illegally--this is exhibit A. The total payout could be more than a billion dollars.

Now, let me just contrast that number of $450,000 with the fact that those who lose their lives defending the country, like a marine--a young marine from Wyoming, Rylee McCollum, who was one of the 13 killed in Kabul, Afghanistan--the United States sends to those families $100,000, and Joe Biden is promising 4\1/2\ times that much for people who came here illegally.

Mr. President, the Democrats say this is a new bill. It is the same old Democrat agenda: high energy costs, amnesty for illegal immigrants, welfare and payoffs to wealthy donors.

And this is the bill endorsed by the President of the United States. It is no wonder that 71 percent of Americans this past weekend said this country is heading in the wrong direction. It is the wrong direction under the Democrats and under Joe Biden.

Democrats ought to listen to the American people. People are furious with this administration. Listen to the sirens blaring with the poor economic numbers reported last week. It is time to stop making the Biden economy even worse. It is time to stop the freefall. Stop this reckless tax and spending before the administration does even further damage to our economy and our country.

Thank you, Mr. President.

I yield the floor.

I ask for the yeas and nays.

Madam President, first, let me commend my colleague, the former Governor of North Dakota and now the senior Senator from North Dakota, for his very thoughtful comments with which I agree.

I come to the floor today, as well, to talk about energy prices, which we know are spiking all across the country. As the President is soaring off to a climate conference in Scotland, energy prices are soaring here at home.

This year alone, we have seen energy costs spiking for families all across this country. Energy prices have gone up not just a little; they have gone up a lot. The cost of filling your tank with gas is up about $1 a gallon today as compared to the day that Joe Biden was sworn into office. As a result, my constituents in Wyoming are paying about $25 to $30 more per tank every time they fill up--every time they go to the pump--than they would have done in January, when Joe Biden was sworn in.

It is not just gasoline prices that are up in our cars and trucks; it is natural gas prices that are way up--a 7-year high for gas at the pump and a 7-year high for natural gas. And all of these things are impacting people, especially as winter is coming. People use natural gas to heat their homes and cool their homes, and they use natural gas to cook.

Well, you know, it really shouldn't be this way wherein we see these skyrocketing prices because, in America, we have the largest energy resources in the world. Many of them are in my home State of Wyoming.

Under the last Presidential administration, America became the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the world, yet, in what we saw on the first day of his administration, President Biden declared war on American energy, on energy produced here at home in America.

On that very first day in office, he killed the Keystone XL Pipeline. That action immediately ended the jobs of thousands of individuals at the height of a pandemic.

President Biden didn't stop there. He went further when he shut down the exploration of oil and gas in the Arctic. He banned oil and gas leasing on Federal lands and in Federal waters. It was ruled illegal, and he did it anyway.

President Biden's radical, anti-American energy agenda is hurting our economy, and people in every State of the Union are paying the price and feeling the pain today. They are feeling it with higher energy bills. Anytime they pay an energy bill, they are paying more.

So what do the Democrats want to do about this?

Well, it is pretty obvious they want to make it worse. Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are pushing a $3.5 trillion reckless tax-and-spending spree.

Last month, in the Energy Committee, of which I am the ranking member, one Commissioner of the FERC--the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission--had something to say about this $3.5 trillion spending bill. He said it would be like an ``H bomb''--an ``H bomb''--on America's electric markets. That is because the bill that the Democrats are trying to push through on a party-line vote is actually just the disastrous Green New Deal with a new name.

So what is in this bill?

Well, it would effectively kill coal, oil, and natural gas permitting on Federal lands. It would replicate California's unreliable electric grid, and it would do it on a national scale. The result would be what they have seen in California: rolling blackouts, service that is less reliable, and costs that are even higher.

The Democrats' bill would impose punishing new taxes on natural gas producers.

What happens to that?

Well, of course, these fees would be passed along to the consumers.

Where will they see it?

Well, in their energy bills.

It would create a new tax on mining firms based on how much dirt they moved. The Democrats literally, in their legislation, with 40 different taxes in it, now have a dirt tax.

The bill would waste $27 billion on a slush fund for environmental activists. Now, it is not clear exactly what all of this $27 billion would be used for--$27 billion--but we can be sure that taxpayers won't be getting their money back. Taxpayers will never see that money again.

