Floor Statements

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, on Sunday's edition of ``60 Minutes,'' President Biden made a bizarre attempt to deny the American people's pain from Democrats' runaway inflation. After the latest nationwide data reported that consumer prices are rising at 8.3 percent year-on- year, the President suggested the country should

be celebrating that they weren't rising even faster.

Working Americans aren't buying that insulting spin. Middle-class families aren't rejoicing that their daily life costs 8.3 percent more than it did a year ago and--listen to this--13.2 percent more than when President Biden took office.

In Parma, OH, one local grocer is working hard to keep her prices competitive but admits that ``[w]e have been getting hit with all of our suppliers with chicken, ground meat, everything.''

And in Fairfield County, the head of one organization that helps feed folks experiencing economic hardship put it this way:

I think things are going to get a whole lot darker and more

bleak before they get a lot better. We're desperately worried

about food.

Across the border in West Virginia, in Fayette County, persistent high prices have one retired grandmother worried about how the rest of her family is making ends meet.

She said:

I'm already stressed and stressed and trying to figure out

how [my daughter is] going to pay to keep the lights on, get

groceries, get school clothes on her kid's back.

In Perryopolis, PA, one shopper told a reporter that besides cutting back at the grocery store, she had taken on a second job of working nights at a warehouse to help feed her family of four.

This is what she had to say:

Clothing, gas, just about everything has gone up, and food

is a large part of it.

Meanwhile, the head of a small manufacturer in Big Bend, WI, reports that amid price spikes and backed-up supply chains, ``trying to source products has been very difficult.''

In each of these States' cases--West Virginia, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania--one Senator tried to spare working families from all of this preventable pain. Each of those States has one Republican Senator who warned about inflation, who voted against inflation, and who voted for amendments that would have reduced inflation.

But, unfortunately, each one of those States also has a Democratic Senator who decided to vote in partisan lockstep to plow ahead with the trillions of dollars in reckless, inflationary spending. One Senator each from West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin cast the tie-breaking votes to bring this pain down on their citizens' heads. Now, sadly, they are all paying the price.

Working families in West Virginia are paying Washington Democrats' inflation tax to the tune of an extra $563 a month. Ohioans are paying $661 more. In Pennsylvania, inflation is squeezing folks for an extra $605; and in Wisconsin, it is $673. Families in these States are paying a painful price for the deciding vote that their Democratic Senators chose to cast.

Now, Mr. President, on a related matter, Democrats' runaway inflation includes skyrocketing costs to keep the lights on and to heat or cool homes.

We are also witnessing the dangerous vulnerabilities that Democrats in places like California have built into their electrical grids. California Democrats have spent years putting ``green'' lifestyle preferences ahead of the basic needs of working families. The result is a grid that is both more expensive and less reliable. We have seen the same California Democrats, who have spent years pushing their citizens to buy expensive electric cars, now begging the public not to plug them in.

Even as California teeters on the brink of an energy crisis of European proportions, Washington Democrats are pushing the rest of the country in that very same risky direction. They made their signature priority for this year spending even more of the people's money to take us even farther in the wrong direction even faster.

Last month, our Democratic colleagues rammed through a gigantic party-line bill that raises taxes on reliable domestic American energy in order to subsidize wealthy people buying electric cars or fancy, new appliances. Every Democratic Senator cast the deciding vote for that reckless spending spree.

That includes the senior Senator from West Virginia, who claims he only did so because the Democratic leader promised him that Democrats would line up behind permitting reform to make it easier to build things and complete projects in our country. But now, very predictably, this backroom deal is crumbling before our eyes. Almost 60 days after our colleague from West Virginia gave up his vote for this vague promise, it still appears the far left and House Democrats want no part of his backroom deal they didn't sign on to.

As for the Republican side, our colleague Senator Capito has put forward a real, actual, substantive permitting reform bill that would make the commonsense changes our country needs. Senator Capito's substantive bill stands in stark contrast to what every indication thus far suggests will be weak, reform-in-name-only legislation from her home State colleague.

