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Floor Speech
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Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, I want to go into some comments about some things that I heard from Oklahomans in August--in, thankfully, a deep-breath moment when we were not in session here for a little while. But I first need to just make a couple of quick comments for folks who might have just heard my colleague before, from Illinois, saying that Republicans believe that electric vehicles are socialism if you promote electric vehicles and that we oppose electric vehicles and electrification. Actually, I just have to make a quick comment about that.
I don't hear that Republicans are in opposition to electric vehicles. I hear Republicans in opposition to handing companies billions and billions of dollars of taxpayer money and saying: If you will produce electric vehicles, then we are going to give you these billions of dollars to be able to do it.
I also hear Republicans, like myself, in opposition and saying: 85 percent of the world's lithium, which runs these electric vehicles, comes from China. So, until we can actually get our own supply of energy for lithium, we shouldn't be running toward electric vehicles, because if you run toward electric vehicles and then you are dependent on communist China for your fuel, that is a bad idea.
I also hear Republicans saying: Our infrastructure is not ready for this. This is not some fairytale. Today, in California, they are telling people to turn up their thermostats because they don't have enough electricity, and don't charge your electric vehicles.
So what I hear is a little bit of common sense on our side of the aisle to say: We don't have a problem with electric vehicles. People should be able to choose to drive whatever vehicle they want to be able to drive and that the consumer will actually purchase. But when you hand companies billions of dollars and say that you only get this money ``if'' and if you push people to use a fuel that is dominantly coming from a communist nation and we don't have the infrastructure to actually support it but say you need to get it anyway, we think that is a challenge.
The market is going to drive this. People will make choices, and the market will be able to keep up. But when government arbitrarily pushes that forward faster, that causes a problem in our economy, and we have seen it already.
As I traveled around the State, our State, like several other States, goes back to school early. It is always funny to me when I return after Labor Day and people are talking about their kids are going to school this week. I always smile and say: Our kids returned to school 3 weeks ago, actually.
August is a great time to be able to see families getting organized, people heading back to school, talking to teachers and superintendents and talking about their hope and prayer for a normal school year, where there aren't mask mandates and all the things coming down on them.
It is time for me to actually, some evenings, be able to stand out in the yard and be able to talk to my neighbors. It is great to just be able to visit and catch up, to be able to chat with someone in my Sunday school class and to be able to hold their young child and to be able to look in the face of a new baby.
I had the opportunity to be able to be home and to be able to stand in a funeral home with a law enforcement officer who was murdered in the line of duty.
It was an opportunity to be able to talk to some of our electric cooperatives that are getting power to our rural areas and making such a difference.
It was an opportunity to stand and pray with a cancer survivor in Guymon who has had a really--the past couple of years, it has been tough.
It was an opportunity to be able to visit with an aerospace company in Oklahoma--in fact, several that are doing the technology and the innovation that are making quite a difference in both our national security and in our own aerospace safety and to visit with small business owners who are making things work in a very tough economy based on their work, not based on what is happening in Washington, DC-- based on their work.
August is an opportunity to go visit the stockyards and feedlots and get a chance to be able to talk to folks who are, every day, making our food supply work. It is an opportunity to be able to visit with big companies based in Oklahoma that have large facilities like Amazon and Macy's--major companies that are out there that are doing business across our State and, quite frankly, to be able to interact with companies that are just as large that are also coming toward my great State of Oklahoma because it is a great place to be able to do business.
There were individuals whom I got a chance to be able to visit with in the fire training center, many of them volunteers who come to this fire training center because they want to be able to learn better about how to be able to fight fire because this is literally neighbors taking care of neighbors. I hear so much conversation in Washington, DC, about how Washington, DC, is solving all the problems in the country. But when I meet with volunteer firefighters, they know full well it is everybody taking care of everybody's neighbors, doing what they can to be able to help each other.
I had the opportunity to both sit in church and watch 25 people get baptized on one Sunday and see life change literally happening before my eyes.
I also had the opportunity to be able to visit with folks in nursing homes and visit with their staff who are really struggling under some of the mandates that are on them still. I have to tell you, for many of the families who are living with nursing homes and are dealing with CMS right now and some of the mandates that are still on them, it seems like life is returning to normal for many places, but the mandates are still on prisons, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and Head Start facilities. For those kids and for those seniors, it is tough, and they are looking for relief from DC.
I had the opportunity to be able to go through No Man's Land Beef Jerky, some of the best beef jerky in the country. You ought to try it sometime for folks who haven't. You walk through No Man's Land Beef Jerky, and there is a lot of meat there, let me just tell you, as they are hand-trimming each section and dehydrating and preparing it for customers all over the country--quite frankly, many places around the world.
