Floor Statements

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I will begin this morning where I began on Monday, talking about National Police Week. Yesterday, I got to welcome members of Kentucky's Fraternal Order of Police here to my office. I was glad for the chance to share my gratitude for their service and hear what was on their minds.

Tragically, the past year's fallen officers, whom we will be memorializing this week, includes one of Kentucky's own. In early 2020, Detective James Kirk of the Stanton Police Department suddenly passed away from a heart attack in the wake of struggling with an armed subject. He was only 40 years old.

By all accounts, during James's nearly 20 years of service, he became a model officer. He even served as police chief of a nearby department. His colleagues remembered his easygoing, friendly nature and his total professionalism.

As our Nation honors this brave Kentuckian, we continue to hold his wife Brandy, their family, and the entire Stanton Police Department in our prayers. Later today, Detective Kirk will join the ranks of heroes enshrined on the National Law Enforcement Memorial.

We are also honoring our colleagues here in the Capitol this week, the U.S. Capitol Police. On Peace Officers Memorial Day this Saturday, we will especially remember Officers Evans, Sicknick, and Liebengood, all taken too soon.

Their sacrifices are a sharp reminder: Standing with law enforcement isn't something we can do only 1 week every year; we need to back the blue all year round.

Mr. President, on an entirely different matter, while Senators were back in our home States last week, the Washington Post ran this headline: ``Chinese greenhouse gas emissions now larger than those of developed countries combined.'' Let me say that again. ``Chinese greenhouse gas emissions now larger than those of developed countries combined.''

China is out-emitting the United States, India, and the entire European Union combined. They are now responsible for more than one- fourth of the entire world's emissions. Beijing admits they aren't even planning for their emissions to start declining for another decade.

It is a clear reality check: No matter how much self-inflicted pain the far left might want to impose on American workers and families, it would barely make any dent in the global calculus. Remember, with the United States outside the Paris Agreement, our emissions fell on our own even as our economy grew. Meanwhile, countries inside the deal, like China, have kept roaring right on by.

Strangely, this didn't stop the Biden administration from rushing to rejoin the failed deal. This is just one of the ways in which American competitiveness has recently seemed to take a back seat.

This White House canceled a pipeline project that would have increased energy security and supported thousands of American jobs. They froze exploration of domestic resources that helped our Nation become a net energy exporter for the first time since the 1950s.

After we just spent 4 years beginning to rebuild and modernize our national defense, this administration indicated they will propose to cut defense spending after inflation--fewer resources for our troops, fewer tools to keep pace with China. They want to play year-to-

year games while our adversaries and competitors plan years and decades in advance.

As former Defense Secretary Bob Gates put it in an interview this week, cutting spending on our military would be ``a terrible mistake.'' That is President Obama's Defense Secretary, Bob Gates.

There could not be a more dangerous approach for the United States-- shortchanging the Pentagon and making America less competitive.

The first draft of the so-called jobs bill that the White House put forward would play into the same dangerous dynamic. I am talking about the multitrillion-dollar proposal that spends less than 6 percent--less than 6 percent--on roads and bridges, the plan that Ivy League economists say would cost hundreds of billions of dollars more than the White House says; push American workers' wages down; and somehow manage to shrink our economy despite taxing, borrowing, and spending trillions more dollars. That is not a plan to make America stronger and more competitive; it is a plan to pile up debt to leave us even weaker. It would be better news for Beijing than for our own citizens.

That is the bad news. The good news is that the Senate can do better. This body has long tackled real infrastructure on a commonsense, bipartisan basis and ended up with bills that passed by big, lopsided, bipartisan votes. That is what we Republicans are prepared to do again. That is the path I discussed with President Biden at the White House just yesterday. It was a good meeting. That is the road that the practical proposal from Senator Capito and a number of my fellow Republican Senators would begin to take us down.

If our Democratic friends are finally ready to reach across the aisle and work together to locate common ground, I am hopeful we can do a lot of good for the country and compete with China for real

On one final matter, the attacks being directed at innocent Israeli citizens are coming from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic jihad. Both these terrorist groups receive support from Iran.

The regime in Tehran is the most active state sponsor of terrorism in the entire world. The regime supports Shia terrorists, Sunni terrorists, and secular terrorists.