As luck would have it, Senator Capito's real plan is also closer to passing the Senate than Senator Manchin's reform-in-name-only plan. Senator Manchin recently told reporters that his version may need 20 Republican votes to become law, but Senator Capito's plan only needs Senator Manchin and nine other Democrats to get on board. We are talking about real, substantive reform that is already closer to becoming law. But so far, our Democratic colleague from West Virginia has refused to back his colleague's commonsense proposal. He has shown little appetite to actually get something accomplished.

So talk is cheap. If our colleagues across the aisle want real permitting reform, Senator Capito's fantastic bill only needs Senator Manchin plus nine more Democrats to clear this Chamber. Otherwise, it would appear the senior Senator from West Virginia traded his vote on a massive liberal boondoggle in exchange for nothing.

Mr. President, our overwhelmed Customs and Border Protection personnel have already encountered more than 2 million illegal immigrants and counting just this fiscal year.

This is a larger group of people than the entire populations of 14 States, and this record-shattering 2 million apprehensions only counts the subset of people who were actually caught. Experts estimate hundreds of thousands more people on top of that number who simply got away.

The latest reports say that CBP encountered more than 200,000 people just in the month of August alone, and more than 20 percent of those people were not first-time border crossers but rather repeat offenders who had already previously been expelled or deported; tens of thousands of individuals who had already been thrown out, flooding back in every single month.

Orderly, legal immigration is part of what makes America strong; anarchy and open borders make us weak.

There is nothing compassionate or humane about the border crisis that Democrats' mixed signals and failed policies have unleashed.

It is not fair to American citizens; it is not fair to law enforcement; and it is not fair to the people who have been encouraged to undertake desperate and dangerous journeys by years of Democrats signaling to the world that there are no real consequences for breaking our laws and cutting in line.

Vice President Harris says ``the border is secure.'' The American people know better, and they are furious. Illegal immigrants know better as well.

For years, Washington Democrats have attacked Republicans for calling for basic border security and law enforcement. The Democratic Party line throughout the last 5 years has been that enforcing existing immigration law would be cruel and securing our borders would be xenophobic, but over the last few days, some liberals seem to have changed their tune.

Out of desperation, a few Governors along our southern border are now giving some Democrat-run States and cities just a tiny, tiny taste of what border communities have been enduring, literally, for years.

According to the Washington Post, the total number of individuals whom Texas and Arizona have helped relocate to New York, Washington, and other places in recent months is roughly on the order of the number of illegal immigrants who arrive at our southern border in a single day--1 day.

All those cities combined have had months to accept, between them, approximately 1 day's share of our Nation's illegal immigration.

But the Democratic mayor of New York City is now declaring that his government's resources are ``at a breaking point''--at a breaking point.

According to the Post, these border States have sent to New York City less than 1 day's worth of illegal crossers, spread out over more than a month, and the self-proclaimed sanctuary city apparently cannot take it.

The Governor of Florida helped a tiny number of illegal immigrants, about four dozen, secure transportation to the wealthy liberal destination of Martha's Vineyard, filled with millionaires' mansions, which appointed itself a so-called sanctuary destination back in 2017.

Apparently, this sanctuary destination tolerated, fed, and housed the newcomers for less than 48 hours before having the National Guard promptly put them on a ferry and remove them to a military base instead.

Democrats, liberal activists, and the media are, predictably, melting down. There are absurd accusations flying around that it is somehow evil or illegal for Republican officials to help illegal immigrants move within our country. That would be breaking news because, of course, the Biden administration has been flying and busing illegal immigrants around the country on a regular basis.

According to one report from early 2021, the Biden administration was already filling Greyhound buses with people turning up at our border and driving them to various destinations from the South to the Midwest to the Northeast. Ah, but it was never to Martha's Vineyard.

So these well-to-do blue enclaves are finally witnessing the smallest fraction of the challenges that open borders have enforced on working- class communities all across our country.

Last week, the American people received yet another absolutely crushing--crushing--inflation report. More than a year after Washington Democrats' policies set off the worst overall inflation in 40 years, the prices of some of the most essential items for working families are skyrocketing at their fastest rates in a generation.

