Floor Statements

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, inflation is hammering working families from coast to coast, but Democrats want to print, borrow, and spend billions more. Our economy is already sputtering on their watch, but Democrats want to wallop the country with massive tax hikes that would kill American jobs and discourage industry from locating here in our country.

Everybody with a lick of common sense knows the massive, reckless taxing-and-spending spree that Democrats are writing behind closed doors is crazy. A supermajority of Americans--67 percent--say that inflation and rising costs are harming everyone in the country and government should cut back on spending and printing money as a result. Sixty-seven percent of the American people--two in three Americans-- want Washington Democrats to step back from the precipice--an overwhelming consensus.

But a few loud voices on the far left are yelling at Democrats to ignore the people and take the plunge. The sheer financial cost of what Democrats want to do to our country is literally jaw-dropping.

Even when the Congressional Budget Office had to swallow all the Democrats' budget gimmicks and fuzzy math at face value, they still found that this reckless taxing-and-spending spree would add--listen to this--$800 billion to the deficit in the next 5 years; even with swallowing all the gimmicks, another $800 billion in deficit spending during a time of inflation.

But even that almost certainly undershoots the impact. The Democrats' legislation pretends that liberals will let all of these huge new entitlements simply expire after a few years. We all know that is a total accounting fiction. They are marketing these new welfare programs as moral imperatives. Democrats don't want them to expire, but they draft bills with these fake expiration dates to make it appear like it costs less.

Outside experts have tried to estimate the real cost of the bill. So listen to this: If all these new welfare entitlements did not magically fall away after a few years, they say the bill would actually cost double--double--what Democrats say and leave us with $2.8 trillion in new debt. Nonpartisan experts who look past the Democrats' fictional accounting and fake assumptions find the bill would add $2.8 trillion to the deficit.

So that is how you risk turning a couple years of inflation into a full-on lost decade--a full-on lost decade.

But the problem with their reckless taxing-and-spending spree is not just the pricetag. It is not the case that Democrats have cooked up a great list of investments that would strengthen America but we just can't afford it at

this particular moment, no. Our colleagues want to ram through a far- left wish list that would hurt families and help China.

So, look, there is no grand national project waiting on the other side of all these trillions, no 21st-century version of the Hoover Dam or the Interstate Highway System or the space race, nothing to really make us proud; just a mediocre assortment of new welfare programs, new transfers, and new bureaucratic power grabs.

And somehow it all seems tailormade to take existing problems in our country and actually make them worse. Take, for example, the nationwide labor shortage facing our economy right now.

One of the most vocal of the House's self-styled Democratic socialists said last year that even after workplaces were once again safe, people should simply refuse to go back to work--refuse to go back to work. Forget science, forget economic recovery; just say no.

Well, this spring, the far left got their wish: a massive, unnecessary spending package that stunted our comeback and literally paid people to stay on the sidelines. By summertime, unfilled positions were setting new all-time highs.

Yet Washington Democrats now want to double down with a plan that would shatter a decades-old consensus about the link between welfare and work. They want to massively expand access to welfare, including to people in this country--listen to this--who are in this country illegally by hijacking the child tax credit that was designed for working families with actual tax liabilities. That is what the child tax credit was for: to help working families who had actual tax liabilities.

Or look at the ongoing obsession with the Green New Deal policies. President Biden's cave to the far-left's climate agenda started on day one: canceling American jobs, the Keystone XL Pipeline, and freezing exploration on new sources of domestic energy.

Last year, the United States was a net energy exporter. Now, on Democrats' watch, we have doubled our imports of Russian oil, and American households are staring down an historic spike in home heating costs.

Was it time to pump the brakes on green radicalism? Not if you ask Washington Democrats. Their reckless taxing-and-spending spree would heap a fresh batch of fees and mandates on producers of the most affordable domestic energy while showering incentives on the pricey and unreliable alternatives blue State liberals prefer.

Pouring government subsidies into green pet projects like electric cars and solar panels would mean handing a massive windfall to Chinese producers that dominate the markets for a slew of the rare earth materials these products require. So it would hurt our families and help China.

Look at education. The same Democrats who let their Big Labor benefactors rob kids of in-person schooling are now letting the Justice Department of the Biden administration scrutinize parents who dare to question woke propaganda. Their reckless taxing-and-spending spree would go even further to take power and control away from parents. Democrats want to bring even more of kids' learning, down to pre-K, under the thumb of woke bureaucrats and Big Labor.

Even prior to pre-K, Democrats have cooked up a crazy new labyrinth of regulations and subsidies and mandates for daycare. President Biden and Speaker Pelosi want to tell the American people how to raise their kids and how to structure their private family arrangements. These liberals want to take families' most personal life decisions and have Washington pick winners and losers.

So listen to this: The cost of childcare would actually be driven up. Families who have made different sets of sacrifices to have a parent or grandparent raise their young kids would get absolutely nothing. Oh, and listen to this: Many Americans' faith-based providers would be intentionally shut out from important funding, and the culture warrior Secretary Becerra would be calling the shots.

