Floor Statements

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Blunt).

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Blunt).

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Blunt) and the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey).

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Blunt) and the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey).

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Blunt) and the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey).

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Blunt) and the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey).

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Blunt) and the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey).

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Blunt) and the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey).

Mr. President, Friday marked the first anniversary of the so-called American Rescue Plan, which is the Democrats' partisan $1.9 trillion spending spree. Fittingly, the anniversary arrived just 1 day after the release of February's inflation numbers which marked the worst inflation since January of 1982.

Why do I say ``fittingly''?

Well, because the anniversary of the American Rescue Plan is basically the anniversary of our inflation crisis. While it is true that supply chain issues and the reopening of economies after COVID shutdowns created certain inflationary pressures, a big part of the reason for our current inflation crisis is Democrats' decision to pass the American Rescue Plan last March.

The definition of inflation is too many dollars chasing too few goods and services, and that is exactly the situation Democrats helped create with their so-called American Rescue Plan. Democrats came into office mere weeks after Congress had passed a fifth--fifth--bipartisan COVID relief bill totaling almost $1 trillion and meeting, essentially, all current pressing COVID needs. Our economy was well on its way to a healthy recovery, and the majority of States had the money they needed to deal with the pandemic. In short, it was abundantly clear that we were not in immediate need of trillions more in government spending.

But that didn't stop Democrats. Now that they were in charge, they were eager to take advantage of the COVID crisis to begin implementing their Big Government vision. So in the name of COVID relief, they pushed through a massive partisan $1.9 trillion spending piece of legislation filled with unnecessary spending and handouts to Democratic interest groups. Less than 9 percent of that $1.9 trillion spending bill was earmarked for actually combating COVID. The rest went to priorities like a $350 billion slush fund for States, a bailout for union pensions, rental assistance far in excess of anything that was needed, and the list goes on.

Despite being billed as essential COVID relief, a substantial portion of the money appropriated will not be spent until 2022 or later; and despite the pressing need for workers to fill the millions of available job openings, Democrats created incentives for Americans to stay on unemployment instead of returning to work by extending enhanced unemployment benefits until September of 2021, long after they were likely to be needed. So the end result of all this was entirely predictable.

Democrats flooded the economy with unnecessary government money, and the economy overheated as a result. And you don't have to take my word for it. Here is what Steve Rattner, who served in the Obama administration, had to say in November:

The original sin was the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, passed in March. The bill--almost completely unfunded--sought to counter the effects of the COVID pandemic by focusing on demand-side stimulus rather than on investment. That has contributed materially to today's inflation levels.

Let me repeat that. This, according to Steve Rattner, who worked in the Obama administration, about inflation--talked about the legislation passed last year by the Democrats. He said that this ``has contributed materially to today's inflation levels.''

Or, as another former Obama administration member put it:

The United States has had much more inflation than almost

any other advanced economy in the world.

That was Jason Furman, an economist at Harvard University and former Obama administration economic adviser.

He went on to say:

The difference comes because the United States stimulus is

in a category of its own.

That, again, from another former Obama administration economist, Jason Furman.

Inflation started to rise almost as soon as the ink was dry on the American Rescue Plan, and it just keeps rising. February's 7.9 percent inflation marks the worst inflation since January of 1982--January of 1982--40 years ago.

And Americans are struggling. Just going to the grocery store is taking up a larger and larger portion of the American paycheck. Ground beef is up 13 percent; eggs are up 11 percent; citrus fruits are up 16 percent; chicken is up 13 percent; milk, up 11 percent; bacon and related products are up 18 percent; and on and on and on.

In fact, one American quoted in the New York Times noted that bacon is now as expensive as filet mignon used to be. Ordinary goods are starting to feel like luxury objects as more and more families struggle to afford basic grocery items.

A Washington Post columnist noted that a number of the price increases recorded for February were the highest annual increases ever recorded for those items, including an 8.4-percent increase in the price of baby food and an 11-percent increase in the cost of lunch meat.

In a speech to House Democrats last week, the President suggested that he was ``sick of'' people saying that Democrats' reckless spending had helped cause our inflation crisis. This is what the President said last week--President Biden:

[T]he American people think the reason for inflation is the

government is spending more money. Simply not true.