How they actually dish out the money is completely open-ended, but what we do know is it can be used to hire environmental activists, armies of lawyers and mobs, to protest because their goal is to shut down energy and our industries and the energy economy, harming families and throwing people out of work.

Then, finally, this large bill would give huge tax breaks to rich people who want to buy electric vehicles. The Democrats' spending bill would give up to $12,500 to married couples who make as much as $800,000 a year. They would get a tax break. All they would need to do is buy a luxury electric vehicle.

The American people are already paying high energy prices. They are doing it because President Biden is blocking American energy. You know there isn't enough supply to meet the demand, and the Democrats have complained about it.

So how do they make the situation worse?

Well, they impose punishing fees; they waste billions of taxpayer dollars; they shut down the abundant and affordable energy sources that fuel our economy.

And, of course, all of these are good-paying jobs. American families can't afford the Democrats' reckless tax-and-spending spree.

So here we are today with the President's going off to Scotland. He will be there for Halloween, and people around this country will be suffering the nightmare of high energy costs. Not that long ago, we were a nation of energy wealth and energy dominance, but this President and this administration have changed it to make us a nation of energy weakness and a nation that is now dependent upon others for energy.

The American people wouldn't believe that we are, today, using more energy and more oil from Russia than we are from Alaska, but that is what this President has brought to this country--a jackpot for Vladimir Putin--and energy workers who are out of work here at home. It is a disgrace.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up to 10 minutes.

Mr. President, first, I commend my colleague from Kansas for his remarkable commitment to this Nation and to those who serve this Nation. And he is always there at the Honor Flights for World War II, the Honor Flights of those who served in Korea, of those who served in Vietnam, and those who served in the Global War

on Terror. His leadership is commendable, and people from both sides of the aisle look up to him and appreciate the work he does on his committees and his commitment to the veterans who serve this Nation.

So I thank the distinguished Senator from Kansas for his ongoing commitment, and it is with appreciation and admiration and respect I follow his speech to thank him for the commitment and the comments about what happened in Afghanistan because just this very weekend, on Saturday, the Governor of Wyoming and I stood with over 1,000 people in the cold in Wyoming as we honored the life of Rylee McCollum, who was one of those 13 who was killed in Kabul at the airport on that fateful day in Afghanistan, merely 2 months ago. And with us also was Rylee's wife GiGi and the baby that was born after Rylee had been killed--the baby who will never know her father, who will always know his story, and will always know that he was an American hero.

Mr. President, I come to the floor today to oppose what the Democrats are trying to do with their reckless tax-and-spending spree. Right now, prices are rising all across America. The price of gas has gone up by nearly $1 since the day Joe Biden took the oath of office. One in five families has had to cut down on their spending, their other spending to pay for energy this year, and it is going to get worse this winter.

In total, the typical American family is paying about $175 more every month, month after month, because of inflation. And the front page story of the New York Times today talked about the upcoming Thanksgiving as the most expensive Thanksgiving dinner of all, and they called it a wallop to the wallet. That is the front page of the New York Times.

I would say, when you see that kind of a story, you know that inflation is here, and it looks like it is here to stay. And it is connected directly to the policies of this President, this administration, and the Democrats in Congress who are trying to make it worse with this tax-and-spending spree. Democrats ought to be working with Republicans to reduce inflation and to cut the spending, but that is not what is happening. No, we see just the opposite.

The Democrats are completely focused on the most expensive spending bill in American history. Right now, the cost is at least $3.5 trillion. With interest payments, the pricetag rises to $4.2 trillion. The bill is 2,500 pages in length. You do the math. That is $1,400,000,000 for each and every page. You divide the cost of the bill by the number of people in America, it is over $10,000 for every man, woman, and child.

The amount that is being proposed to spend is larger than the entire economy of Japan, which is the third largest economy in the world. And the bill is a towering list of radical liberal priorities: permanent welfare programs, free money for electric vehicle owners, earmarks for New York City and San Francisco, including Nancy Pelosi's special park for the privileged.

Now Democrats are playing a shell game, trying to hide from the American people how they are going to pay for this whole thing. Well, they continue to try to hide the ball. Is it more taxes? Is it more debt? Is it some of both? Let's be clear: No matter which one they decide to do, prices for the American consumer is going to continue to go up. No matter which one they choose, the American people are going to end up paying one way or the other.