Many of the rockets now raining down on Israel cities are gifts from Iran, technologies of terror honed by Iran's proxies in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon.

Days ago, the U.S. Navy seized weapons on a vessel that appears to have been dispatched from Iran bound for Yemen to fuel the violent Houthi terrorists, in violation of the U.N. embargo. Just last night, the Houthis again fired missiles against Saudi Arabia.

Public reporting suggests Iran's proxies, on top of assassinating Iraqi protesters, are stepping up attacks on the U.S. and coalition presence in Iraq as well. Iran is emboldened by our retreat from Afghanistan. They are eager to challenge an administration that appears desperate to return to a failed deal.

What former Defense Secretary Bob Gates said this week about weakness inviting challenge from China and Russia applies to Iran as well.

The answer is not accommodation; it is America's strength. But reportedly, this administration is considering preemptive concessions-- a huge rollback of sanctions, squandering our leverage, just to leap back into a failed nuclear deal. I sincerely hope these reports prove to be wrong.

It is difficult to believe an American President would consider removing terrorism- or missile-related sanctions at the very moment Iranian rockets are raining down on Israel, Iranian-backed militia are attacking American facilities in Iraq, and Iranian missiles are being trained on Saudi Arabia.

I cannot understand why the administration is considering any sanctions relief to induce Tehran back into the Obama deal in the first place. It would be total malpractice to squander our leverage just to jump back into a flawed deal. That kind of preemptive capitulation would make negotiating a better deal much, much more difficult.

Iran's own Foreign Minister has lamented that the terror masterminds of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps basically run the country. So what on Earth does our administration think the successors of Soleimani would do with another influx of cash?

If the administration will stay smart, stay tough, and work toward a better deal that truly halts Iran's nuclear and missile programs, as well as a strategy to confront Iranian terrorism, then the President will find support and partnership from the Republican side. But if the administration chooses policies that leave America weaker and the world more dangerous, Republicans will stand up for the right course.

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

Mr. President, a one-party takeover of our political system--that is what Senate Democrats brought to the Rules Committee just yesterday, their side's top priority for multiple years now.

The supposed rationales for the bill continue to change. A few years ago, when majorities of Democrats were mistakenly convinced that foreigners had hacked voting machines and tampered with tallies in 2016, this was marketed as an election security bill. But it keeps morphing to suit new headlines. Lately, it has been called a racial justice bill. Some Senators say it is really a response to some recent State-level legislation, even though their bill predates those bills by multiple years.

A partisan power grab in search of a justification--that is what we have here. Voter turnout last November was the highest in decades. African-American turnout was twice as high in Mississippi as it was in Massachusetts. Democrats' hysterical attacks against the new election law in the State of Georgia have been dismantled even by typically left-leaning fact checkers.

There is no crisis. Our Democratic friends just want the power to rewire our democracy on a partisan basis. S. 1 would take the Federal Election Commission--the bipartisan panel that regulates elections and private citizens' speech--and make it a partisan body run by the Democrats.

It would let Washington Democrats act like a nationwide board of elections on steroids, neutering popular things like voter ID and forcing legalized ballot harvesting onto all 50 States. This bill would let bureaucrats snoop around more in free speech; attack citizens' privacy so dramatically that even the liberal ACLU is unhappy; and even send public funds--get this: public funds--directly to politicians.

Republicans put forward amendments to fix those things. If Democrats had wanted real, bipartisan solutions, Republicans were there, right at the table, and ready, but Democrats voted us down. They wouldn't even let us redirect any of that public money to the opioid crisis. They wanted that cash for their own campaigns.

This partisan power grab failed to advance out of committee for the same reason it must never ever become law as currently written. It will shatter public confidence in our democracy if the Democratic Party decides it can rig the rules

Mr. President, now on a different matter, yet again, air raid sirens have been sounding in Israel. Israeli civilians have been huddling in basements, shelters, and hospital stairwells. Hamas rocket attacks are lighting up the skies, hitting buildings, and terrorizing, injuring, and killing innocent people. Of course, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic jihad receive significant support from Iran.

Fortunately, a remarkable percentage of the incoming rockets have been intercepted in midair by Israel's Iron Dome system. Americans should take some pride of our own in defending our friends with these high-tech defenses, which we have helped Israel bring online and have advanced our own joint missile defense efforts at the same time. Missile defense is expensive but vital. It is yet another reason I am concerned with this administration's intention to underfund defense.