Well, there are a lot of economists who would disagree with him, including the two Democratic economists I have already quoted. And President Biden himself actually admitted in November that his stimulus checks helped increase the demand fueling inflation. I am sorry that President Biden is sick of having people point this out.

But you know who else is sick and tired of things? The American people. They are sick and tired of facing massive price increases everywhere they look. They are sick of increasingly having to live paycheck to paycheck as they wonder just how much further their grocery prices are going to go up. They are sick of wondering if they will be able to pay all of next month's bills.

And whether President Biden likes it or not, his so-called American Rescue Plan is responsible for a substantial part of the economic distress that Americans are now experiencing. And while President Biden may be sick of it, we need to keep talking about this because the President is still--still--trying to double down on the spending strategy that helped create this inflation crisis in the first place. Just 2 weeks ago in the State of the Union Address, the President discussed inflation and outlined his hopes for massive new amounts of government spending, spending that would unquestionably take an already bad inflation situation and make it even worse.

It is nice that the President and congressional Democrats are now talking about our inflation crisis, but it would be even nicer if they would realize that it was their spending that helped trigger this crisis in the first place; otherwise, we will continue to see Democrats push for ever bigger increases in government spending with correspondingly devastating price increases for American families.

The American Rescue Plan was a bad deal for Americans. Let's hope that Democrats do not have the chance to double down on this legislation and make our current inflation crisis even worse.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Burr), the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Hagerty), the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. Kennedy), the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Moran), the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Portman), the Senator from Utah (Mr. Romney), the Senator from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey), and the Senator from Mississippi (Mr. Wicker).

Mr. President, the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine continues to escalate. Americans who walked by a newsstand on Monday were met with the wrenching picture of a Ukrainian family killed by Russian shelling, a mom and her two children struck down as they attempted to flee along a main evacuation route from Irpin to Kyiv, an evacuation route that Russia shelled.

Yesterday, the world saw pictures of the devastation after a maternity hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine--maternity hospital--fell victim to a Russian air strike.

President Zelenskyy reported that there were children buried under the rubble--children.

One newspaper reported:

The bombing took place during what was supposed to be a

ceasefire in Mariupol so that civilians could evacuate. It

marks the fourth time a so-called `humanitarian corridor' out

of the city has failed because Russian forces opened fire.

``[T]he fourth time a so-called `humanitarian corridor' out of the city has failed because Russian forces opened fire.''

``Opened fire'' on civilians, on parents trying to save their children, this is what Russia is doing.

The scenes in Ukraine are unreal. They are scenes that we thought had finally been left behind in the dust of European history: devastated cities, apartment buildings with their sides sheared off, the smoking ruins of homes and businesses, a school reduced to rubble, mass graves.

In 2 short weeks, Vladimir Putin has wrought an unimaginable amount of devastation. The damage he has done will take years, if not decades, to rebuild. The scars may last much longer.

And for what, Mr. President? For what? For one man's vision of a Russian Empire. Vladimir Putin wants Ukraine, and he is apparently willing to destroy Ukraine to get it--destroy Ukraine and devastate his own nation, because Russia is suffering too because of Putin's war of aggression.

There are no smoking ruins of apartment buildings in Russia, but there is the senseless waste of so many young Russian lives, soldiers and conscripts sent to die in Ukraine for a war that is not their own. There is Putin's brutal crackdown on protesters and journalists, and there is the economic devastation his nation will suffer--is already suffering--as a result of sanctions and companies' decisions to pull out of Russia to protest its unprovoked attack on Ukraine. Vladimir Putin is laying waste to two countries.

These have been dark days for Ukraine, but the devastation in Ukraine has been met with determination. This is Ukrainians' fight, and they are not shrinking from it. The Washington Post recently reported that more than 66,000 Ukrainians who were outside the country have returned to answer President Zelenskyy's call to arms. That is 66,000 Ukrainians who could have sat in safety outside Ukraine who have returned to help defend their country.

Outnumbered as they are, the Ukrainian people are standing fast, and they are slowing down and in many places holding off the Russians. Soldiers and civilians alike have taken up arms to defend their nation, and it is clear that the spirit of Ukraine, now roused, will not be quenched.

No matter the resolve of the Ukrainian people, Ukraine cannot hold out alone. Without military, intelligence, and humanitarian support from other free nations, Ukraine may fall. We can't sit by and let that happen.