So, last week, the President went to Pennsylvania and said he didn't want to talk about the cost of the bill. He said: We shouldn't talk about the numbers. We shouldn't even talk about the numbers.

Now, I can understand why President Biden doesn't want to talk about the numbers because the American people are getting sticker shock. But people all around this country, at the kitchen table, when they sit down and try to figure out how much money they have and what kind of bills are coming in and see the price of food going up and the price of fuel going up and the price of gasoline going up and the price of one thing after another and housing going up--people at the kitchen table are talking about the numbers.

President Biden would rather tell all of us that the bill costs zero dollars. His Press Secretary, his Chief of Staff, and Nancy Pelosi have all repeated the same big lie. They say the largest spending bill in history costs zero dollars. This isn't just false; it is absurd. If it costs zero dollars, why are they having such a hard time trying to get it passed? Answer that.

The American people aren't falling for this. The American people know. They know that when Democrats spend more, they pay more, one way or the other.

So why do Democrats keep repeating the big lie? Because they know that people don't want a big spending bill. They are against it.

Tax revenues are already at record highs in this country. Our problem isn't that we are taxed too little; it is that we spend too much. Yet Democrats' spending bill contains more than 40 new tax increases. If these taxes become law, everyone will have to pay one way or the other. They will pay more in taxes. They will suffer with lower wages, in terms of spending capacity, and pay higher prices.

According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, two-thirds of the taxes Democrats are proposing for businesses would be paid by the middle class. Now, that is not what the President wants you to believe--paid by the middle class, no question about it.

Democrats know the American people don't want higher taxes. A Gallup poll showed recently fewer than one in five Americans wants more government if it is paid for by tax increases. The American people don't want more spending, which they know we can't, as a nation, afford with the kind of debt we have.

That is why Democrats, each and every one, seem to be trying to hide the cost of the bill through accounting gimmicks. The gimmicks are so blatant even their own Democrat experts are telling them to stop it.

President Obama's ``auto czar,'' Steve Rattner, a major critic of these accounting tactics and tricks, he actually wrote an editorial in the New York Times about it. He said:

[W]ith worrisome inflation signs evident, we certainly

don't need any more stimulus.

Democrats are trying to find new ways to take more money from the American people. They are proposing to supersize the IRS, and the IRS is already the least accountable and most powerful Agency in the entire government.

Right now, the annual IRS budget is about $13 billion. Democrats want another $80 billion to hire an army of IRS agents to rifle through the bank records of the American people. Even President Obama's IRS Commissioner is against a budget that big.

This proposal just shows how desperate Democrats are to get every last penny they can so they can spend it. For weeks, Democrats said they wanted to force banks to tell the IRS about any account with $600 in deposits or withdrawals. Well, the American people found out, and they were outraged. I received more calls and more letters on this single topic than on any other topic during the entire years I have been in the U.S. Senate. But yet Democrats defended the plan for weeks, including Janet Yellen, the Treasury Secretary, on national television.

It has been fascinating to watch her argue back and forth with Larry Summers, a former economic adviser to both Bill Clinton, who was Secretary of the Treasury for him, as well as to Barack Obama.

Well, now Democrats finally realize how angry the American people are at this Big Brother proposal.

So what is their solution? More gimmicks, more sleight at hand. Now Janet Yellen says the policy will only apply to accounts with total transactions of more than $10,000 over the course of a year.

Well, that new proposal and that gimmick would still affect nearly every American in this country who has a bank account. It is essentially the same proposal. The American people aren't buying it.

So the Democrats are now on the horns of a dilemma. Is it more taxes? Is it more debt? Is it both? All three options mean more inflation hitting families across America and hitting things like the front page of the New York Times, where they talk about it as a wallop to the wallet.

The last thing the American people need right now are higher taxes, more debt, and higher prices. Yet this is all that today's Democrat Party has to offer.

Thank you.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I rise today to honor Dr. Kristaps Keggi. Dr. Keggi is the epitome of the American dream. He was born in Riga, Latvia, and survived World War II as a child. He escaped communism on a refugee ship to immigrate to the United States. When he landed on the docks of Manhattan, he would go on to finish high school and attend college and medical school. He graduated from Yale University in 1955 and from Yale University School of Medicine in 1959.

