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Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Madam President, I come to the floor today to talk about our Nation's economy.

We have come to the end of another calendar year. The American people are asking themselves a simple question: Are we better off now, today, than we were 1 year ago?

For most Americans, the answer is no. In fact, a new survey from the New York Federal Reserve says just that. Most of the people surveyed say they are worse off now than they were 1 year ago.

Most also said, very concerning, that they expect to be worse off a year from now than they are today, and it is easy to see why. Shelves are empty, we have the worst labor shortage ever recorded, and prices are rising at the fastest rate in 40 years.

Joe Biden is breaking records, but not the good kind. Joe Biden is about to enter his second year in office with record-high inflation and record-low approval.

Since Joe Biden took office, prices have gone up much faster than wages. As a result, the typical American family can purchase less today than they could a year ago. People have had to change the way they drive, they shop, and they eat.

By one estimate, families are paying $175 more every month because of inflation since Joe Biden took office. This works out to be $2,000 a year--a bite out of the paychecks of the American people equivalent to a loss of $2,000.

Now, some estimates are even higher. Harvard Professor Jason Furman was a top adviser to President Obama. His estimate is that it is double that number. He said there have been $4,000 more in expenses for the American families this year than there was last year.

Of course, the biggest increase that we see is in energy. Gas prices are up. They are up by more than a dollar a gallon. Now, this is just in the 10 months since Joe Biden took office. It costs $20 to $30 more to fill the tank. Today, they are at a 7-year high.

Natural gas prices are also at a 7-year high, while half the families in America heat their homes with natural gas. One in five American families has already been cutting expenses in other places to pay for their energy bill for the year.

Last month was the biggest jump in energy prices, amazingly, in an entire decade, and winter is almost here. Some people may have to choose between whether they can afford to eat or whether they can afford to heat their homes.

It is hard to believe that in just 10 full months in the White House, Joe Biden could have taken inflation to this very high level.

The supply chain crisis, the worker shortage, the inflation crisis are all the direct results of the policies of the Biden administration and the Democrats in Washington.

Why are the shelves empty? Well, because we don't have enough workers. More than 11 million jobs today are unfilled. We have broken new records for unfilled jobs in 5 of the first 10 months that Joe Biden has been in office. And no matter where you go, there are ``help wanted'' signs in the windows.

This is no coincidence. In March, President Biden extended a bonus payment to people who stayed home from work. Millions of people made more money by not going to work than they would by going to work. Well, in September, that bonus payment ran out.

Then Joe Biden announced a nationwide vaccine mandate on the American people. This mandate took a sledge hammer to our Nation's workforce. The President must have known that people would lose their jobs. It seems he didn't care because he imposed the mandate anyway.

These are people who worked every day during the pandemic, showing up no matter the weather, no matter the situation. They showed up to do the job to help the people in their communities and in their States and in this country.

Now, under Joe Biden, people are losing their jobs, shelves are empty, prices continue to rise.

In March, Democrats made things worse by putting $2 trillion on the Nation's credit card. That bill sent inflation into overdrive.

The San Francisco Federal Reserve says the Democrats' spending increased inflation.

Democrats made lavish promises about their last spending bill. They said the bill would create millions of jobs. Nancy Pelosi said 4 million jobs. Joe Biden upped the ante and said 7 million new jobs.

How did the predictions turn out? Not so well for the predictions of Nancy Pelosi or Joe Biden. Joe Biden was off by the full 7 million jobs.

The most recent jobs report shows we created fewer jobs than were predicted even without the Democrats' spending bill. Those 7 million jobs Joe promised are nowhere to be found.

Last month, we created less than half the number of jobs the experts predicted.

Now Democrats want to do the same thing all over again. They want another multitrillion-dollar spending spree. This spending spree would cause the largest tax increase in half a century, trillions more in debt, and even higher prices.

Speaking of rising prices, the price of this spending bill keeps going up. For months, Democrats claimed that they wouldn't add to the debt. Then they said the total bill would cost less than $2 trillion.

Last Friday, we found out the real price tag. The Congressional Budget Office took all the accounting gimmicks, the budgets tricks-- took it all out of the bill--and they told us that the real cost of the bill is nearly triple the price that the Democrats said.

The real pricetag is close to $5 trillion. It would be the largest spending bill in history. The Democrats' spending spree would add $3 trillion to the national debt.

And, just yesterday, the Democrats voted--every Democrat voted--to raise the debt ceiling in the United States by $2.5 trillion. Every Republican voted against it.

If you think about how much money this is, it is almost the size of the entire economy of the United Kingdom.

You know, all of this spending would bring the Democrats' total to $5 trillion in new debt in just 10 months.

And what does all of this spending get you?

Well, the most expensive thing in the bill is something that some refer to as the Green New Deal, which is billions of dollars in new taxes on America's natural gas production. It includes an army of climate activists paid to protest American energy projects.

The second most expensive part of the bill is the blue State billionaire bailout. It is a tax break for people in high-tax States. I look at it as specifically California, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey. The vast majority of Americans would get no tax break at all. Almost all of that benefit would go to the wealthy.

Don't take my word for it. Here is what the Democrat chairman of the Budget Committee, the junior Senator from Vermont, had to say about it.

He said:

The last thing we should be doing is giving more tax breaks to the very rich. It sends a terrible, terrible message.

But that is what the Democrats in the House under Nancy Pelosi passed and sent to the Senate for consideration and passage.

The junior Senator from Vermont, the chairman of the Budget Committee, also said: ``The hypocrisy is too strong.''

Well, the chairman is absolutely right. Even by the standards of Democrats in Washington, this hypocrisy is too strong.

If Democrats pass this bill, it will mean tax cuts for billionaires and tax audits for working families. It will mean higher taxes, more debt, higher prices, the highest inflation in 40 years, and it will go even higher.

When the American people ask themselves, ``Are we better off today than we were a year ago?'' we know what the answer is going to be: a resounding no. If Democrats pass this bill, it will be no for years and years to come.

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