So it is like I said. The actual substance of their bill is as awful as the pricetag. Democrats' plan wouldn't just waste trillions and exacerbate inflation; it would also make American families' lives considerably worse.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. President, yesterday, a bipartisan majority of Senators rejected the Democratic leader's efforts to shut down debate on the National Defense Authorization Act and block new measures to get tougher on Russia.

The Democratic leader wants to block the Senate from fully and robustly debating a number of important issues--from how to manage the fallout from the reckless Afghanistan retreat to how to respond to China's dramatic and destabilizing military modernization, to how to restore deterrence against an emboldened Iran.

The NDAA is supposed to be the bipartisan forum for debating and acting on these kinds of issues. Months ago, the Armed Services Committee moved this process forward--listen to this--23 to 3, but the Democratic leader has botched the floor process.

It is especially bizarre to see the Democratic leader so focused, so intent, on blocking the Senate from dealing seriously with the growing aggression from Putin's Russia. He seems downright desperate to block new bipartisan action on Nord Stream 2. It is really quite strange to see. Senators Risch and Cruz have proposed language concerning this Putin pipeline that the House was able to pass almost unanimously. Unlike the House provision, the Risch-Cruz amendment includes a waiver provision that would give the President more flexibility, which makes the Democratic leader's effort to shut the process down and block their amendment all the more baffling.

If there is opposition to the amendment--if it can be improved with modifications--then, by all means, let's have a public debate.

Likewise, Senator Portman has been a leading voice for bolstering our European partners and delivering more meaningful support to Ukraine's military. As Putin amasses forces on Ukraine's border, the Senate should debate how to help the Ukrainians defend themselves. The Democratic leader is trying to shut that down as well.

So the NDAA is not finished yet. So the Senate cannot be finished yet either. We need the same kind of normal, robust, bipartisan amendment process that always characterizes this bill, and we need the Democratic leader to stop trying to block the Senate from sanctioning Putin's cronies.

Inflation

Now, Mr. President, on an entirely different matter, 88 percent of Americans are concerned about inflation--most of them are very concerned--and 77 percent of Americans say inflation has affected them personally. We have a big and diverse country. It is hard to get that many Americans to agree on anything. But President Biden did promise he would unite the country, and on the Democrats' watch, under the Democrats' policies, the American people are united in their fear and frustration at runaway prices, falling purchasing power, and all the consequences of inflation. The men and women of this country are spending 20 percent more than last year for beef at the grocery store, 50 percent more to fill up the gas tank, 26 percent more for less choice in used cars.

One recent article in the New York Times suggested that perhaps Americans should forget about trying to buy their family members normal gifts and settle for exchanging handwritten promises to tackle household chores, such as ``washing out the reusable plastic bags.'' I guess the Grinch is doing some ghostwriting in his spare time.

Some weeks back, the White House Press Secretary tried to laugh off reporters' questions about the supply chain and inflation crises. She literally laughed at the idea that anybody would be worried about the ``tragedy of the treadmill that's delayed.''

Well, the President's staff are yukking it up, but working parents aren't laughing. Middle-class families aren't laughing.

A Kentuckian named Mike Halligan isn't laughing either. He runs a big food bank in Lexington called God's Pantry. They distribute more than 40 million pounds of food every year at the local pantries all across my State.

Here is what he says:

We've seen the cost of our ``sharing Thanksgiving basket''

go up this year by 14.5 percent. . . . We've seen our costs

go up by about 50 percent. The transportation component of

that is literally doubled.

And he also explained that, since inflation is also hammering his contributors, charities and nonprofits may face ``donor fatigue'' at precisely the time they cannot afford a fall-off. The Democrats' inflation is hitting, literally, every part of our society.

A famous economist once said that inflation is the only form of tax that can be levied without any legislation, but what is remarkable about 2021 is that Democrats did directly legislate a big chunk of this inflation into existence. It is unusually traceable to deliberate policy decisions they have made.

One of the most famous Democratic economists in the country, Larry Summers, tried to warn them. On February 4, he wrote that the Democrats' stimulus could ``set off inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation.'' He said the same thing all springtime long.

So did President Obama's CEA chair:

Jason Furman . . . said that the American Rescue Plan is

definitely ``too big for the moment,'' stating, ``I don't

know of any economist that was recommending something the

size of what was done.''

But Washington Democrats had already decided months ago they would try to use the temporary pandemic as a Trojan horse for permanent socialism.

Remember last spring, when one of the senior-most House Democrats called it a ``tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision'' or, earlier this fall, when President Biden himself said the pandemic ``does present us with an opportunity.''

For Democrats, this go-around, it has never been about what families need; it has only been about what activists want.

So we got the first massive spending bill in the springtime, and now a majority of Americans ``worry they won't be able to afford what they need during the holidays due to inflation.''

President Biden inherited an economy that was primed and ready for a historic comeback--a fantastic inheritance. Since then, they have had less than a year at the controls, and we have got more than half the country actively worried their checking accounts might not even get them through the holidays.

But Democrats aren't offering the country any contrition, any apology, or, more importantly, any course correction. Amazingly enough, they want to come back around for an even bigger bite at the apple. They want to try to inflate their way out of inflation.