Eight years after he arrived in the U.S., he raised his right hand and volunteered to serve in the U.S. Army. He joined the U.S. Army Medical Service and Medical Corps. Dr. Keggi served as the orthopedic surgery chief in the Third Mobile Army Surgical Hospital--MASH--in Vietnam from September 1965 to June 1966. This was the first MASH unit stood up and the first to deploy to Vietnam. The 3rd MASH supported the 173rd Airborne Brigade, the 1st and 25th Infantry Divisions, and countless other units. He left the Army with the rank of captain. He is a life member of the Veterans of Foreign of Wars.

Dr. Keggi's service did not stop after Vietnam. His battlefield experience sharpened his skills. He would go on to train generations of orthopedic surgeons and win worldwide acclaim for orthopedic education and innovation. I credit much of my success as an orthopedic surgeon and in life to training under Dr. Keggi.

Dr. Keggi is the founder and the president of the Keggi Orthopedic Foundation and Orthopedic Exchange Program between the United States and the former Soviet Republics. This program has fostered hundreds of fellows in exchanges in Latvia and Russia. He even mentored the former President of Latvia who was a fellow orthopedic surgeon.

He holds memberships in many scholarly societies such as American Orthopedic Association, American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons, Society for Arthritic Joint Surgery, and Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, just to highlight a few.

He has published over 135 scholarly articles on orthopedic medical treatments. He was the senior author of the seminal American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons Instructional Course on ``Early Care of Severe War Wounds'' on how battlefield wounds should be treated. He pioneered and popularized the less invasive anterior surgical approach used for total hip replacement. Dr. Keggi has been recognized by Best Doctors in America starting in 1996. He was named in America's Top Surgeons in 2009 through 2017.

Dr. Keggi has volunteered for many charitable endeavors and has been recognized globally for his contributions to medical science and humanity. He was honored by his hometown of Waterbury, CT, and the Waterbury Veterans Memorial Committee for his lifetime of service working with and treating patients with the wounds of war. In 2020, Dr. Keggi was inducted into the Connecticut Veterans Hall of Fame.

Dr. Keggi's service embodies everything our country stands for. Every opportunity he has been given in the U.S., he has given back in full. My wife Bobbi and I thank him today for his life of service to our military, our veterans, and our Nation.

Madam President, I come to the floor today to talk about America's education system.

As a result of the pandemic, parents have had a front-row seat to their kids' education. Parents are now engaged with their kids' schools much more than ever before. Many parents have had to make tough decisions about a number of things during the pandemic, but especially about their children's education.

Yet parental involvement, I believe, is a good thing for kids in our schools. The more parental involvement, the better. Parents deserve a say in what their kids learn and how best to learn it.

But all across America, school boards and teachers unions and city councils have been outraged to see parents involved as they have been.

Many parents are furious right now. In many cases, they have found out their kids were spending more time on liberal ideology than they were on science or on math.

Earlier this year, the State of California proposed teaching math-- hard to believe, but this is what they said--from a social justice perspective--math from a social justice perspective.

Parents, appropriately, were furious, and the proposal was not rejected completely, but just postponed until next year.

Oregon now allows students to graduate--graduate--without proving they are proficient in reading, in writing, or in math.

San Francisco schools spent the entire last year closed, yet the San Francisco school board had spare time to propose changing the name of Abraham Lincoln High School. Kids are not in school, but the school board had plenty of time to consider and propose changing the name of Abraham Lincoln High School.

Well, parents, again, were enraged and this proposal was dropped.

It is very obvious why so many parents all across the country are so angry right now. They work hard. They pay their taxes. And what they see day in and day out are Democratic politicians hurting their kids' future, getting in the way of the education that parents believe their children need.

Last week, we saw even more proof. The Department of Education published the National Assessment of Educational Progress. It comes out every 5 years. It was time. It is the Nation's report card. This year's report card shows test scores in math and in reading have plummeted. This was the first time these scores have dropped in 50 years.

The lesson is obvious: We are spending too much time away from the things that students ought to be spending their time on. We need to spend less time on ideology, more time on education of the basics--real knowledge, real skills.

Many school boards across the country refuse to listen. In fact, the National School Boards Association complained to the Biden administration about angry parents. Now the Attorney General is treating angry parents like criminals. The Attorney General of the United States is deciding that angry parents are to be treated like criminals. Attorney General Garland has ordered Federal prosecutors to work with local police to form ``strategies for addressing threats against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff.''