Electricity costs are rising faster than they have since 1981, and grocery inflation has eclipsed a high from 1979. Parents trying to put food on the table are now contending with annual price hikes of 16.2 percent for a loaf of bread, 17 percent for a gallon of milk, and 40 percent more for a dozen eggs.

Now, the very same day this painful news broke, just a few hours later, Washington Democrats threw a party for themselves on the White House lawn, celebrating their economic policies.

You really can't make this stuff up.

The official numbers had just confirmed that American families have seen the single worst year for both food and electricity inflation since the fallout from Jimmy Carter. And the Democrats' response was to throw themselves a party--a party--for spending hundreds of billions of dollars more, raising taxes, and making working-class Americans pay off the loans of doctors and lawyers.

You might think the Biden administration couldn't possibly get any more out of touch. You would think that kind of display would have to take the cake. But alas, last night, on ``60 Minutes,'' President Biden gave an almost comically out-of-touch interview on the inflation crisis.

The President argued--with a straight face--that the American people ought to be grateful for last month's terrible inflation report because it could have been even worse. Here was a quote:

Guess where we are? We're in a position where, in the last

several months, [inflation] hasn't spiked.

Struggling Americans are supposed to be grateful that we have plateaued at a steady ongoing inflation rate of more than 8 percent? The President wants a round of applause for steadily clocking month after month after month of the worst inflation in 40 years?

The inflation rate plateauing does not mean that prices themselves have leveled off. It means that prices are

still steadily climbing all the time, at a historically fast pace, the worst in a generation.

Month after month after month, Democrats' policy failures are continuing to add inflation on top of inflation. The inflation rate plateauing above 8 percent does not mean that families are catching a break. It means exactly the opposite. It means that families are continuing to see prices go up and up and up all the time.

Simply surviving, just getting by, in Washington Democrats' economy costs 8.3 percent more than it did a year ago, but remember, the 12- month numbers now dramatically understate the damage the Democrats have done because it only looks back 1 year, when Democrats' inflation spiral was already up and running.

Here is the number that really matters. Since the day that President Biden was sworn in, since the day that this one-party Democratic government took power, our country's inflation rate has been--listen to this--13.2 percent. And according to President Biden, if you are angry about that, if parents are upset, if workers are frustrated, they just aren't putting things in proper perspective.

Considering the American people give President Biden a 38-percent approval rating on his handling of the economy, I would say it is the White House that needs to get some perspective, not the working people of this country.

And get this: When President Biden was asked how we can avoid a recession, since Democrats' policies have forced the Fed to raise their rates sharply, the President doubled down on his fantasyland. He suggested:

[W]e're growing the economy . . . it's growing in . . . a

way that it hasn't in years and years.

But, of course, that is complete nonsense. You measure real GDP growth after inflation. From early 2017 until the beginning of the COVID pandemic, Republican policies had the economy humming along with robust growth, low unemployment, and low inflation--a great trifecta for the American people.

But now, with President Biden's policies in place, we have seen two consecutive quarters of real GDP actually falling. Once you account for the inflation that Democrats have caused, our economy is not growing at all. It is, in fact, shrinking.

Families talk about the term ``shrinkflation'' at the grocery store or the big-box store. That means not only have prices gone up, but the size of the package has gone down so you are both paying more and getting less. Like the size of a bag of chips or a box of cookies or the number of sheets in a roll of toilet paper or the weight of a bag of fertilizer--higher prices, smaller quantities.

And this is basically what President Biden and Democrats have done to the entire U.S. economy. Everything costs more, even as the GDP is shrinking in real terms. Just like American families have seen their real wages plummet after inflation, the same thing has happened to the country as a whole for two quarters and counting.

So the President might want to talk to a couple of working Americans who are trying to survive under his policies before he sits down for his next TV interview.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

This week's inflation report confirmed what working people across this country know all too well: The costs of feeding a family and keeping the lights on have skyrocketed more quickly this past year than at any time since the wake of the Carter administration.