Our colleagues have spent months huddled behind closed doors, neglecting the most basic governing duties, writing another reckless taxing-and-spending spree that even the most conservative estimates say would add about $800 billion to deficits over the next 5

years alone. They want to take the inflationary fire they helped start and pour jet fuel on it. Even the CBO, which has to swallow most of the Democrats' gimmicky math, estimates this bill would spend nearly $2 trillion and pile almost hundreds of billions more onto deficits over the next decade.

Perhaps more realistic are the outside, nonpartisan estimates that actually account for what we all know: Democrats would never let the new entitlements in their bill expire. Those more realistic estimates put the total cost--listen to this--just short of $5 trillion, at a time when Chairman Powell, who has been willing to let the country run hot, is now warning that current uncertainties could keep inflation elevated to a troubling level.

Now, I could talk all day about how the actual contents of this bill would hurt American families even more, about how it would take another big step toward socialized medicine and pour cold water on the innovations and cures that save lives, how it would incinerate huge chunks of our energy sector and the jobs it supports in order to keep pace with green preferences of California liberals, how it would wrestle authority over intimate decisions about childcare away from American families and put it in the hands of Washington bureaucrats, but the overall picture is impossible to mistake: Inflation is hurting the American people, and Democrats want to print, borrow, and spend trillions more--the most out-of-touch agenda you could possibly imagine.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Madam President, today's Democratic Party does not make the policy decisions of a party that is serious about protecting our country.

In May, President Biden released a budget proposal that proposed a de facto cut in defense spending, and that was before the President's own supercharged inflation further cut the purchasing power of every defense dollar.

In August, his botched Afghanistan retreat shattered our allies' trust and delighted the terrorists. In 10 months in office, despite naive happy talk from the administration, the threats we face are markedly worse. The vacuum they left in Afghanistan has emboldened terrorists, from Iran's militias in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen to the highest ranks of the Taliban's government.

Their desperation to return to a failed nuclear deal has given Iran the upper hand in negotiations.

For 4 years, my colleague the Democratic leader seemed constantly focused on Putin and Russia. But now, with Putin flaunting his power and Russia engaged in ongoing cyber attacks, weapons tests, and troop buildups? Crickets.

And for all their talk about China's threat, we have seen no evidence that Democrats intend for the United States to keep pace with the PLA's investments in nuclear and hypersonic weapons.

The bipartisan National Defense Strategy Commission has made clear that we cannot shortchange our military modernization and have a prayer of competing with the People's Republic of China or even the declining but dangerous Russian Republic.

Our colleagues across the aisle have missed one opportunity after another to right the ship. They have used the reconciliation process to pass trillions in new partisan spending without a cent for defending the Nation.

And despite the strong bipartisan work of our colleagues on the Armed Services Committee, the Democratic leader kept this year's Defense authorization bill in limbo literally for months and now wants to block the Senate from a real debate and a real amendment process.

Debating the right way to confront Russian threats to America and our allies and equip our friends in Ukraine is certainly worth the Senate's time. Putin is massing tens of thousands of troops on Ukraine's border, but the Democratic leader is trying to block a debate about responding to Russian aggression? It makes no sense.

Considering sanctions on the pipeline that fuels Putin's encroachment over Europe--including provisions from Senator Risch that closely mirror language that the House added unanimously--is certainly worth the Senate's time. Setting the record straight on our resolve to maintain a strong and credible nuclear deterrent that can check the worst impulses of our adversaries is also worth the Senate's time.

Yet, once again, the Democratic leader seems to want to put national security last. My colleague is trying to overcorrect for poor planning by cramming a 2-week bill into 2 or 3 days' time. I imagine there might be finger-pointing at the Republicans if that proves impossible.

So nothing less than the safety of the American people is at stake. This is more important than political timetables or partisan wish lists. So if the Democratic leader insists on forcing a cloture vote later today, I will oppose cutting off these important debates prematurely when they have really just begun.

Madam President, now on a related matter, why do our Democratic colleagues want to shortchange our national defense? Well, to free up their time and attention for another massive, reckless taxing-and-spending spree, a radical wish list that would hurt American families and help China.

Working families are already getting slammed by runaway costs because the Democrats' last massive spending spree drove up inflation. Gas prices are up about 50 percent, used car prices are up more than 25 percent, and grocery prices across practically every category are up significantly over this time last year.

But, in response, Washington Democrats want to print, borrow, and spend trillions more. Even if you accept all their budget gimmicks at face value, this bill alone would unleash $800 billion in not-paid-for spending in the next 5 years. Years 5 through 10 are when their crushing tax hikes and phony accounting would actually begin to kick in. But even then the bill is not paid for.

President Biden promised Americans over and over that this legislation would cost zero dollars. Obviously, that is false. The Congressional Budget Office says that after 10 years, after their tax hikes and fake offsets are factored in, their spree would still add up to $367 billion and add that all to the deficit.

President Biden said the deficit impact would be zero. In reality, it is hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars.

President Biden promised Americans something else too. He said he would never raise taxes on the middle class. People earning less than $400,000 per year were not to pay a penny more. He has completely broken this promise as well.