The Department of Justice says it will form a task force on these alleged threats against school boards. The task force is going to include representatives from the Department's Criminal Division, from the National Security Division, the Civil Rights Division, and Federal prosecutors, as well as the FBI.

Joe Biden is sending in the cavalry to school board meetings to focus on parents rather than focusing on the education the children need and deserve. He is sending the National Security Division after moms and dads because they are concerned about their children's education.

After the Attorney General's order, I joined with 10 of my Republican colleagues and demanded a legal justification from Attorney General Garland. I still haven't received a response.

We have also found out that Attorney General Garland has a family member who helps schools develop leftwing curriculum. The Attorney General's family member is helping schools developing leftwing curriculum. The Attorney General's son-in-law owns a company with millions and millions of dollars in government contracts--contracts by the Attorney General's son-in-law--contracts with schools all across America.

Well, maybe it is a coincidence, and maybe it is not. Attorney General Garland needs to tell the American people whether this played a role in his decision to treat parents like criminals.

Yet the problem is much bigger than the Attorney General of the United States. The problem is how Democrats treat and think about parents and working families.

The former Governor of the State of Virginia said recently:

I don't think parents should be telling schools what they

can teach.

This is the former Governor of Virginia:

I don't think parents should be telling schools what they

can teach.

Last month, Senator Mike Braun asked the Secretary of Education about the role of parents in education. He asked if parents were ``the primary stakeholder'' in their kids' education.

Secretary Cardona said this: ``They're an important stakeholder.''

In other words, they are not the primary stakeholders. Parents are not the primary stakeholders.

Is it any surprise so many parents are deciding to educate their children at home?

So who does the Secretary of Education think is the primary educator of our children? The union bosses? Are they the primary educators of our children?

Democrats act like kids are the property of the schools. And schools, of course, are the property--in the minds of the Democrats--of the teachers unions. Parents have every right to be upset with what is happening in the public schools all across this Nation. Parents have every right to demand real improvements.

It is time for the Democrats to stop taking orders from the teachers unions and start listening to parents and to the students.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, I come to the floor today to talk about what Americans are talking about all across the country, and that is the fact that energy prices are rising and doing it dramatically.

Energy is called a master resource for a reason. It powers our communities, our homes, our military, and our economy. It fuels the trucks that bring goods and groceries to market. It keeps the lights on at small businesses all across the country, and it heats our homes. This is the reason why higher energy prices mean higher prices in every other part of our life.

Now, over the last 9 months, people have been seeing this all across the country. Energy prices have gone up, and not just by a little. They have gone up a lot. It has contributed to higher prices for just about everything we do and everywhere we go.

The cost of a tank of gas is about a dollar higher now than it was when Joe Biden came into the White House. As a result, if you go to fill up at your local gas station, it is about $25 more to fill your tank today than it was back in January, on the 20th, when Joe Biden took the oath of office.

Now, it is not just gasoline that has gone up; it is the gas we use to heat our homes. Natural gas powers over half of the homes that are heated across America. And the price is now at a 7-year high. So as a result, families are going to pay a lot more not just to drive, but also to heat their homes this winter.

And it is interesting because here in America, we have the energy resources we need; we are just not able to use them because of this administration.

Under the last administration, America became the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the world--in the world--America. America's energy dominance worked to help us reduce our trade deficit. It brought home more jobs, brought industries home to America. It fueled the best economy in my lifetime here at home in America. And as a nation, we became energy independent for the first time in 70 years.

Well, these were historic achievements by America's energy workers. In my home State, the State of Wyoming was proud to play a major role in these achievements. Wyoming is America's No. 1 per-capita exporter of energy. We

produce it in Wyoming, and we send it around the country and around the world. We power America and we power the world.

Yet, ever since Joe Biden became President, it has become a lot harder. Now, I talk to energy workers at home all of the time in Wyoming, all across the State, and what they continue to tell me is it has never been more difficult than it is right now. In just 9 months, Joe Biden has already become the most anti-American energy President in our Nation's history.

On his first day in office, he drew a target on the back of American petroleum energy, and he pulled the trigger. He killed the Keystone XL Pipeline, and that ended thousands of good-paying jobs at the height of a pandemic. President Biden also shut down oil and gas exploration near the Arctic. He banned oil and gas leasing on Federal land.

