Cloture Motion

Floor Speech

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Mr. WICKER. Madam President, when we looked at the news this morning and we saw the evening news last night, when we tune in to the cable channels and we hear the radio, we see the astounding news of the voices of the voters on Tuesday of this week not just in Virginia and not just in New Jersey, but in the State of New York and throughout the Midwest and on over to the west coast.

The American people sent a strong message of disapproval to the Biden administration this week, and I hope our Democratic friends and the Biden administration will heed the message of the voters.

I normally don't bring the New York Times to the floor and quote it with approval, but it says here in the New York Times this morning: ``Bruised at Polls, Democrats Look at Their Missteps.''

I hope that is true. I hope our Democratic colleagues and our friends in the Biden administration are looking at their missteps because they are many and they have been harmful.

The Washington Post this morning, November 4, said: ``A sharp turn looms in Virginia.''

Yes, Virginia went from the three constitutional statewide offices all being held by Democrats to a Republican sweep, not only there but in the State General Assembly.

But then I see this other headline at the top of the page: ``Democrats race ahead on fiscal proposals.''

Presumably, our Democrat friends are not hearing the message that the American people in State after State after State sent just Tuesday of this week.

Even vastly underfunded GOP candidates, like the candidate for Governor in New Jersey, came within a hair's breadth of being elected. Vastly underfunded GOP candidates for legislative positions actually prevailed over candidates with millions and millions of dollars on the Democratic side.

The American people have sent this administration and this Democratic majority in the House and this tiny Democratic majority in the Senate a very unmistakable message. They are rejecting the malaise that we are under. And the Biden administration must understand that this election was the direct result of the President's failed agenda.

By all measures, our economy should be roaring by now. We are coming out of the pandemic. We should be back to the good news of February 2020, the month before the pandemic hit. The Trump and Republican tax cuts were in place. The unemployment rate was an astoundingly low 3.6 percent, something that we were told in our economics classes was impossible in the United States of America. When I was taking kiddy economics, they said it couldn't go below 4 percent.

The unemployment rate in February of 2020 was 3.6 percent. Employment was up among women. Employment was up among minorities. Employment was up among veterans. Our economy was roaring.

And then the pandemic came, and we acted in a bipartisan way. But we are coming out of the pandemic now, and the administration acts as if we need a huge dose--$4 trillion, $5 trillion worth--of socialism.

The pandemic is in full retreat, and from the beginning of the administration this year, the Biden administration blew it. On day one, the President canceled the Keystone XL Pipeline, killing thousands of jobs, and almost in the same breath, he told the Russians to go ahead with their pipeline.

I mean, can Americans even grasp that?

I think they sent a message Tuesday about that sort of thing.

With the stroke of a pen, the President declared war on American energy. The result has been that fuel has become scarce, and, of course, because of its scarcity, it has become more expensive. After 4 years of relief under the last administration, U.S. energy producers are once again looking down the barrel of a hostile EPA.

This is a self-inflicted energy crisis. Coal and nuclear plants are shutting down as reliable natural resources are taken off the table, replaced by its administration's fantasy dream of green-only energy.

Taxpayers are being told to stomach higher gas prices while, at the same time, being asked to pay billions of dollars to subsidize wind, solar, and electric vehicles. There is a place for that, but they are all three unreliable. And, predictably, gas prices have soared.

Instead of reevaluating his own policies, it seems that the President is attempting to double down on them, and he has even gone to questionable governments across the sea in the Middle East asking them to produce more oil because we won't do that in the United States. It makes no sense at all.

Perhaps this administration should listen to the election results and hear the voices of the people from Tuesday.

But the economic damage is hardly limited to energy. Inflation spurred on by the administration's reckless spending is burning a hole in the wallets of Americans, and we simply can't get around it. The Consumer Price Index shows one thing, that prices have gone up 5.4 percent over the last 12 months.

Well, I will tell you, Madam President, I was speaking to a manufacturer from my home State of Mississippi just yesterday, and he said that figure is understated quite a bit. He said his costs have gone up around 20 percent in being able to manufacture goods for American people and hire Americans and hire Mississippians.

Meanwhile, the gears of our economy are slowing down, causing fears of stagflation, something we have not seen since the 1970s.

And I do want to agree with my friend from Wyoming about the gentleman from Illinois' point about the Climate Corps. This manufacturer in Mississippi said he has got 2,000 positions that need to be filled. Perhaps some of these people that the Senator from Illinois would like to employ in the Climate Corps can come to manufacturers like ours in Mississippi and take a good-paying job manufacturing things for Americans that we can sell in our country and all around the world.

GDP growth just slowed to 2 percent. Employers still cannot find enough workers, just like the manufacturer from Mississippi told me yesterday. Our supply chain is jammed up with endless delays, causing concern.

But, to me, one of the most serious and dangerous policies of this administration is the Biden administration's unprecedented and unconstitutional vaccine mandate on two-thirds of the private-sector workforce. We are being told that every employer with over 100 employees must comply with a Washington-mandated and unconstitutional vaccine mandate.

This is exactly what the President said 11 months ago he didn't want to do. Joe Biden was asked in December of 2020: Should vaccines be mandated?

And he said: ``No, I don't think they should be mandatory.''

The President was right when he said that to the press, and he is 180 degrees wrong today and taking his cues from the most radical advisers that he has. As a result, the American people, on Tuesday, have said: Enough.

Now, I know a little about American workers. I know a little about American service men and women. I was one. We have been raised in a free country, in a free land, and we are not accustomed to being told by Washington, DC, by the Chief Executive of the United States of America, what we must put in our bodies.

And I can tell you, this is a looming economic crisis for this country. Millions and millions of hard-working American taxpayers are going to be forced to leave their jobs because they will refuse, as free Americans, to be told that they must take a vaccine that they do not feel good about.

Madam President, the Chief Executive of our land has grossly miscalculated the American people on this issue, and a looming economic crisis because of a lack of workers and mass layoffs and mass firings is about to occur.

The Biden administration should pause, do what the New York Times said this morning and, as they are examining their bruises, look at their missteps because they are many and they are hurting the American economy.

I would urge the Biden administration to let these tax cuts stay in place, to let these soft-touch regulations stay in place, to pause and listen to the clear voices of the American people as they voted in strong numbers this past Tuesday.

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