Among the $1.5 trillion in job-killing tax increases are new burdens for small businesses, family farms, and direct hikes on middle-class families earning less than six figures. Meanwhile, amazingly, Democrats did find room in their plan to include $300 billion in tax cuts for the wealthiest blue-State ZIP codes in New York and California. Our colleagues want to pretend they are launching another New Deal. Yet one of the biggest components is a direct cash giveaway to their richest constituents.

So the cost of this spending spree would be astronomical, and the massive tax hikes that would only partly pay for it would literally crush an already fragile economy.

Well, what about the content of the liberal wish list? If Democrats get to steal the American people's credit card for this historic spending spree, what would our citizens even get to unwrap?

Well, there would be massive government giveaways to supposedly green initiatives, giving rise to a whole new generation of waste and abuse like Solyndra.

There would be a gigantic slush fund so that HHS Secretary Becerra, the culture warrior who sued Catholic nuns, could take over daycare and prekindergarten across America. He would be in charge of subsidizing certain kinds of private family choices but not others and tilting the playing field against faith-based childcare.

There would be a continuation of inflationary welfare payments that Washington is sending out with zero work requirements whatsoever, and illegal immigrants would get the money as well. Oh, and, as we speak, Senate Democrats are still trying desperately behind the scenes to get sweeping amnesty included in the bill as well.

So it goes on and on like this, a hodgepodge catalog that is built to satisfy the demands of activists, not the needs of families. If you ask any working-class or middle-class American family for their top concerns, you aren't going to hear many people pining for massive tax hikes, electric car charging stations, and woke bureaucrats getting control of their kids' early childhoods.

My colleagues across the aisle seem determined to spend the weeks ahead on ways to waste Americans' money while making Americans' problems even worse. So let's hope enough of our Democratic colleagues step back, take stock, do the responsible thing, and kill this bill.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Well, at long last the Senate will officially turn to the NDAA. Every day, world events remind us that America faces serious rolling threats. In too many cases President Biden's decisions have actually made things worse, so our annual opportunity for the Senate to have its say is as important this year as it has ever been.

Over in Russia, Putin is preparing to escalate military hostilities along the border with Ukraine, and he is using Europe's reliance on natural gas to bully our friends. But President Biden actually removed obstacles to Putin's brandnew pipeline that will further extend his leverage and further enrich his cronies.

So I hope the Senate will consider an NDAA amendment to sanction this project and to provide additional lethal support to Ukraine. These initiatives have previously won bipartisan support, so I would hope Democrats would join Republicans in pushing back on Moscow.

China is flaunting major military innovations, like hypersonic weapons systems, stepping up airspace intrusions over Taiwan, and blaming America for their bad behavior. But while President Biden and our colleagues like to talk a good game about China, they have yet to really walk the walk. President Biden's budget request for our military and defense does not even keep pace with President Biden's inflation.

In addition, while Russia openly threatens its neighbors and China builds up its conventional and nuclear forces, there are reports that Democrats are considering unprecedented new constraints on America's own nuclear options through a ``no first use'' or ``sole purpose'' policy.

Our allies have strong concerns about this. I hope the Senate will use the NDAA process to demonstrate bipartisan support for finally modernizing our nuclear triad. That is the bedrock of deterrence and our strongest defense against these serious threats.

So, what about terrorism?

Following President Biden's Afghanistan disaster, we are facing new and growing threats there as well. The new Taliban government has made cabinet ministers out of terrorists whom the Obama-Biden administration let out of Guantanamo Bay. But the Biden-Harris administration still naively acted like these characters care one bit about international norms.

That is why Republicans have an amendment to ensure that none of the funding for Afghanistan aid can flow to the Taliban. It is an indictment of President Biden's policy that such an amendment is even necessary, but yet that is where we are.

In the Middle East, Iranian-backed terrorists are rampaging from Yemen to Iraq to Syria. They are emboldened as our deterrence has eroded. Given the multiple attacks on U.S. forces and facilities, we are fortunate more Americans haven't been killed. It may only be a matter of time before we see U.S. casualties at the hands of Iranian- backed terrorists.

However, in the wake of these growing threats, Democrats want to use the NDAA--a bill that should strengthen our national defense--as an occasion to weaken the authorities that support our military's presence and operational flexibility by repealing the 2002 AUMF. I expect a robust debate about that.

I am glad we will finally be able to have these debates and these votes. America needs a course correction, and the Senate needs to supply it.

The Economy

Madam President, on an entirely different matter, American families are

dealing with painful inflation every single day. They have been fighting this daily battle for months now.

A few months ago, a grandfather raising four grandkids in Missouri told reporters he had to cancel summer camp for his 8-year-old and his 6-year-old in order to keep affording diapers for their twin younger brothers.

One Maryland woman told the local news she had gone to the grocery store to buy meat for her family, but was turned away by the pricetag and had to leave with a $2 loaf of bread instead.

One man in Massachusetts, who cares for his elderly mother, told reporters that his 94-year-old mom needs the house kept warm, so they are getting absolutely crushed--crushed--by runaway heating costs. Here's what he had to say about it:

Before, you'd go to the store, and if you had a $100, you

could buy four bags of groceries and be happy. Now you are

lucky to get a bag. Milk, orange juice, eggs. Plus the oil

for the house, the water bills. It's just crazy. It's so much

money. How is someone supposed to survive?