Whatever complaints Palestinians have with Israel's Government, wanton violence against civilians is completely and totally inexcusable. This is barbaric terrorism, not a legitimate protest; nor is it legitimate for Israel's obsessive critics to suggest any equivalency whatsoever between these inexcusable attacks and Israel's measured and quite targeted response against terrorists.

Yesterday here in Washington, street protesters screamed--listen to this--``Israel is a terrorist state.'' On the streets of Washington, they screamed: ``Israel is a terrorist state.'' Some Democratic Members of Congress echoed that rhetoric almost exactly.

Look, the State of Israel has every right of self-defense. Its national security leaders have continued to display restraint and invest so much in precision and avoiding civilian casualties. That has been the approach of the Israeli Government.

Israel must know that their friends and allies here in the United States stand with them as they seek to restore deterrence, that we support their right to peace and security, and that we will not relax our efforts to hold terrorists and terrorists' supporters to account.

Now one final matter, Mr. President. This morning, I will be joining three other congressional leaders to meet with President Biden at the White House. There is certainly no shortage of important business to discuss.

The President campaigned on a promise that his agenda would unite a divided nation. And he inherited a favorable situation. Vaccines were flooding America. Science had proven schools can reopen. Job openings were beginning to pile up.

Republicans sought to continue the 2020 bipartisan streak on COVID relief, but our new President and our Democratic colleagues preferred a one-party approach. They used the end of the pandemic to pass what the President's own staff admitted--admitted--was ``the most progressive bill in American history.'' Not exactly shopping for consensus.

Republicans were upfront with our concerns. We said these old liberal ideas would slow rehiring, slow down the reopening, and stoke inflation. Of course, just a few minutes ago, the Bureau of Labor Statistics published the most dramatic monthly inflation report in more than a decade. Many of the things American families buy have grown more expensive at a dizzying pace. Last week's incredibly disappointing jobs report showed what happens when Washington taxes working people to pay other people more to stay home.

I am going to discuss these and other concerns with the President today, but I also hope we can begin to come together on pressing issues that should actually unite us.

The last time Congress took comprehensive action on surface transportation infrastructure, 83 Senators signed on. By the way, that bill was produced by Senator Boxer, myself, and Senator Inhofe--a totally bipartisan effort across broad ideological lines. The last time we drilled down on water resources, the margin was 92 to 6. Infrastructure can and should be a bipartisan issue; the same for supporting working families; the same for supporting our national defense.

If the President can remember that he promised to govern for all Americans, not just the far left, if my Democratic friends can remember they have just a 50-50 Senate and a closely divided House--not exactly a sweeping mandate for a socialist agenda--there is much we can deliver together for the country.

I hope today marks the start of a new course correction from this White House and a more successful dialogue across party lines. That is what Americans need, and that is what they deserve.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Madam President, like all of my colleagues, I spent last week traveling my home State. I spoke with Kentuckians about where we have come over the past 15 months, where we are today, and the bright future we should have ahead.

More than 1.8 million Kentuckians have received COVID vaccines. These medical miracles were created in record time by genius scientists plus Operation Warp Speed. And they are proving the pathway back to normalcy that we had hoped for.

I was happy to get to visit the Baptist Health Hardin Memorial Hospital in Elizabethtown to hear about their vaccination program and to thank the staff for all of their work.

We should be on track for a fantastic American comeback summer, full steam ahead. From vaccinations to job growth, the new Biden administration inherited favorable trends in every direction, thanks to the five bipartisan rescue packages that Congress passed just last year.

But in several important ways, the decisions of elected Democrats have contributed to slowing the return to normalcy. We have seen some State and local officials bow to Big Labor and soft-pedal the clear science on school reopenings. And the big bill that Washington Democrats pushed through a couple of months ago did not require schools to reopen in order to receive even more extra funding.

The President and his team keep sending mixed messages about gatherings and wearing masks that sometimes break from their own CDC's guidance for vaccinated Americans. Again, there almost seems to be some reluctance to let go of emergency measures, even to the point of clashing with science.