A year and a half of crippling runaway inflation is the most important story to the American people every single day. The media have grown somewhat numb to month after month of 8 and 9 percent inflation, but working Americans have not had the luxury of growing numb. The pain gets worse every single time they have to fill a shopping cart or pay their credit card bill.

One mother of young sons in my hometown of Louisville put it this way:

My grocery bill has [gone] up a lot. It's terrible right

now. I have to be really strategic on how I plan out the

whole month to make sure we have enough money.

Of course, Kentuckians aren't the only ones in this predicament. In Nevada, an office worker recently told reporters:

I've not been buying a lot of things because I can't afford

it. I'm like, ``The kids don't need juice for school anymore.

We'll just do water.''

In Arizona, so many families are having to make tough choices at the grocery store, many are accepting charity to keep food on the table.

According to an employee of one food bank in Phoenix:

The impact we are seeing day in and day out continues to go

up. The families are stressed.

And who can blame them? Food inflation in America is at more than a four-decade high. Bread is 16.2 percent more expensive than it was a year ago. Milk is up 17 percent. Flour is up 23.3 percent, and eggs are going for nearly 40 percent more.

Week after week, feeding a family has become a stressful proposition for millions of Americans, and every extra dollar spent on groceries is one fewer to spare for soaring electricity bills.

In the suburbs of Las Vegas, residents have commiserated over the astronomical cost of keeping their homes cool in the summer. One neighborhood message board reads like this:

My bill for this month will be $574 . . . it's insane.

Yes, ours was $800 for June.

In Arizona, a restaurant worker didn't mince words about scraping together enough to keep the lights and air-conditioning on:

If I didn't have roommates, I wouldn't be able to make it

on the salary that I have.

Overall, inflation in Phoenix and Atlanta is way, way higher than even the sky-high national average. The country as a whole is still grappling with inflation over 8 percent, but Phoenix has seen a staggering 13 percent inflation in just the last year, and Atlanta has seen nearly 12 percent.

Of course, for working Americans in some other States, the most acute emergency is not the cost of summer cooling but, rather, the cost of winter heating.

In places like New Hampshire and Vermont where many homes burn heating oil, this important price is up more than 91 percent since President Biden took office.

And in every corner of the country, one of the biggest collective headaches facing working families with young kids is the rising cost of back-to-school shopping lists.

According to one working mother in Pennsylvania, she had to take items like a backpack for her preschooler out of her shopping cart in the checkout line:

It's been at least 20 years since I have had to pull back

to this extent. This is a new and humbling experience for me

as an adult.

American families are facing math problems that just don't add up.

Meanwhile, the same Washington Democrats who got them into this mess spent Tuesday celebrating having rammed through, on a party-line vote, a bill that does nothing to help them solve it: hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending, just as working families are having the hardest time in decades making ends meet at home; hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars that wouldn't even accomplish Democrats' own underlying radical climate goals, let alone the false claims of ``inflation reduction'' on the cover.

So our economy continues to hand working families a raw deal. But the same day this latest awful inflation report was published, Washington Democrats went to a concert at the White House and celebrated-- celebrated--their economic policies.

How much more out of touch can you get?

The Democrats' giant inflationary spiral is costing the average American household 460 extra dollars every single month just to buy the same things they bought last year. President Biden and his government have imposed a silent Democratic inflation tax of $460 every single month.

In Kentucky, the average household has to pay $608 more a month--well over $7,000 more a year--just to stay where they were when President Biden was sworn in.

Americans' real wages--their purchasing power--has plummeted since this all-Democratic government was sworn in.

And the Democrats response? Print and spend hundreds of billions more, make Americans without bachelor's degrees pay off the graduate school debt of doctors and lawyers, and throw themselves a party on the White House lawn.

Our colleagues across the aisle created this human catastrophe. This runaway inflation was a policy choice by Democrats, and they aren't even trying to stop it.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, the American people's No. 1 priority is runaway inflation that is smashing their family budgets and crushing our economy.

Yesterday, the latest inflation report showed that soaring prices are still completely out of control. Inflation has totaled 13.2 percent since the day President Biden took office. We just had the worst 12 months for both food inflation and electricity inflation since the fallout from the Carter administration.