This has been devastating to Western States: Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico.

Nearly half of Wyoming is Federal land, and now Joe Biden says that land is off limits to Wyoming energy workers.

Because of Joe Biden's radical anti-energy agenda, people in every corner of this country are paying higher prices for energy. We are paying more at the pump, paying more at the grocery store--paying all around.

Even one of the Democrats' favorite economists, Mark Zandi, says the American people are now paying $175 more every month--$175 every month--more than they were a year ago. That includes gas, groceries, rent. Joe Biden inflation--it is equivalent to $2,100 a week. That is a heck of a paycheck cut for American workers.

So who gets hurt by this?

Well, it is struggling families. It is seniors. It is people living on a fixed income.

Polls show that about half of the country lives paycheck to paycheck. Forty percent of the country says they couldn't afford to cover an emergency if the cost were above $400.

Well, in the Joe Biden economy, people are paying five times that amount--the amount they can't handle for an emergency--just in the cost of annual inflation.

The Biden White House doesn't seem to care very much about it, doesn't understand it--clueless. Last week, the White House Chief of Staff retweeted a message which said inflation is a ``high class problem.''

He couldn't be more wrong. If the White House believes this, they are woefully--woefully--at a loss for understanding what is happening in this country, because what is happening is exactly the opposite of what the White House thinks. The White House Chief of Staff clearly doesn't understand the struggles of working families all across this country.

Now, the big Democrat donors in Chuck Schumer's Brooklyn, NY, or Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco--they are going to be just fine. It is the working families in rural America who are getting hurt the most.

And as winter is coming, energy costs are going to go up significantly. The U.S. Energy Information Administration--branch of the government--says energy bills will be up dramatically this winter compared to last.

This inflation nightmare is absolutely at a point where there is still no end in sight. The American people believe it is going to continue and it is going to get worse.

Democrats have finally been hit with the reality that people are worried about the high cost of energy. So what have they decided to do about it? What will the White House do about it? What will the administration do about it?

Astonishingly, in August, the National Security Advisor begged Russia and OPEC and the oil cartel to pump more oil. It is hard to believe that really happened. It is also hard to believe--my friend and colleague the senior Senator from Alaska told us in the Energy Committee that the United States is using more oil from Russia than we are from Alaska right now.

If you don't believe it in terms of the fact that the administration is asking OPEC and Russia to produce more oil to help lower the costs in the United States, just go to the White House website. They put it on the White House website.

Joe Biden would rather buy energy from our enemies and send American dollars overseas than produce it here at home. He would rather send American dollars overseas to our enemies than explore for American energy and the resources that we have, where we have the capacity to lead the world.

Last week, the Biden administration made an off-the-record call to U.S. energy-producing companies. The administration had the nerve to ask them to lower their prices at the same time that this administration has forced them to lower their production. It is economics 101: supply and demand. It is basic arithmetic.

And now the Energy Secretary says that we might have to use the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to try to bring more energy onto the market to help deal with the costs that have gone up as a result of the Biden policies. We went to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve during the first Iraq war and after Hurricane Katrina and during the Arab Spring. In other words, this is something we do in a crisis.

The Biden administration won't say it out loud yet, but let's admit it; there is a crisis, and it is one that Joe Biden and this administration have created. It is a crisis of Joe Biden's own making, and it is a crisis that Joe Biden could end tomorrow because we have the capacity at home to do it.

Instead, what are the Democrats doing? Well, they are threatening to make it even worse. Democrats in the Senate are pushing a $3.5 trillion reckless tax-and-spending spree. Last month, one Commissioner of the FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, told us at the Energy Committee that to pass this $3.5 trillion bill would be ``like an H- bomb'' on America's energy markets. That is because the bill contains huge portions of what has become known to be the disastrous ``green bad deal.''

Here are just a few of the examples that are included in this $3.5 trillion Democratic bill in the House right now: $8 billion for a so- called Civilian Climate Corps. These are taxpayer-funded climate police. They will get free housing, free clothing, free college tuition, free childcare to go out and police the environment based on the climate.

The Democrat spending spree also includes $10 billion for what the Democrats call environmental justice in higher education. The bill includes $105 billion for what the Democrats call climate justice and then green energy subsidies.