This persistent and painful inflation has been directly fueled by the reckless spending spree that Democrats rammed through in March. Even if Washington Democrats didn't inflict more new damage, economists still say ``we're going to see inflation get worse before it gets better.''

The Democratic leader said on March 12: ``I do not think the dangers of inflation, at least in the near-term, are very real.''

He was catastrophically wrong. And these same people want yet another multitrillion-dollar bite at the apple.

Look, American families know the spending part of Democrats' reckless tax-and-spending spree would spell disaster. Sixty-seven percent just told a survey that Washington should cut back on printing and spending because of inflation and rising costs.

And then there is the taxing part of their reckless taxing-and- spending spree. The bill that Democrats are writing behind closed doors would hike taxes on the American people by an estimated $1.5 trillion-- a trillion and a half dollars in tax increases.

Democrats have already turned a strong economy into a shaky economy. Now they want to add the biggest tax hikes in a generation. A huge chunk of that is hundreds of billions of dollars for tax hikes on American industries and employers, because the Biden administration has become enamored with a global scheme where countries around the world supposedly all agree to hike their tax rates together.

This is an awful idea. Remember, in 2019, Republican policies had set up the best economy for working Americans in a generation. This is in large part because we just cut taxes substantially. We made America a more attractive place to do business.

So President Biden wants to do just the opposite of that: thrust America into some kind of global noncompete agreement. We are supposed to promise Europe and Asia that we won't make America an especially attractive place to bring jobs and prosperity.

Let me say that again. We are in the process of promising Europe and Asia that we won't make America an especially attractive place to bring jobs and prosperity.

Look, it gets worse. President Biden and Secretary Yellen want America to leap over the cliff first, tax the heck out of American industries while we just wait and see if our competitors actually follow suit.

Well, you better believe China would be just thrilled to see the Democrats' bill drain hundreds of billions of dollars out of our own private sector as a symbolic gesture to the rest of the world.

Democrats' tax policies are just like their energy policies. They won't build back better. They will build back Beijing. They won't build back better. They will build back Beijing.

This is just one part of a $1.5 trillion job-killing tax hike. There are all kinds of tax increases that would hit major employers, Main Street small businesses, and American families. Nonpartisan experts have confirmed the Democrats' bill would completely break the President's promise not to raise ``a single penny more,'' he said, in taxes on middle-class households.

They even want to send tens of billions in extra funding to the IRS so they can hire an army of new agents to snoop and audit their way across the country. But less than 3 percent of the huge IRS windfall would fund better customer service for taxpayers.

Finally, in the midst of all these tax hikes, Democrats from New York, New Jersey, and California have managed to include--listen to this--a massive tax cut for wealthy people who choose to reside in high-tax blue States. This bonanza for blue State millionaires and billionaires would cost almost $300 billion on its own.

Even the Washington Post could only marvel at the audacity of this. Here's their headline: ``The second-biggest program in the Democrats' spending plan gives billions to the rich.'' That is the Washington Post's assessment of it.

In fact, even though Democrats want to hike taxes by $1.5 trillion, their bill still manages to give a net tax cut to 89 percent of people making between $500,000 and $1 million, and 69 percent of households making over $1 million.

This bears repeating. Even though Democrats want to hike taxes by $1.5 trillion, their bill still manages to give a net tax cut to 89 percent of people making between $500,000 and $1 million, and 69 percent of households making over $1 million.

All of this is a huge blow to American competitiveness: job-killing tax hikes. But Democrats make sure to look out for the ultrawealthy out on the coasts. A supermajority of them get tax cuts. I am almost impressed our colleagues have found a way to be this out of touch.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Madam President, a lot has gone wrong since this unified Democratic government took the reins back in January.

Let's take a look at foreign policy. The Biden administration's clumsy retreat from Afghanistan left Americans behind, who wanted out, and handed the country to a government staffed with terrorists that used to be locked up at Guantanamo Bay.

Let's take a look at energy independence. Or should I say energy dependence? President Biden canceled our own Keystone XL Pipeline but cleared the path for a new pipeline for Vladimir Putin. The amount of Russian oil that America has to import has already nearly doubled on the Democrats' watch.

Look at the border. Illegal crossers are flooding across our southern border at an all-time high. The Democrats have interior enforcement arrests down to a decade low.

But there is no question what crisis is at the top of the minds of middle-class Americans. There is no question what is keeping working Americans awake at night. It is inflation. Inflation. The runaway prices and unpredictability that Democrats' policies have fueled.

Ninety percent of Americans told one recent survey that they are somewhat or extremely concerned with inflation. We are a huge and diverse country. It is hard to get 9 in 10 Americans to agree on almost anything, but less than 1 year under Democrat policies, 90 percent of America is worried about inflation.

And it is no wonder. Year on year, consumer prices have risen faster than they have in over three decades. Last month marked the fifth month in a row that inflation has topped 5 percent.