President Biden and our Democratic colleagues chose to celebrate-- celebrate--this awful inflation report with a so-called inflation reduction party yesterday at the White House. While the Dow Jones plummeted over 1,000 points, while the S&P 500 lost more than 4 percent of its value in 1 day, while American families can't afford gas, groceries, or electricity, Washington Democrats partied on the White House lawn to celebrate their policies. That is what happened yesterday.

This is what Democrats do while our economy crumbles. They subsidize luxury electric cars; they make plumbers and retail workers eat the graduate school debt of doctors and lawyers; and they throw a party for themselves on the White House lawn.

Mr. President, now on an entirely different matter, when you combine the border crisis and the violent crime crisis, law and order ranks as the American people's No. 2 priority, second only to the inflation crisis.

While Democrats' economic policies have waged war on working families' financial security, their soft-on-crime policies have eroded America's physical security. Cities, towns, and neighborhoods across the country are reeling from a wave of violent crime. Just last weekend my State, Kentucky, experienced a spate of murders and attempted murders that rattled residents and literally overwhelmed the police.

Lexington saw four separate shooting incidents on Saturday night alone, leaving nine hurt, some with life-threatening injuries. A Lexington Police Department veteran described it as ``a pretty much unprecedented night in my 20 years.'' Officers were so tied up that they were unable to respond to other crimes and disorder.

Louisville also saw a flurry of violence: the second highest number of homicides in one weekend this year; six people murdered in just 3 days.

Both cities documented record homicide numbers last year, and Lexington is on track to do so again. For Louisville, this is the third consecutive year of triple-digit killings.

Now, of course, this crisis isn't just hitting Kentucky. These trends are nationwide.

For years, the far left has impugned the motives and honor of police officers and taken aim at their funding.

For years, top liberal donors have poured money into campaigns of radical district attorneys from big cities whose whole stated agenda is to not prosecute crimes.

For years, Democratic elites have pushed for letting violent criminals out of prison. Democrats just nominated and confirmed a Supreme Court Justice who argued as a DC district judge that COVID justified--listen to this--letting every single prisoner in Washington, DC, custody out of jail and back on the streets.

This has been an intentional, strategic campaign from the far left, and now Americans are being robbed, carjacked, assaulted, and murdered. Their families are being poisoned with illegal drugs.

Just weeks ago, Senator Rubio gave the Senate a vote to increase funding for fighting crime and keeping dangerous criminals locked up. Every Senate Republican supported this; every Democrat joined on party lines to block it.

Later today, our colleagues from Tennessee will hold a press conference to discuss the horrifying case of Eliza Fletcher, a 34-year- old mom and teacher in Memphis, whom a career criminal forced into an SUV and murdered while she was out for her morning run. The suspect had multiple violent crimes on his rap sheet dating back to age 14 and had just been let out of prison early for a prior kidnapping.

So there are far too many tragic stories like Eliza Fletcher's being written every day and every week all across our country.

Entire neighborhoods have become unwalkable. In many places, public transit has become nearly unusable.

A few months ago, the Washington Post profiled 1 day in the life of a female immigrant busdriver in Denver who gets screamed at and threatened by lunatics on a daily basis.

Just yesterday, a 49-year-old was stabbed in the back while riding the subway in New York City after he asked another passenger to just quiet down.

Our Democratic friends like to talk about fairness and compassion. There is nothing fair or compassionate about letting cities descend into violence and chaos. There is nothing fair or compassionate about legislating like career criminals deserve fifth and sixth chances more than young mothers deserve the right to go out for a morning jog and come home alive.

Stable prices, reliable energy, secure borders, and basic public safety are four of the most basic duties that any government in a civilized country owes its citizens. These things are the absolute minimum that American families ought to be able to count on--the bare minimum--and the Democrats' one-party government cannot deliver it.

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

Just a few minutes ago, yet again, the American people received a monthly inflation report that was even worse than the expert predictions.

The expectation was that Democrats' runaway inflation might finally begin to actually level off. The top-line inflation rate was expected to fall. Instead, yet again, the opposite happened. Overall inflation was up even higher.