Congress is currently considering legislation to send additional military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. I hope that we will be able to take a vote on this and very, very soon. As I have said before, the United States was too slow to send aid to Ukraine and sanction Putin in the lead-up to Russia's attack. We can't afford to make the same mistake again.

I commend President Biden for doing the right thing this week and banning American imports of Russian energy. Every dollar we send to Russia to purchase energy is a dollar that Russia can use to prosecute its war in Ukraine.

Now, we need to focus on developing our energy resources here at home, all of them--all of them, conventional and alternative--to ensure that our Nation never again has to depend on countries like Russia for essential energy supplies. We should also take this oil ban a step further by enacting the bipartisan Crapo-Wyden bill to suspend permanent normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus.

The bill would also direct the U.S. Trade Representative to seek to suspend Russia from the World Trade Organization. A nation that flouts the rules and makes a mockery of diplomacy should not enjoy a seat at the table.

I heard directly from President Zelenskyy in a Zoom call Saturday, and he made a powerful appeal for help from the West. Among other things, President Zelenskyy requested that we help close the skies over Ukraine.

One solution that has been offered to help protect Ukrainian airspace is for Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, and Slovakia to provide their MiG-29 jets to Ukraine. We need to do everything that we can to help Ukraine in this fight, including helping to pave the way for Ukraine to get the air defense resources it needs.

Poland has stepped up and expressed a willingness to provide the MiGs, but we now find ourselves at a dead end as to how to facilitate the transfer to Ukraine. We need to find a solution, and I encourage the administration to find a way to safely navigate the logistics of such a transfer. After all that Ukraine has managed to do, it would be a tragedy to see the country lose its fight because the United States and other NATO countries could not agree on how to get the Ukrainians the resources they need.

While we should be cautious about what Putin may choose to do as his losses grow and his off-ramps dwindle, the United States and NATO cannot allow Moscow to dictate our actions. To do so would not only be to surrender Ukraine but to give a green light to despotic governments the world over, from China to Iran.

On Saturday, President Zelenskyy delivered an address to the Ukrainian people. ``Free people of a free country,'' he began. ``Free people of a free country.'' That is what Ukrainians are fighting for, to be a free people in a free country. And I think their fight is very close to the hearts of the American people, for after all, for what did our forefathers fight but to be a free people in a free land, to have the right to determine their own destiny and to live free of oppression?

``Free people of a free country.'' Long may the Ukrainians remain so.

I yield the floor.

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Inhofe).

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Inhofe).

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Inhofe).

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Inhofe).

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Inhofe).

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Inhofe).

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

Mr. President, it took several months and the worst inflation in 40 years, but finally--finally--Democrats are acknowledging that we have an inflation problem.

The President actually acknowledged inflation in the State of the Union last week. But, unfortunately, while Democrats may finally be talking about inflation, they still don't seem to understand how we got here, and they are continuing to push a whole raft of terrible proposals that would hurt working families and make our inflation crisis even worse.

So how did we get here? Why are Americans currently struggling with huge grocery bills and big price increases on essential goods? It is true that supply chain issues and the reopening of economies after COVID shutdowns created certain inflationary pressure, but a big part of the reason things are so bad in the United States right now is because of the American Rescue Plan spending spree the Democrats passed last March.

When Democrats took office last January, inflation was at 1.4 percent, well within the Fed's target inflation rate of 2 percent. And it might have stayed there had Democrats not decided that they needed to pass a massive partisan $1.9 trillion spending spree under the guise of COVID relief--mere weeks, I might add--after Congress had already passed a major COVID bill. That is right. President Biden and congressional Democrats took office right after Congress had approved a fifth--fifth--bipartisan COVID relief bill, and it was abundantly clear that we were not in immediate need of trillions more in government spending.

But that didn't matter to Democrats. Now that they were in control of Congress and the White House, they wanted to take advantage of the COVID crisis. So in the name of COVID relief, they pushed through a massive partisan piece of legislation filled with unnecessary spending and handouts to Democratic interest groups.

