Executive Session

Floor Speech

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Mr. THUNE. Madam President, Friday's announcement that the administration had reached an agreement to remove steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada and Mexico was great news for American consumers, producers, and workers. Mexican and Canadian retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products have already been lifted. That is a big deal for American producers, especially for farmers and ranchers, who were hit the hardest by Mexico and Canada's retaliatory tariffs.

Friday's agreement is also important because it removes a significant roadblock to passage of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement. With the aluminum and steel tariff settlement and labor reforms recently adopted by the Mexican Government, two major Democratic objections to passage of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement have been addressed. Now it is time for the House Democratic leadership to indicate its willingness to take up the agreement in the near future.

The U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement would boost almost every sector of the American economy, from automotive manufacturing, to digital services, to dairy farming. It would create 176,000 new jobs and increase wages for workers. It is time to take up this agreement. As I said, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free-trade agreement would be a boon for U.S. producers and U.S. workers.

This is the kind of stuff we should be spending our time on in Washington--measures that grow our economy, increase opportunity, and improve life for the American people. That is what Republicans have been working on. Our policies have helped produce the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years and more jobs and higher wages for workers.

Unfortunately, my colleagues across the aisle seem more interested in relitigating the 2016 election and accelerating their party's rapid move toward the radical fringe left.

While I realize the Democrats are disappointed with the results of the 2016 Presidential election, it is time for them to accept the fact that they lost. It has been more than 2 years now, and Democrats are still more focused on opposing this President than on getting things done for the American people.

When Democrats do get around to talking about legislation, too often, it is proposals from the radical fringe left, which is rapidly swallowing up the Democratic mainstream. Take the Green New Deal, the Democrats' plan for a government takeover of a large section of the economy in the name of clean energy. The estimated price tag for this government takeover is between $51 trillion and $93 trillion over 10 years. To put that number in perspective, $93 trillion is more money than the U.S. Government has spent in its entire history, and $93 trillion is more money than the 2017 gross domestic product of the entire world.

How do Democrats plan to pay for this? Well, they don't actually have a plan. Their usual ``tax the rich'' solution won't work since taxing every wealthy American at a 100-percent rate wouldn't come anywhere close to paying for the Green New Deal. Should the Green New Deal ever come to pass, working Americans would face massive tax hikes for the privilege of having government dictate the design of their house and the type of their car.

Then, of course, there is the Democrats' plan for a government takeover of the Nation's healthcare. Under so- called Medicare for All, the government would take away Americans' insurance choices and force everyone into a single one-size-fits-all, government-run plan and then tax Americans to pay for it.

Thanks to policies like tax reform, American families are doing better than they have been doing in a long time. They have been taking home more money. They have access to better jobs and more opportunities, and they are enjoying better wages and benefits. To most people, it would seem logical to continue and build on the policies that have gotten us here, but not to Democrats. Democrats want to overturn the policies that have gotten us to this point. Instead of tax cuts, they want tax hikes so they can implement their socialist fantasies. Instead of less government interference in Americans' lives, they want more. They think the government should be directing your healthcare choices, your housing choices, your energy choices, and much more. It is unfortunate that the Democratic Party is being swallowed by its extreme left wing.

Republicans are going to do everything we can to protect Americans from Democrats' socialist fantasies and to continue to expand the choices and the opportunities available to American families.

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