The prices this past August were still 8.3 percent higher than they were in August of 2021. Just a catastrophically high inflation rate.

Food prices went up another 0.8 percent just this past month alone. Overall food prices just logged their biggest 1-year increase since the late 1970s. Groceries in particular are now 13.5 percent more expensive than they were at this time last year. Democrats' policies are sucker- punching American families every time they set foot in the checkout line. Eggs are up 40 percent. Butter, up 25 percent. Baby food, up 13 percent. Chicken, dairy, bread, cereal, and canned fruits and vegetables are all up around 16 percent each. Coffee is up even more than that.

Housing and shelter costs were up. Medical costs were up. Furniture, up. New cars, up.

Electricity costs were way, way up--a 15.8-percent increase since last year. So let me say that again. Inflation on Americans' electricity bills alone--alone--is 15.8 percent in just the last 12

months. This is the largest 1-year increase in electricity prices since 1981, when the statistic was looking back into the final months of Jimmy Carter.

Even if you take out energy and food prices--two areas where the administration likes to pass the buck and pretend they are powerless-- inflation skyrocketed 0.6 percent in just the month of August alone.

Eight-point-three percent inflation--just an astonishing number. And remember, this figure only looks back 12 months, but we are now more than 12 months into the Democrats' inflation spiral. Prices are 8.3 percent higher today than in August of 2021, but remember, in August 2021, the baseline, we were already talking about runaway inflation. Prices were already way up compared to the year before that. So the 12- month number dramatically understates the total damage that Democrats have caused.

Here is the comparison that matters most to American families, especially with an election in less than 2 months: How are things today compared to January 2021, when this all-Democratic government was sworn in? How are they compared to January 2021? Here is the answer: Food prices are up a total of 13.9 percent since President Biden was sworn in. Gas prices are up 58.5 percent. Electricity costs are up 21.6 percent. And the overall, across-the-board inflation rate since President Biden took office is a catastrophic--catastrophic--12.5 percent.

This very day, President Biden and Democrats are having a big celebration for their latest reckless spending bill, which they pretended would reduce inflation but which nonpartisan experts say will actually make it worse. They could not look more out of touch if they tried.

Mr. President, now on another matter, this past weekend, Vice President Harris made a surprising announcement on ``Meet the Press.'' The Vice President declared--listen to this--``The border is secure.''

We are about to close the fiscal year with more than 2 million illegal immigrant encounters on our southern border, breaking the alltime record that we only just set last year. Seizures of lethal fentanyl are also on pace to exceed last year's total. They are up more than 200 percent in just the latest month on record. These are not the signs of a secure border, and the American people know it. An outright majority of the country disapproves of how President Biden has been handling this issue. The Vice President's claims aren't fooling anyone.

For years now, this crisis has stretched border communities to the breaking point and caused ripples throughout the entire country. All the while, Democrats have claimed it would be cruel or uncompassionate to have a functioning southern border or actually enforce our laws.

Now, in recent weeks, the country has been treated to one of the more striking displays of irony we have seen in quite a while.

For many years, while the citizens and local governments on the border have cried out for help and law enforcement, various Democrat- run cities and States that aren't on the border decided to set themselves up as virtue signaling sanctuary cities, where immigration laws supposedly simply do not apply. For years, much of the political left has suggested there are no legitimate practical reasons why our country would want secure borders or to enforce its immigration laws. Only racism or xenophobia could possibly explain it.

Well, for several weeks now, some of these overwhelmed States have decided to try taking some of these Democrat-run jurisdictions at their word.

Governor Abbott in Texas and Governor Ducey in Arizona have put a very small proportion of the illegal immigrants pouring into their States onto buses bound for the self-advertised sanctuary cities of New York and Washington. And do you know what? Just this very small taste of chaos, this tiny little sliver of what many places in America have been dealing with for years, has these cities' Democratic leaders outraged, anxious, and scrambling.

Eric Adams, the mayor of New York, has only had to receive in 5 weeks roughly the number of people the Border Patrol encounters in 7 or 8 hours. New York has had over a month to handle a fraction--a fraction-- of 1 day's share of border crossings. Yet the mayor says having to deal with this is ``horrific.'' New York City officials complain that they are overwhelmed.

