The Economy
Floor Speech
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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, our Democratic colleagues have begun to lay out the groundwork for a partisan reconciliation bill totaling $3.5 trillion--what used to be an absolutely astonishing amount of money.
We don't have many details about how that money could be spent, but based on everything we have heard from President Biden and our Democratic colleagues over recent months, there are some safe assumptions: Medicare expansion, Green New Deal-era climate initiatives, and a range of free programs that we know aren't free at all--college, childcare; you name it.
To pay for these runaway spending habits, our Democratic colleagues will lean on job-killing tax increases and excessive borrowing from future generations. As a reminder, this is only one-half of the dual- track strategy they are pushing this month. The other half is more than $1 trillion worth of infrastructure.
And I would note that while there is strong bipartisan support for an infrastructure bill, that the Democratic leader is apparently intending to file for cloture on a motion to proceed to a bill that hasn't even been written yet, much less had a Congressional Budget Office score to see whether the pay-fors are meaningful or phony.
As I see it, our friends on the other side have made it even more difficult to convince our colleagues, let alone the American people, that this type of spending is necessary. After all, they have already developed a spotty record this year. At a time when our debts were piling up, they added up even more unnecessary spending.
Back in March, Democrats spent nearly $2 trillion without the support of a single Republican. They claimed this was all in the name of COVID- 19 relief, even though less than 10 percent directly supported our pandemic response. The rest was a grab bag of irresponsible spending.
One case in point is the blue State bailout. Democrats spent $350 billion more in aid to State and local governments, many of which were not even facing any sort of budget shortfalls. Democrats said the jobs of everybody from police officers to teachers would be in jeopardy without this funding.
Republicans offered that this huge sum of funding wasn't needed since many States were not operating in the red. Even liberal economists and nonpartisan groups, like the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, agreed.
But as the old saying goes, time tells all. And it didn't take much time for us to see how completely unnecessary this $350 billion payout was. Take California as an example. California has more than $100 billion budget surplus. That is with a capital ``B.'' Governor Newsom is using that money to dole out stimulus checks and provide medical coverage for undocumented immigrants.
New Jersey has had so much extra cash lying around that it has made its first full payment into the State's pension system in more than 25 years. But they didn't stop there. It exceeded that payment by more than half a billion dollars.
This was exactly the kind of reckless spending of supposed COVID-19 dollars borrowed against future generations that we advocated against because we saw a tidal wave of funding going to States that were not even operating in the red.
One recent POLITICO article read:
State Faced Financial Ruin. Now they're swimming in cash.
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board asked: ``Didn't States Say They Were Broke?''
At a time when our spending already mirrored wartime expenses, Democrats handed States piles of cash to erase debts and add to rainy- day funds, not to provide for COVID-19 relief.
This money could have been used to invest in our roads and bridges, to have credible pay-fors for the bipartisan infrastructure bill that is currently being considered, or to increase broadband access in rural communities, or to support the response to the immigrant crisis occurring on our southern border, or a number of other priorities.
But rather than repurposing the surplus funds from the first spending bonanza, our Democratic colleagues are trying to double down on reckless spending, more irresponsible borrowing, more unnecessary spending, and more burdensome taxes. This multitrillion-dollar spending spree comes at a time that is already an unstable one for our economy.
Last month, inflation hit a 13-year high. And average prices are up 5.4 percent over the last year. Now, this is what happens when so much money starts chasing limited goods and services. The price of those goods and services goes up. That is what helps to cause inflation. And consumers are the ones feeling the sting of rising prices for virtually everything they buy.
Fruits and vegetables are up 3.2 percent; electricity is up 3.8 percent; and dining-out costs are up 4.2 percent over a year ago. For families operating on a budget, unlike the Federal Government that can simply print money and borrow more money and impose that burden on future generations--for families operating on a budget, especially those who battled job losses and other tough financial circumstances during the pandemic, those dollars and those expenses add up awfully quick.
And those account for only a few of the price increases that families are facing. For example, if you want to purchase a washer or dryer for your home, you are going to be met with some pretty serious sticker shock. Prices are up 26 percent over last year.
For folks hitting the road for maybe a little time off during the summertime or maybe even just commuting back and forth to work will have to budget quite a bit more for the gasoline necessary to get them there. They are paying 45 percent more at the pump than they did just 1 year ago
And anyone heading to the used-car lot is bound for a big surprise. Over the last 12 months, used-car prices are up an eye-popping 45.2 percent. We know one contributing factor is the shortage of semiconductors necessary to run these computers on wheels that we now call cars. Without a steady supply of these chips, automakers haven't been able to manufacture the normal number of new vehicles, making used ones a particular hot commodity.
This is another reason why the House needs to take up the bipartisan U.S. Innovation and Competition Act, which passed the Senate last month. It can take literally years to get new semiconductor foundries or manufacturing facilities up and running. And time is of the essence. Getting this bill signed into law will help bolster domestic chip production and safeguard against similar shortages in the future.
But getting back to these rising costs depicted here on this chart, these kinds of across-the-board cost increases are simply unmanageable for many families. I know it is easy sitting here in Washington, DC, getting a government salary, to think that, well, people can manage. But if you are a working family, particularly one coming off of layoffs or reduced hours as a result of the COVID-19 mitigation efforts, these are real. And they bite into the economics of these families.
As bad as inflation is, it is only one part of our economic woes. We are also seeing trouble getting people to go back to work. In February last year, before the pandemic hit, the unemployment rate was 3.5 percent. The economy was hitting on all cylinders. But within 2 months, unemployment went from 3.5 percent to 15 percent.
Since then, thanks to our investments and bipartisan cooperation and our great scientists, we have made steady progress in getting workers back on the job. But, unfortunately, our Democratic colleagues have seen fit to incentivize men and women to remain on the sidelines of the labor market.
The partisan bill they passed earlier this year extended, bolstered unemployment benefits through the end of September, long after we expected our economy to reopen.
It was literally true with the $300 Federal supplement to State unemployment benefits. People receiving unemployment benefits in my State, 80 percent of them got more from unemployment than they did from their former jobs.
That is simply the wrong kind of incentives to try to incentivize people not to work. We need to incentivize and facilitate people getting back to work so they can support their families.
So it is no wonder our economy is still struggling to rebound. A partisan go-it-alone strategy has not led to positive results for our country. It has driven up debt, deficits, borrowing, and spending. And for what?
The American people are spending more of their hard-earned money on everyday items. Workers are sitting on the sidelines of the labor markets. And our national debt is at a higher level than it was following World War II.
In the last election--contrary to, perhaps, the belief among some circles here in Washington--the voters did not give our Democratic colleagues a mandate. They didn't sign off on the far-left agenda or give a green light to spend trillions and trillions of dollars on unnecessary liberal programs.
If they wanted Bernie Sanders' multitrillion-dollar budget, they would have elected him President of the United States. But we know that did not happen.
Voters elected a 50-50 Senate, lessened the Democratic majority in the House, and took President Biden at his word that he promised to work across the aisle. This far left--hard left turn is not what the American people voted for.
Republicans will continue to fight this irresponsible spending bonanza once again. And I hope, I hope some of our Democratic colleagues will stand with us.
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