And what about our economic recovery? Back in March, Democrats rammed through their so-called American Rescue Plan with a $2 trillion partisan spending spree. It is packed with policies that seem designed for March 2020, not March 2021; for example: continuing to use taxpayer dollars to pay a special bonus for unemployed people to stay home rather than filling one of the growing number of job openings around the country.

Republicans had this crazy idea that with vaccines flooding the country, with COVID-19 in retreat, it was time

to actually reopen our country instead of spending even more of working families' tax dollars to keep things shut down.

Well, a few days ago, experts were stunned by a monthly jobs report for April that came in way below expectations. It was the first full month of data collected after the Democrats passed their so-called rescue plan. This bill they sold as a fast-acting, urgent, emergency measure that was going to bolster our economy right away. This report was expected to show that more than a million American workers had gotten jobs back in the month of April. Instead, we added about one- fourth that many jobs.

Now, I had just spent the prior week talking with Kentuckians. I spoke with workers and employers at nearly every size of business from just about every kind of industry, all across the spectrum. And from big national companies to local chambers of commerce, to businesses like Manchester Tank in Campbellsville, we heard optimism but also real concerns--concerns about inflation and runaway costs, concerns about backed-up supply chains.

And as Washington pays workers a bonus to stay unemployed, virtually everyone discussed very real concerns about their difficulties in finding workers who are willing to come back and fill these open positions. Almost every employer I spoke with specifically mentioned the extra generous jobless benefits as a key force holding back our recovery.

Now, I have heard some Democrats say that whatever incentives Washington creates, the responsibility really falls on workers. But my friends on the other side can't use the American people to shield their own bad ideas from scrutiny. Policy matters. Incentives matter.

It is May of 2021. Vaccines are available nationwide. There are millions of jobs open, ``Help Wanted'' signs from coast to coast. We should not still be taxing the Americans who are working to fund continued extra benefits for those staying home.

It is not March of 2020 anymore. It is May of 2021. Kentuckians and all Americans need our Democratic friends to govern accordingly.

Madam President, on another matter, yesterday marked the beginning of National Police Week. Under normal circumstance, we would be welcoming police officers across the country here to Washington to share experiences and commemorate brothers and sisters who have fallen in the line of duty.

This year, I understand many of the in-person gatherings have been postponed until this autumn. But we are still remembering our law enforcement officers as we prepare for Police Officers Memorial Day on May 15.

The past year has seen the difficult job of law enforcement become even harder. They have battled the challenges of the historic pandemic. In many places, they have grappled with increased violent crime rates and unrest. And following terrible incidents this past year, the majority of brave and honorable law enforcement officers have too often found themselves painted unfairly with a broad brush, as though their entire profession should be defined by the worst examples.

This year's remembrances will be especially somber here at the Capitol, where we are still mourning Officers Billy Evans, Howie Liebengood, and Brian Sicknick, whom we have lost in a matter of months.

I hope police officers throughout our country, from the Capitol to Kentucky and all 50 States, know how very grateful we are for their courage and for their service.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, the Bluegrass State is home to many heroes. For centuries, brave Kentuckians have proudly worn the uniform to defend our country and our way of life. Earlier this month, we said goodbye to one of these remarkable individuals. Ernie West, of Greenup County, was recognized in 1954 for his courage in the Korean war with our country's top military recognition, the Medal of Honor. He inspired those who knew him and became an example of our Commonwealth's highest ideals. Today, I would like to join Ernie's admirers in paying tribute to his incredible life and offering condolences to his family.

For Ernie, who came from humble beginnings in a children's home, putting his fellow soldiers' safety before his own was practically second nature. During a patrol, his squad was ambushed by North Korean fighters. Ernie sprang into action, braving enemy grenades and intense fire to carry three wounded comrades to safety. As he did, the young private suffered serious wounds, including taking shrapnel that eventually cost him his eye.

After the war, President Dwight D. Eisenhower presented Ernie with the Medal of Honor in recognition of his valor and selfless sacrifice. Ernie never considered himself a hero and almost refused to accept the medal. He believed everyone who served with him was deserving of the same honor. In the years that followed, Ernie became a proud example of service to a cause larger than oneself. Kentucky was grateful to have this hero among us for so many years, and we will all miss him.

Mr. President, the Daily Independent in nearby Ashland paid tribute to Ernie West and his heroism. I ask unanimous consent the article be printed in the Record.