Let's take a look at the subsidies. These subsidies include huge subsidies for people who buy and drive electric vehicles. And who buys and drives electric vehicles? Basically, people with lots of income, not the average American. The government is already giving billions of taxpayer dollars to electric vehicle manufacturers and owners. Nearly 80 percent of the tax credits go to households making at least $100,000 a year. That is who this administration is beholden to. The spending spree would give up to $12,500 to married couples to buy electric vehicles. A single person earning up to $400,000 a year could get a subsidy. A married couple earning up to $800,000 a year could get a subsidy.

Now, how are the Democrats going to pay for all these things, all these handouts? Well, they want to put more taxes on producing natural gas. What is that going to do to the average person trying to heat their home this winter? It is going to raise natural gas prices even higher. Oh, and at the same time, we would eliminate 90,000 American energy jobs. It is going to raise energy costs for people all across the country.

The administration's answer is the last thing we need in this country right now. We in this country have the best energy resources in the world. We also have the best energy workers in the world. It is time to let these good men and women do their jobs. American people don't need trillions of dollars more in taxes and spending and debt. We need more American energy. It is time for Joe Biden and the Democrats to get out of the way of affordable American energy. The people of this country need it badly.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, I come to the floor today to oppose, of course, the Democrats' reckless tax-and-spending bill. I have been coming to the floor to talk about this--the wasted taxes, the spending, all of the sorts of things the Democrats are trying to do.

You know, right now, the Democrats are pushing a Big Government, socialist agenda. There can be no question about it. They want additional, permanent welfare programs. They want to--to me, this bankrupts current programs, like Medicare. It takes--it is very hard to think about this amount of spending without realizing the risk that it proves for Social Security. And, of course, the Democrats are proposing this big green new disaster.

For all this spending, what do they want to do?

Well, they want to raise taxes by trillions and trillions of dollars. But it is still not enough to pay for all of the spending that they want to do.

That is why Democrats are now working and pushing this backdoor tax increase. Democrats want to supersize the least accountable and most powerful Agency of the Federal Government. And that, of course, is the Internal Revenue Service.

Now, what we know about this Agency, the IRS, is that they have, time and time again, proven they can't be even trusted to properly secure data, when we look at the leaks that come out of the IRS.

But they are looking for more data and more information, private information, private business by American taxpayers.

Democrats are asking, in this $3.5 trillion bill, $80 billion of additional funding for the Internal Revenue Service. They want to give the IRS enough money and power to hire a full new army of bureaucrats.

President Biden's Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has been very clear. She knows what she wants to do with some of the money. She wants to force banks to tell the IRS every time anyone writes or deposits a check above a certain amount in their banking account, checking account. And right now, the number that she is talking about is $600-- $600 for a check written or deposited. So every time someone pays the rent, deposits a paycheck, Democrats want the IRS to know about it.

Not enough to know that government knows how much people make; they want to know how much they spend. It is Big Brother initiative to squeeze every last penny out of working families.

I mean, why else would they want to go after every hard-working man and woman in America to find out this information?

As Americans find out about that, they are furious. They are smart enough to know that when Joe Biden first says we are only going to tax the billionaires--they are only going to tax the billionaires--why are they looking into the banking accounts and the checking accounts and the deposits and the withdrawals of people all across the country?

Because the tax man is coming for them as well when it comes to trying to pay for this massive tax-and-spending blowout.

So as more and more people find out about it, the more furious they become. I got a report again this morning, 488 more emails and letters into Wyoming Senate--Senator from Wyoming about that from my home State. I have received more calls, more emails, more letters from people from Wyoming on this one topic than on any one topic that I can recall in the time that I have been in the U.S. Senate.

And everyone calling and writing about it has the same position. It is not like, well, half of the people are for it and half of the people are against it. Everybody is against this. Everyone we have heard from--the 488 that I heard from within the last 24 hours--everyone is against this proposal. Thousands and thousands of emails.

I talked to Senator Lummis, the other Senator from Wyoming. Her inbox is completely full as well, all related to this topic. It is what I heard about in the grocery store this past weekend at home in Wyoming.

This new scheme will be terrible, and not just for the taxpayers. It is going be a heavy weight around the neck of the community banks and credit unions in Wyoming.