These across-the-board numbers can sound a little abstract, so let's make it very tangible. In the past year, buying meat, fish, and eggs has gotten 12 percent more expensive. A gallon of gas costs the average American $1.31 than it did a year ago. And heaven forbid anyone having to replace a family car this year; used auto prices are up 26 percent.

Even getting family and friends together for Thanksgiving is a much pricier prospect than it was last year. Turkey alone is an extra 25 cents per pound. Factor in all the fixings, and some estimates project a feast next week will run families up to 15 percent more than it did last year.

For a while, the White House tried to downplay the problem. President Biden and his team told American families that costs weren't really rising as much as it seemed; or that, OK, costs were rising, but it would only last a few months; or, as some liberals argued, that if you remove food costs, housing costs, and transportation costs from the equation, inflation really wasn't all that bad.

Some have tried to argue that rampant inflation is actually a high- class problem to have because at least we aren't in a recession. I am not kidding. I guess they think working Americans should stop complaining and be grateful things aren't even worse.

But a sad irony is that inflation is exactly the opposite of a high- class problem. Inflation is like a huge, regressive tax hike that hits the middle class, the working class, and the poor far more than it hurts wealthy people.

The three biggest drivers of the staggering 6.2 percent inflation rate we

logged last month were housing, transportation, and food. These are not luxuries, they are essentials, and they take up a much bigger share of families' budgets from the middle class on down.

The Democrats' inflation is functioning like an ultrapunitive tax on American families who can least afford it--exactly the opposite of a ``high-class problem.''

It didn't have to be this way. The inflation spike wasn't just predictable; it was, in fact, predicted. This past spring, I warned my Democratic colleagues right here on the floor that their unbelievably expensive and poorly targeted spending bill that masqueraded as COVID relief would turn our strong economic recovery into an inflationary mess. Many of my Republican colleagues said the same thing. But Democrats didn't have to take our word for it; even their own favorite liberal economists, like President Clinton's Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and President Obama's CEA Chairman Jason Furman warned that liberal bill might supercharge inflation.

Now, our Democratic colleagues want to ram through another, even bigger, reckless taxing-and-spending spree that would make inflation even worse. Many of those same liberal economists support this new spending spree because of all the leftwing goodies that are packed into it, but even they largely admit--these who support this new leftwing proposal--even they admit the package would make inflation even worse next year.

Steven Rattner, a senior economic adviser to President Obama, just wrote in the New York Times that ``The original sin''--the original sin--``was the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. . . . That has contributed materially to today's inflation levels.'' He goes on to say that Democrats' new taxing-and-spending spree ``can be deemed `paid for' only if one embraces budget gimmicks, like assuming that some of the most important initiatives will be allowed to expire in just a few years. The result [is] a package that front-loads spending while tax revenues only arrive over [the course] of a decade.'' Mr. Rattner cites an outside estimate that ``the plan would likely add $800 billion or more to the deficit over the next five years, exacerbating inflationary pressures.''

Now, the person I just quoted is a former top adviser to President Obama--by definition a liberal Democrat--explaining that the Democrats' new proposal as currently constituted would make inflation worse-- worse. He says it is the Democrats' proposal itself that needs to be built back better.

President Biden and his party have already brought needless pain on American families with their reckless spending. Ramming through another multitrillion-dollar, partisan wish list would only compound the damage. The hard-working men and women of this country cannot afford to be guinea pigs in a socialist experiment where Democrats try to inflate their way out of inflation.

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

Mr. President, 2 weeks ago, President Biden and his team flew to Glasgow for a glitzy conference. World leaders traveled there to attend one another's speeches on carbon emissions and climate.

The world's largest emitter was not there. China pumps out more than one-quarter of the entire world's emissions, but President Xi didn't bother to attend this conference. Putin didn't show up either. He and his cronies in Moscow are too busy using Russia's natural gas to stranglehold the energy and make energy hostages out of our European friends who rushed too naively toward renewables.

This goes to the core problems with the anti-energy agenda that liberal elites want to thrust on our country--maximum self-inflected pain for American families in exchange for no meaningful global gains.

They would have America tie one hand behind our back while our competitors and adversaries keep right on going. This hurts families and helps China.

Across the country, working families are already worrying about the big, potentially historic spikes in energy costs and heating bills that are headed their way. Here is the New York Times headline from last week: ``Winter Heating Bills Loom as the Next Inflation Threat.''

Futures contracts for home heating fuels have skyrocketed in price. Natural gas users have just about doubled from last year. For heating oil and propane, it is actually even worse. Our colleagues on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee are holding a hearing this morning on rising heating costs.

In Kentucky, where about 4 in 10 households are heated by natural gas, families are about to get slammed. Even more Kentucky families rely on straight electricity for their heat, and, in our State, more than two-thirds of our electrical power comes from coal. Coal literally keeps the lights on, and it keeps the cold out.

That is why the original Obama-Biden War on Coal hits States like Kentucky so very hard and why the even more radical sequel the Democrats are planning next would fall on the heartland like a ton of bricks.

The President's special envoy for climate issues John Kerry says:

[Y]ou have to phase down coal before you can end coal.