Madam President, last night, President Biden delivered his first address to a joint session of Congress, and today marks his 100th day in office.

President Biden is a likeable person. Many of us remember serving with him in this Chamber. But while the tone of his remarks were understated, the content was anything but. He talked at length about competing with China without mentioning that he wants to cut U.S. defense spending after inflation. Exactly what we cannot do if we want to keep pace.

He talked about immigration without taking any responsibility for the border crisis that has his administration packing unaccompanied children into facilities and releasing arrivals into our country.

And the President talked about unity and togetherness while reading off a multitrillion-dollar shopping list that was neither designed nor intended to earn bipartisan buy-in, a blueprint for giving Washington even more money and even more power to micromanage American families and build the country liberal elites want instead of the future Americans want.

Think back to the start of this administration. Remember its day one priorities: axing a pipeline project that would have supported thousands of jobs; freezing the exploration behind America's energy independence; and re-signing the climate agreement that has gotten less emissions reduction out of China, which is inside the deal, than the United States achieved on our own, outside the deal.

The approach has remained equally radical since. Even after the CDC's own experts showed months ago that schools are safe, the administration's partisan COVID bill threw money at districts without requiring prompt reopenings.

As a humanitarian crisis mounts at the southern border, the President's team has offered mixed messaging and ineffectiveness.

While Iran keeps ramping up nuclear rhetoric and financing terror across the Middle East, this White House keeps downplaying the Iranian terror. And they appear eager to squander sanctions leverage just to climb back into a failed deal from back in the Obama era.

And again, as Russia and China fast-track military modernization, President Biden turned in a defense spending proposal that would put U.S. forces behind the curve.

That was the backdrop for last night's speech. But instead of practical plans to fulfill these basic responsibilities, America heard a lengthy liberal daydream. We heard about the so-called jobs plan packed with punitive tax hikes at exactly the time our Nation needs a recovery. Ivy League experts say that it would actually leave American workers with lower wages at the end of the day.

We heard about the so-called family plan, another gigantic tax-and- spend colossus. Instead of empowering all kinds of families with flexibility, this one would just subsidize specific paths that Democrats deem best so Washington can call the shots from early childhood through college graduation.

But wait. There was more. There was hostility toward the Second Amendment rights of American citizens. There was support for Democrats' sweeping election takeover bill that would neuter voter ID in all 50 States--oh--and, by the way, make the Federal Election Commission a partisan body--oh--and legalize ballot harvesting, where paid political operatives can show up carrying stacks, stacks of other people's ballots.

Here is the bottom line. Recall that more than a year ago, at the outset of the pandemic, a top House Democrat said this crisis provided the left ``a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision.'' Well, last night, President Biden said much the same: that his administration intends to turn ``crisis into opportunity.''

The far left certainly gets the message. Some of the most liberal Members of Congress have gone out of their way to say they are surprised and delighted--delighted--by the President's willingness to do things their way.

Even a neutral wire report explained yesterday that the Biden agenda seeks to ``fundamentally transform and expand government's role in the lives of everyday Americans.''

Let me say that again. A neutral wire report explained yesterday that the Biden agenda seeks to ``fundamentally transform and expand government's role in the lives of everyday Americans.''

It is an attempt to continue dragging a divided country farther and faster to the left. This administration wants to jack up taxes in order to nudge families toward the kinds of jobs Democrats want them to have, in the kinds of industries Democrats want to exist, with the kinds of cars Democrats want them to drive, using the kinds of childcare arrangements that Democrats want them to pursue. These plans aren't about creating options and flexibility for Americans; they are about imposing a vision.

Instead of encouraging work and rewarding work and helping connect more Americans with opportunities to work and build their lives, this administration is working overtime to break the link--the link--between work and income. They want to break the link between work and income.

Outside observers across the political spectrum agree these Democrats are unlearning the commonsense, pro-work lessons of bipartisan welfare reform from back in the nineties.

This isn't what the American people voted for. This country just elected a 50-50 Senate, a very closely divided House, and a President who talked a big game about cutting deals, bringing people together, and building bridges. But even on subjects as historically bipartisan as pandemic relief, voting rights, and infrastructure, our Democratic friends have become addicted to divide-and-conquer.