I was able to visit VA centers, talk with their staff, talk with veterans who are there getting care, able to go to our military bases and able to talk with leadership there about what do they need because they work every day to be able to protect our Nation's future. I was able to visit our inland water ports. Yes, there are ports in Oklahoma. For those of you all who are not tracking geography, Oklahoma has the northernmost inland ports in the country, and it is a vital link to the Midwest, getting fertilizer and getting wheat out, taking care of heavy steel and supplies. They are a vital part of our technology and of our transportation.
There are too many places to be able to name, but I do have to be able to call out some amazing folks who are in New Leaf. New Leaf is a group of people who have dedicated their lives to helping the developmentally disabled. There are hundreds of people who serve there, serving hundreds of people. These are developmentally disabled adults who have hopes and aspirations. They want to work. They have dreams and goals for their life as well. They want to get married; they want to engage; and they want to have friends. They are a group of people who have wrapped around these families and are blessing them in ways that most folks would never know. It is neighbors helping neighbors.
As I traveled around the State, literally from Guymon all the way across to the east of my State--as I traveled across the State, I heard the same comment over and over and over again: When is inflation going to come down? When is the cost of living going to get better?
From every small business that I talked to, they would talk about supply chain issues and the costs and the contracts and the prices that they are selling things for and the prices that they are getting things for and the challenges they face.
NFIB works with a lot of small businesses around the country. They do an optimism index every year. Thirty-seven percent of small business owners now report their single biggest issue as a small business owner is inflation.
I got into a lot of conversations with a lot of folks, as probably many people in this room did. But I can't even begin to tell you the number of conversations I got into that, within minutes, the conversation turned to the price of eggs, to say: Wow, have you bought eggs yet? They seem to go up every single week.
If it feels that way for folks, I can tell you it actually is that way for folks. The data continues to be able to show that. Studies show, in Oklahoma, relative to January of 2021, Oklahomans are paying $593 more a month right now than they were just in January 2021. That equals out to $7,115 more a year that each family is paying this year than they were 2 years ago--$7,115. This is a real effect on families.
While all of us are grateful that the price of gas seems to be coming down little by little--everyone is celebrating that gas prices are only $3.50 now--we understand that just a year and a half ago, gas prices were a dollar and a half less than what they are now.
The single biggest effect on our economy right now--single biggest effect--is the price of gasoline and the price of energy. As energy prices rise, and they continue to stay high, it continues to drive the cost of every other product because you have got to move products to actually be sold or to be manufactured.
Gasoline right now, this July, is 44 percent higher than it was last July--44 percent. And while it has come down, we forget how fast and how high it rose. People seem to be relieved now that it is only three and a half bucks, knowing that that is 44 percent higher than it was a single year ago.
The cost of breakfast cereal is 16 percent higher than it was a year ago. The cost of chicken is 18 percent higher than it was just a year ago. The cost of milk is 16 percent higher than what it was a year ago. The cost of coffee is 20 percent higher than what it was a year ago. The cost of butter is 22 percent higher than what it was a year ago. Baby food is 15 percent higher than what it was a year ago. And just household cleaning products, it is 11 percent higher than what it was a year ago.
For many people who hear this outside of this room, they would say: Yes, all those things are true. They are obvious. But I have yet to run into a family, as I traveled around my State and engaged with so many great Oklahomans--I didn't hear a single one say: I am so grateful that we are going to have more IRS audits in the next couple of years because that is going to bring down inflation. I didn't have one. I didn't have anyone say: I am so glad there are going to be additional subsidies for electric vehicles because that is going to bring down the cost of eggs.
There is a real concern here. People are worried because they don't know what happens next.
For retirees, the latest study that came out, $3.4 trillion--$3.4 trillion--has been lost from IRAs in the past year--$3.4 trillion. So the mix that we have right now are individuals who are worried about just paying for the next thing, when the cost of living for them is $7,000 more this year than it was last year, just trying to be able to keep up. And the challenge for retirees, watching the value of their retirement go down, as many who are on a fixed income also realize, the costs have gone up dramatically. It is real, and people do feel it.
While in Oklahoma, I interacted with lots of folks who are neighbors taking care of neighbors. There is a very real concern about Washington, DC, and what they will do to them rather than for them, and people are worried about it.
I would say we, as leaders, have a responsibility to be able to set a direction to be able to take care of other people's money--that is the tax dollars that are there; that is other people's money--to be able to manage the debt of this Nation that has accelerated dramatically in the past several years, much of it due to COVID, much of it not. We have some responsibilities to take care of. I hope everyone had the opportunity to be able to listen to people in their own States and to be able to hear what I was able to hear in August.
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