Biden Administration

Floor Speech

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Mr. MARSHALL. Madam President, on January 20, President Joe Biden gave his inaugural address to the American people, saying that in order to overcome the challenges we face as a nation and ``to restore the soul and [to] secure the future of America requires more than words; it requires that most elusive of things in a democracy: unity. Unity.''

I end the quote.

And he says for a second time: ``Unity.'' In fact, he mentioned the word ``unity'' nine separate times throughout his inaugural remarks. Unfortunately, that ``unity'' President Biden preached about is nowhere to be found.

One hundred days in office, and there has been zero bipartisanship from the White House on any major issue. We have seen zero effort by the White House to take any Republican idea or concept seriously. In fact, they have done very little to reach across the aisle, engage Republicans, or have a serious conversation with us.

They have shown that they are not interested in bipartisanship, as they continue to jam through their radical agenda and seek power grab after power grab.

We have seen a record number of Executive orders, the first partisan COVID relief bill, steps to grant DC statehood to tip the powers of scale, a directive that threatens private property rights--the cornerstone of our democracy--an attempt to federalize elections and destroy election integrity with H.R. 1, threats to eliminate the filibuster, increased gas prices for Americans at the pump, efforts to pack the Supreme Court, disguised measures to pass the Green New Deal, calls to defund police, mandates to allow biological boys to compete in girls' sports, and tax increases on all Americans, and much, much more.

Things are changing in DC. History will record President Biden as having spent more money than any other President in U.S. history in his first 100 days. I am warning everyone: Grab your wallets. History will record President Biden's misguided policies as making our Nation less safe, having created a health crisis, a national security crisis, and a humanitarian crisis at the southern border.

What I hope to hear from President Biden this evening is not likely to be covered in a speech. He is going to try to explain to us--even though our economy is recovering and we just borrowed and spent $2 trillion from our grandchildren--why we now need to spend another $2 trillion and why he needs to raise your taxes to do it. He is going to try to describe the legislation he wants passed as a so-called infrastructure bill, when less than 5 percent of it is going toward roads and bridges.

He is going to try to convince Americans of something that is a misnomer and not a truth. What he won't tell you is this is a recipe to kill Kansas jobs and an economic catastrophe for this Nation.

Last week, President Biden signed into law a bipartisan bill I introduced, alongside Senators Bill Cassidy and Tina Smith, to lower prescription drug prices for the American people. Additionally, we unanimously passed a bill out of the Ag Committee regarding carbon markets. These are both great examples of the unity the President spoke of in his inaugural address--Democrats and Republicans coming together to deliver solutions for the American people.

These are good first steps, and in case there is more opportunity for bipartisanship, let me tell you where we can and should start. We can start with an infrastructure package that actually rebuilds our aging roads, bridges, and waterways; invest in future generations and ensure high-speed internet for all Americans and incentivize innovation. We can start with staying the course laid out by Operation Warp Speed and get more shots in people's arms so we can reach herd immunity sooner rather than later. We can start with people getting back to work and finally unleash our economy to prepandemic levels, and we can start getting all our kids back in school.

As President Biden said in his inaugural address, ``This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge, and unity is the path forward.''

If he truly puts unity above all else, we can accomplish great things for the American people, for it is unity that will see this country come roaring back, not President Biden's radical, partisan ways that have further divided this Nation.

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