As our distinguished colleague Senator Tim Scott put it last night:

They won't even build bridges . . . to build bridges.

It doesn't have to be this way. Republicans support actually competing with China. Republicans support actually helping working families. Republicans support actual infrastructure. Ranking Member Capito and a number of our leading Republican colleagues have rolled out a multi-hundred-billion-dollar targeted infrastructure proposal. Today, in fact, the Senate is set to pass bipartisan legislation to help States and localities to provide clean and safe drinking water.

Our President will not secure a lasting legacy through go-it-alone radicalism. He won't get much done that way. It won't be good for the country. And whatever the Democrats do get done through partisan brute force will be fragile. The American people need us to find common ground and to move this country forward, and they would like for us to do it together.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. Res. 189, submitted earlier today.

I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.

Madam President, one family in Southcentral Kentucky has waited more than 70 years to give their hero a proper tribute. Last year, the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, DPAA, identified the remains of Navy Seaman 2nd Class Howard ``Scott'' Magers from Barren County. Over Memorial Day weekend, a grateful nation will honor this Kentuckian's sacrifice as he finally comes home. I would like to take a moment today to add my personal gratitude for Scott's service and his family's sacrifice.

Those who knew Scott remembered a soft-spoken young man with a kind heart and a winning smile. In January 1941, he enlisted in the Navy at the age of 17. Like millions of other men and women of the ``greatest generation,'' Scott put his own ambitions on pause to defend the country he loved. After completing his training and making one trip home to Kentucky before his 18th birthday, Scott was stationed aboard the USS Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

On that Sunday morning, the Japanese forces rained bombs down on unsuspecting American sailors. Torpedoes pummeled the Oklahoma, tearing open her hull and igniting an inferno inside. Within minutes, the massive ship capsized, and more than 400 of its crew plunged into the water below.

In the chaos, more than 2,400 American servicemembers lost their lives. The tragic events of that morning elicited a forceful response as the United States entered the Second World War. Over the next 4 years, heroes were forged on the battlefield and at home as our country defeated the forces of tyranny in defense of the American way of life.

Like thousands of families, the Magers could only wonder and pray over Scott's fate. Although he would never make it home, he had sent a telegraph before the bombing to his loved ones in Kentucky. In a message delivered on Christmas Eve, Scott shared his love and his holiday cheer. His loved ones held tight to this last compassionate connection to Scott that reflected his best qualities.

In the following years, the Navy attempted to identify the remains of those killed on the Oklahoma. Unfortunately, the vast majority couldn't be accounted for and were buried together in 46 plots at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl.

In 2015, the DPAA exhumed the USS Oklahoma Unknowns. Using DNA as dental, and other identifying records, they were finally able to identify Scott's remains and give his family the opportunity for proper burial in Kentucky.

Over 1,300 Kentucky servicemembers remain unaccounted for by the DPAA. We have never forgotten these patriots, and we will continue searching to bring them home. I am grateful for the ongoing efforts of the DPAA to bring closure to more families like this one.

On behalf of my Senate colleagues, I would like to send our sincere condolences to Scott's family and express our thanks for his brave service to our Nation. We are proud this Kentucky hero will receive the honor he earned.

Mr. President, tonight President Biden will deliver his first address to a joint session of Congress. I will be there, and, like my fellow Kentuckians watching at home, I will be curious to hear how President Biden tries to square his rhetoric with the administration's actions over the past 100 days.

Back in January, many Americans hoped they could take the incoming President at his word. After a year spent beating back a historic pandemic

and grappling with civil unrest, President Biden pledged he would be ``a President for all Americans,'' with plans to ``repair,'' ``restore,'' and ``heal.''

The American people elected a 50-50 Senate, a closely divided House, and a President who preached moderation. He promised that his whole soul was committed to uniting our people. Many hoped his administration would reflect that promise, but the first 100 days have left much to be desired.

Over a few short months, the Biden administration seems to have given up on selling actual unity in favor of catnip for their liberal base, covered with a hefty coat of false advertising.

That is how the so-called American Rescue Plan, a grab-bag spending bill that directed less than 10 percent to vaccines and pandemic healthcare, was marketed as a COVID-19 relief measure. In actuality, it sent sums of money to State governments whose revenues had already rebounded and declared war on the formerly bipartisan consensus that welfare spending should actually be linked to work.