I talked to one of the bankers from Wyoming. She was in the grocery store getting food for the weekend. What did she--it was the only--it was the thing she wanted to talk about, is the fact they would have to hire three new employees to comply with all of the regulations coming out that would relate to trying to get this information from their bank to the IRS.

In addition, this would be quite an attack on our privacy. This Big Brother scheme would make bankers and credit union associates into de facto IRS agents.

And as this bank officer said to me, she said: Look, I don't want--I am not going to be working for the IRS. I work for my customers, my clients, the people of Wyoming. The last thing I want to do is be somebody reporting into the IRS.

This is what I am hearing from bankers all around the State of Wyoming. They don't want to be invading people's privacy. They don't want to become agents of the IRS.

People in Wyoming have a straightforward response to this administration, and it is this: Leave us alone. We don't need you looking over our shoulder, prying into our life and our activities.

If Democrats go forward with this Big Brother plan, the people all across this country will not stand for it. Many people in Wyoming will look for alternatives to traditional banks and credit unions because they don't want the IRS and the government and Big Brother to know their personal activities. They want to protect their privacy. They may find other places to put their money.

Look, that is going to devastate local banks, local credit unions, if people take their money out because they don't want the government boring into their data and their financial transactions.

It is going to happen in every State. Hard to believe the government would want to do that, but yet Secretary Yellen came to Capitol Hill, and that is what she is doing. She is still defending this indefensible idea; and I believe she is doing it because that is what Joe Biden, the President of the United States, is telling her to do as his Treasury Secretary.

So she went on television Tuesday--today is Thursday--2 days ago, essentially said it was no big deal. That is what the Treasury Secretary of the United States believes, that violating the individual privacy of individuals of this country is no big deal.

Last week, Senator Lummis from Wyoming questioned Secretary Yellen before the Banking Committee. Secretary Yellen, actually astonishingly, doubled down. She said, ``I think you misunderstand the proposal.'' She said, ``The IRS already has a wealth of information about individuals.''

Well, Madam Secretary, we understand that really well. We know you have a wealth of information about individual taxpayers. You know how much they make. You know how they make it. That is enough. If you have all this, you don't need more, but yet you are asking for more, and you want $80 billion for an army of IRS agents to be able to find it out. That is the problem. The IRS has so much information about us already.

Now, Senator Lummis did get Secretary Yellen to admit working families are not the ones skimping out on their taxes. Why else do we have this army of IRS agents looking into our taxes? Secretary Yellen didn't seem to care. She doubled down, still defending this massive invasion of privacy, and that is what it is. It is a huge invasion of privacy, and I contend that they want all this information so they can try to squeeze more money from people who the Secretary even admits are not trying to cheat on their taxes. They are trying to find ways to take more money out of their pocketbooks, when they are already feeling the big bite of Joe Biden's inflation at the gas pump and at the grocery store.

This Big Brother plan is reckless. It treats the American people like criminals. It turns the IRS into the judge, the jury, and the lord high executioner. This scheme shows how desperate Democrats are to get their hands on taxpayer money. Why? So they can spend more. They are so desperate for more spending that they are willing to spy on the American people to try to get more money to spend.

Watch and listen to the Democrats talk. There is a food fight going on, and the food fight is: How much more can we tax and how much more can we spend? It is a food fight between the really big spenders and the extremely big spenders. Look, Democrats think that Washington knows best. Now, the people of Wyoming know differently. We don't need Washington looking over our shoulders. It is time for Democrats to drop the entire plan, mind their own business, and stop demanding more money to spy on the American people.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I agree with what my colleague from South Dakota and my neighbor has had to say about the issues of the spending bill.

I would also add that people all around the country are paying the price right now with rising prices. They are getting hammered at the grocery store and hammered at the gas station, and every month since Joe Biden took the oath of office, prices have risen faster than wages. People are feeling the pain and the bite taken out of their wallets. Even without the specific raised taxes that the Democrats are proposing, the American people have already taken a pay cut.

I note that the majority leader has arrived on the floor, so I am going to delay the remainder of my remarks so he can continue with his leader time at this point.

I thank the Acting President pro tempore.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be allowed to complete my remarks and then the Senator from Pennsylvania, Mr. Toomey, be allowed to complete his remarks prior to the scheduled rollcall vote.