One of the President's nominees to the Treasury Department has admitted that small producers of affordable American energy ``are going to probably go bankrupt in short order.''

American families are staring down the barrel of skyrocketing heating bills, and the Democrats' response is to go to war against affordable American energy. The reckless taxing-and-spending spree they are writing behind closed doors and want to pass in a matter of weeks would spend hundreds of billions of dollars on Green New Deal-type policies that would saddle families with even higher prices and make our Nation even more dependent on Russia and the Mideast.

Of course, energy inflation is just one part of the huge inflation crisis that Democrats have unleashed. According to reports in one new survey, 90 percent of Americans are either somewhat concerned or very concerned about inflation and rising costs. Nine out of ten households are hurting. Sixty-seven percent of the country, two-thirds, say Washington needs to stop printing and spending so much and driving prices even higher.

Energy bills and gas prices are just one corner of this inflation crisis, but Democrats seem to want to ignore the people, plow ahead, and spend trillions more.

Even liberal economists who like the Democrats' reckless taxing-and- spending spree because they agree with the far-left transformation admit it would make inflation even worse next year.

There is no part of our economy that can afford another massive dose of socialism, but Democrats are specifically targeting American energy to get hit especially hard. They are planning direct new taxes, new fees, and new regulatory mandates for energy producers. They want to make affordable, reliable energy artificially expensive to force Americans toward the less affordable, less reliable forms of energy that elite liberals would rather they use. It would hurt families badly; it would help China in a big way. That is because the Biden administration doesn't have any strategic plan to snap its fingers and turn our massive country into some green utopia overnight. They just want to throw boatloads of government money at things like solar panels and electric vehicles and hope it all works out. But China absolutely dominates the supply chains for lithium batteries, for solar panels, and for practically all the fashionable purchases into which Democrats want to dump all this money. In all likelihood, Democrats' supposedly green agenda would just provide a massive one-way gift to our adversary, the world's No. 1 emitter, the Chinese Communist Party.

This isn't Build Back Better; it is Build Back Beijing. Here is just one example: There is a raw material called polysilicon that is crucial for solar panels. According to the New York Times, more than 80 percent of the entire world's supply comes from China. About half of the world's supply comes from the Xinjiang Province, where China is brutalizing the Uighur minority with tactics that include forced labor.

There are other key resources, including critical minerals, where China has similar strangleholds. Here are some recent headlines:

``Lithium Shortage May Stall Electric Car Revolution and Embed China's Lead.''

``China's lithium companies are in an investment frenzy.''

Just like liberal policies are hostile to the American energy we produce here at home, they are also hostile to exploring for these critical minerals here at home. Their massive proposal is backed with anti-hard rock mining provisions that would make it even harder to stand up American supply chains for critical minerals.

So here is the bottom line: American families don't want Washington politicians waging a holy war on fossil fuels in the first place. They can't afford that nonsense. But it is even more absurd that Democrats' top-down schemes would just increase China's wealth and dominance all along the way. They don't have some smart master plan to invest in America's future. They have a plan to build back Beijing and raise American families' gas prices and heating bills even higher so that we could massively stimulate Chinese export markets. Hurt families; help China--every piece of their reckless policies fits this mold.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, last week, even more economic data continued to confirm that inflation is hammering working families all across America. In October, consumer prices saw their steepest spike in three decades, the worst inflation surge in more than 30 years.

When I was back home last week, I heard constantly from Kentuckians who have watched their gas prices and grocery prices literally soar. This is happening in every single State. Last month was the fifth straight month in which national consumer prices rose at least 5 percent.

The Democrats' inflation crisis has gotten so bad that Washington Democrats have stopped trying to pretend that it is just transitory and are starting to admit that it is on them to fix it. The same Democrats who spent months denying inflation was a lasting problem, the last people in America to wake up to this reality, are now convinced they are just the people to fix it.

But their supposed solutions are more of the same absurd policies that helped dig this hole in the first place. After months of mostly ignoring the problem, President Biden finally responded to last week's inflation data by insisting that ``reversing this trend is a top priority for me.''

But--surprise--the President's preferred solution just so happens to be the exact same reckless taxing-and-spending spree his administration has

been pushing, literally, for months now.

They cooked up this massive multitrillion-dollar spending spree back when they were saying inflation wasn't a major problem and it was still time to spend like crazy. But now, miraculously, that same spending binge happens to be their prescription to fight inflation.

Give me a break. This is just a sweeping socialist wish list in search of a justification. This is another megadose of the same radical recklessness that Republicans have warned against all along, that American families are already paying dearly for, as we speak.

But, so far, Democrats seem intent on grabbing the hot stove yet again, and its American families who stand to get burned.

Madam President, earlier today, our distinguished President pro tempore, the senior Senator from Vermont, announced he will conclude his incredible run of Senate service. Senator Leahy plans to retire at the end of next year, at the conclusion of his eighth term.

Senator Leahy has served Vermonters in the Senate for longer than anyone in the State's history. Of course, he has also become an all- star Senate institution in his own right. I think particularly of the opportunities I had to work with Senator Leahy when we were sharing leadership of the Appropriations Subcommittee for State and Foreign Operations.