Or take H.R. 1, the sweeping effort by Democrats to mount a partisan takeover of all 50 States' voting laws, along with the Federal Election Commission for good measure. After a Republican won the White House in 2016, this was billed as a massive overhaul for a broken democracy. Now a nearly identical plan is, instead, being marketed as a modest dose of preventive maintenance. It is still the same takeover it has always been.

And now we have the American Jobs Plan, another multitrillion-dollar smorgasbord of liberal social engineering that would decimate entire industries and spend only a small fraction on roads and bridges. It is being sold as a serious effort to rebuild our Nation's infrastructure. It is pretty brazen misdirection.

At both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, Democrats have chosen to live in an alternate universe where both the campaign promises they made and the mandate the American people delivered were actually completely different than what happened right here on planet Earth.

Unfortunately, the real-life effects of this false advertising campaign have come thick and fast: pain and uncertainty at home and dwindling leverage and virtue-signaling abroad

First came mixed messages on the status of the pandemic. Existing vaccine distribution efforts surpassed President Biden's supposedly ambitious daily target on the day he was sworn in.

When their own top health officials accidentally let slip the hard science on school reopenings, the administration bowed to Big Labor and walked back their comments.

And the President continues to issue directives that are strangely out of step with the science, like his big announcement several weeks ago that, if citizens behave themselves--behave themselves--he would actually permit them to enjoy small outdoor gatherings on July 4th that the CDC guidance already said would be safe right now.

Then there is the environmental policy. On day one, President Biden rushed to cancel a pipeline project that would have employed thousands of Americans and freeze permitting for more safe, reliable domestic energy. He also announced an urgent return to an Obama-era deal that has proven unable to curb the signatories' carbon emissions and unnecessary for the United States to reduce our own.

Why would he do that? Because the far left demanded it. In fact, the most radical liberals in Congress have taken credit for the input of their Green New Deal manifesto over this President's new agenda.

Meanwhile, Democrats have decidedly avoided taking ownership of the results of their own campaign rhetoric on immigration. Reckless mixed messaging has come home to roost in the form of a humanitarian and security crisis on our southern border. Soaring numbers of migrants are arriving, some wearing Biden campaign shirts, convinced, as one put it, that ``Biden promised us that everything was going to change.'' Among them are record numbers of unaccompanied children, cramped into overflow facilities, who have become the tragic face of this story. Yet through it all, the White House's foremost concern seems to have been to avoid calling this what it is: a crisis.

And while broken immigration policy threatens security at our borders, a dangerously misguided foreign policy threatens our safety and standing overseas. Years of carefully assembled multilateral sanctions had created an economic straitjacket around Iran's terrorist state. But in its haste to turn the clocks back to the Obama era, President Biden's negotiators have offered to give up massive portions of this leverage just to get Iran back to a failed nuclear deal.

Further east, American forces have been ordered to make a hasty, total withdrawal from Afghanistan; to leave coalition partners and vulnerable Afghans high and dry, especially women and girls; to pave the way for Taliban rule; and to enable an al-Qaida resurgence that could again threaten our homeland.

And while national security experts are nearly unanimous in urging the administration to focus on competition with Russia and China, the White House has proposed to cut defense spending after inflation and put our Armed Forces on the back foot--ignoring the facts, passing the buck, and squandering leverage.

This is not what the American people bargained for, and they know it doesn't have to be this way. Past Presidents and Congresses have found ways to work effectively to make lasting and bipartisan progress on important issues. For example, when we have crafted smart policies to improve actual infrastructure, big bipartisan majorities have signed on.

Just last year, when we worked across the aisle on targeted rescue packages to help American families weather a once-in-a-century pandemic, not one--not one--of the five bills we passed last year earned fewer than 90 votes right here in the Senate. This year, the story has been different.

Behind President Biden's familiar face, it is like the most radical Washington Democrats have been handed the keys, and they are trying to speed as far left as they can possibly go before American voters ask for the car back.

But it is not too late. This White House can shake off its daydreams of a sweeping socialist legacy that will never happen in the United States. They can recommit to solving our Nation's actual problems, to fostering consensus instead of deepening our divide.

That is what the American people want and what they deserve, not an administration that chooses to govern like it owes everything-- everything--to the radical left.