Here in Washington, the destination for fewer than 8,000 illegal immigrants, the Democrat Mayor has declared a public health emergency. She begged the Pentagon to send in the National Guard for help. The Defense Department, of course, turned her down.

It is incredible just how quickly Democrats change their tune when they have to stomach one single spoonful--spoonful--of the policies they have been force-feeding the rest of our country. Oh, it is challenging to have waves of illegal immigrants pouring into your community? This creates challenges for housing and medical care and resource allocation and law enforcement? Who knew all this?

As one former mayor from the frontlines of this crisis put it recently, ``The city of McAllen was able to deal with thousands of immigrants a day. I think they can handle a few hundred.''

Maybe this will be the wake-up call the Democrats need to finally understand that functional nations--functional nations--need functional borders.

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

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

Madam President, tomorrow, the Labor Department will

release the latest monthly update on the Democrats' inflation, but, of course, the American people hardly need government statistics to explain to them that Washington Democrats' reckless spending has sent prices skyrocketing. Working families have been feeling this pain in their pocketbooks every single day. Nearly two-thirds of middle-income Americans say inflation is negatively affecting their finances. An outright majority say they are experiencing ``financial hardship.'' A third of the country says they are struggling to meet basic family needs.

One parent shopping for school supplies recently told reporters:

I had to start early because the prices are so high. . . .

Being a parent, I want to give them the world. Sometimes, I

wish I could give them more.

But the back-to-school rush isn't the only headache facing working families. Since President Biden and this all-Democratic government took office, prices on grocery store essentials, from meat to produce, have seen double-digit percentage increases. Some household items, like furniture, are over 20 percent more expensive than they were on Inauguration Day. The diesel fuel that moves practically everything through the supply chain and onto store shelves is up nearly 80 percent since President Biden put his hand on the Bible. Households' electric bills are up an average of 20 percent since January of 2021. Commuting and running errands costs more, with gasoline up 70 percent. As fall and winter approach, homes that burn fuel oil are set to be more than 75 percent more expensive simply to keep warm.

The American people know who created this mess. They remember quite well how Washington Democrats spent the spring of 2021 dining out on leftwing spending and leaving taxpayers to pick up the bill. Poll after poll has shown they are overwhelmingly dissatisfied with what President Biden and his party have done since then.

One survey found five consecutive times that more than 70 percent of Americans say our country is headed in the wrong direction. But that hasn't stopped Washington Democrats from calling the same disastrous play over and over and over again.

For months--months--our colleagues' primary focus was on repeating the mistake they made in 2021. In August, on a party-line vote, they did it. In the teeth of the worst inflation in over 40 years, every single Democrat in Congress voted to ram through hundreds of billions of dollars more in liberal spending.

The American people's top concern is runaway costs. And the supply chain crisis could get even worse--much worse--in the next few days if Democrats let their far-left, Big Labor allies engage in massive railway worker strikes that would hamper the economy even further. But Washington Democrats' top concerns appear to be something very different. They prioritized waging war on affordable American energy in a bill that will have no meaningful impact on global temperatures. They prioritized inflating the IRS with $80 billion to audit more American citizens without a word of accountability for when tax collectors allow confidential information to become a political weapon.

Even the supposed reason for the spending package, ``inflation reduction,'' is utter nonsense. Nonpartisan experts have concluded that what Washington Democrats did last month will not meaningfully reduce inflation at all and will actually make it worse in the near term. This is what Democrats decided to put first for the better part of a year, and it is what they are now trying to peddle to the American people as a victory.

But the American people don't want tens of billions of dollars in wish fulfillment for climate activists; they want affordable gas and electricity. The American people don't want a bloated IRS; they want stronger support for law enforcement at the southern border and in their communities. Washington Democrats have consistently misunderstood what the American people have asked them to do. They have repeatedly ignored the basic challenges they have created for working families.

When the American people's priorities and Washington Democrats' priorities have diverged, this government has put the people last at every turn.