And, of course, the results were predictable. The bill flooded the economy with unnecessary government spending, and the economy overheated as a result. In the words of Jason Furman in a January New York Times article, `` `The United States has had much more inflation than almost any other advanced economy in the world,' said Jason Furman, an economist at Harvard University and former Obama administration economic adviser. The difference, he said, comes because `the United States' stimulus is in a category of its own.' ''

Unfortunately, Democrats seem unable--or unwilling--to recognize that it was their policies that helped push us into our current inflation crisis. In fact, the President used his State of the Union Address to push for even more--more--excessive government spending, a sure way of making our inflation crisis even worse--and not just increased in spending but major new entitlements.

Yes, our Nation is massively in debt, inflation is soaring, and Democrats think now is a good time to create major new entitlements, and, of course, to raise taxes to pay for them. The President claims that he won't raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000, but that is not actually the case. Analysis of Build Back Better proposals reveals more than one tax hike would hit Americans with incomes below $400,000. And then there are the indirect costs.

A centerpiece of the President's tax plans is increasing taxes on corporations. While that may sound like a tax hike on the uber rich, the truth is that the burden of corporate tax hikes would fall heavily on ordinary workers in the form of lower wages, decreased job opportunities and retirement savings, and a less vibrant economy.

The President likes to talk about tax fairness, about hiking taxes on corporations and wealthy Americans so that they pay ``their fair share.'' Of course, he ignores the fact that wealthy Americans pay a disproportionately large share of taxes in this country and that the Federal Government has seen a huge increase in corporate tax receipts, thanks in part to business growth in the wake of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

All that aside, I find the President's call for wealthy Americans to pay their fair share highly ironic considering the Democrats managed to include a tax break for wealthy Americans in their Build Back Better plan. That is right. The Democrats' SALT proposal would overwhelmingly--overwhelmingly--benefit affluent taxpayers in high-tax States. Apparently, making wealthy Americans pay their fair share only applies to wealthy Republican Americans or until wealthy Democrats start asking for tax breaks.

On the corporate tax side, in the State of the Union Address, the President highlighted the corporate minimum tax he is proposing. What he didn't mention was that his corporate minimum tax isn't actually a minimum tax at all. Thanks to the clean energy and affordable housing tax credits the President is advocating, among other credits, companies that take action on Democrats' preferred policies could end up completely evading Biden's so-called minimum tax. So much for making corporations pay their fair share.

In his State of the Union Address, the President highlighted ``the revitalization of American manufacturing.'' He said, ``Companies are choosing to build new factories here when just a few years ago, they would have gone overseas.'' He said that in the State of the Union speech.

The revitalization of American manufacturing is, indeed, something to celebrate. But, unfortunately, President Biden wants to undo the very tax policies that helped create the conditions for this manufacturing renaissance in the first place.

Before Republicans passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017, we were experiencing a wave of inversions, which is a wonky way of saying that companies were moving their headquarters overseas. Why were companies moving

overseas? Because of the punishing corporate tax system we had in the United States. Prior to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the United States had the highest corporate tax rate in the developed world. That put American businesses at a real disadvantage next to their foreign counterparts, and it created a significant incentive for U.S. companies to move jobs or their entire companies overseas. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act addressed this problem by lowering our Nation's massive corporate tax rate and bringing the U.S. international tax system into the 21st century.

How did it work? Well, in the wake of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, inversions stopped--stopped--and as the President pointed out, companies are building here in America. To quote the President of the National Association of Manufacturers:

Reducing tax rates drove historic growth in the

manufacturing sector.

Unfortunately, if the President has his way, this manufacturing renaissance would likely drastically slow or come to an end altogether. Hiking taxes on American companies, as the President wants to do, would once again put American companies at a competitive disadvantage next to their foreign counterparts.

If the President hikes corporate taxes, we won't be seeing a surge of new building in America or companies keeping jobs here at home. Instead, we will be seeing fewer American jobs and more jobs and companies heading overseas. Democrats have already wreaked a lot of economic harm on American families with their American Rescue Plan spending spree. And the other policies that they are pushing and the tax hikes and new entitlements the President outlined in his State of the Union Address would prolong our inflation crisis and do further damage to our economy and to American workers and families.

I am glad the Democrats are finally recognizing that inflation is a problem, but it would have been nice if they could also recognize how their spending helped get us into this mess in the first place and how their current tax hike and spending plans would hurt Americans and result in a less prosperous economy in the future.

I yield the floor.