It is hard to imagine the Senate without Pat and his lovely wife Marcelle. For now, I just want to salute our colleague on the occasion of his announcement and add my congratulations on his remarkable career thus far.

Mr. President, few sheriffs have accomplished as much, served as long, or helped as many as Sheriff Keith Cain of Daviess County, KY. After 48 years with the Daviess County Sheriff's Department, and 22 years as sheriff, Keith is retiring this year, leaving behind a breathtaking legacy of public service. Today, I recognize Sheriff Cain as a Kentucky hero whose record of service stands as an example for us all.

Sheriff Cain loves Daviess County and has spent his entire life working to protect and defend his fellow Kentuckians. He started his career in the Marines during the Vietnam war, showcasing the selflessness and sense of duty that would define the rest of his life. Upon returning to Kentucky, he joined the Daviess County Sheriff's Department, finding a home among his community's top law enforcement officers.

Fast forward nearly half a century, and it is clear that Sheriff Cain's dedication to his neighbors has not waned a bit since he first started his career. By pioneering new tactics and techniques, he has revolutionized law enforcement practices in Daviess County. As a graduate of both the National Sheriff's Institute and the FBI National Academy, Keith brought the technical know-how needed to beat any challenge that threatened his home community.

When the addiction crisis started in earnest in Western Kentucky, Sheriff Cain spearheaded Daviess County's rollout of Operation United Front, a program that helped combat the spread of illicit substances. He currently serves as the chair of the Drug Enforcement Committee of the National Sheriff's Association, using his expertise to help communities across the Nation. Keith is also a leader in law enforcement training and instruction. He served as the chair of the Kentucky Law Enforcement Council--the body responsible for all police training in the Commonwealth----and currently works at a local community college as a certified law enforcement instructor.

With nearly five decades of phenomenal public service under his belt, it is no surprise that Sheriff Cain has received numerous awards from law enforcement organizations all across the country. There are too many to list, but highlights include the Governor's Award for Outstanding Contribution to Kentucky Law Enforcement, the Kentucky Sheriff Association's Sheriff of the Year Award, and the National Sheriff's Association Sheriff of the Year Award. Keith has been recognized by organizations like the NAACP, the U.S. Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation, and the VFW. Needless to say, Daviess County will miss him dearly when he is gone.

While Sheriff Cain is retiring, I am confident we are not marking the end of his lifelong commitment to service. As the past half century has shown, Keith dedicated his entire life and career to care for his neighbors and community. While he will now have more time to spend with his wife Charlotte, son Jason, and granddaughters, Alexis and Alyssa, I am sure he will also remain an ever-present helping hand for Daviess County residents. On behalf of the Senate, I thank Sheriff Cain for his service and congratulate him on his well-earned retirement.

Mr. President, when President Lyle Roelofs joined Berea College in 2012, the school faced threats from many directions. It had fallen behind its peer institutions in infrastructure and student programming. Its endowment soon came under threat from partisan efforts that could have forced Berea to renege on its promise of providing a high-quality, tuition-free education to more than 1,600 students. But because of the work of President Roelofs, the school is now thriving like never before. Today, in light of President Roelofs's announcement that he will retire in 2023, I would like to pay tribute to one of the most generous and hard-working champions of higher education in Kentucky.

It is easy for outsiders to overlook Berea College. But nestled between the foothills of the Cumberland Mountains and the Bluegrass plains is one of the most significant institutions of higher learning in the entire United States. Founded by abolitionists before the Civil War, Berea College was the first racially integrated and coeducational college in the entire American South. Berea fostered inclusion and diversity at a time when it was difficult--even dangerous--to do so.

That grand history made the threats to Berea's tuition-free model even more worrisome. In many ways, the school embodies the unique values that make America special; it is an institution where anyone, of any background, has a chance to compete, learn new skills, and succeed. To some observers, though, Berea's work college system seemed outdated in an era when schools offer increasingly flashy amenities for ever- increasing tuition rates.

Roelofs, however, was firmly committed to Berea's foundational principles. He quickly got to work to defend the school's legacy and protect its students. Nearly a decade later, the fruits of his hard work are apparent. Berea has updated its residence halls, developed new educational programs, restored its surrounding forest ecosystem, and steadily climbed college ranking lists. Most importantly, Berea College is better equipped than ever to remain true to its tuition-free commitment.

I had the opportunity to get to know Lyle when we worked together to protect his school from an unintended tax penalty that arose when partisan lawmakers targeted the ability of schools like Berea to use the returns on their endowments to provide tuition-free education to low-income students. If these legislators had been successful, they would have forced Berea College to abandon its tuition-free promise and turn its back on its students, whose families make, on average, less than $30,000 per year. But because of the work of Berea College President Lyle Roelofs and his tireless advocacy efforts in Congress, we were able to work together to ward off these tax hikes and protect Berea College for years to come.

President Roelofs's leadership and care are astounding, and his commitment to Berea College is heroic. I know that each student who attends Berea is profoundly grateful for his work. On behalf of the Senate, I would like to congratulate President Roelofs on his well- earned retirement and thank him for his service to the Commonwealth of Kentucky.