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Floor Speech
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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, last week, President Biden gave what many consider to be his farewell address. Americans are eager to say ``farewell'' and, in many ways, ``good riddance'' to Joe Biden and the policies that he has wrought, along with Democrats, upon our country. It has been a record of ruin.
When Americans look at the state of our Nation today, they don't like what they see. Three out of four Americans will tell you that the country is heading in the wrong direction. Prices are 20 percent higher than they were when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris came into office. People are forced to cut back, forced to decide whether they can fill their gas tanks or their grocery carts. According to CNN, nearly 40 percent of all Americans say they worry that they can't pay their bills.
So how did we get here?
Well, Democrats passed trillions of dollars in reckless, radical, and runaway spending. It was so unpopular as a proposal--and Congress heard from the American people as to how unpopular it was--it was so unpopular that, at a point, it was tied--the vote--and then they had to bring in someone to break the tie. Who was that person who cast that tie-breaking vote that brought us 40-year-high inflation and the highest prices in 40 years for which so many people suffer today? That person was Vice President Kamala Harris. That is right, Vice President Harris, who is now the nominee of the Democratic Party, running for President. She is the one who came into this Chamber to cast the vote to break the tie that fueled the highest prices that we continue to experience today.
We also have a very long national nightmare occurring at our southern border. That is yet another result of the dangerously liberal agenda of Vice President Harris. We had a secure border 4 years ago. Then Joe Biden and Kamala Harris came into the White House. Biden and Harris canceled the border wall. Biden and Harris canceled ``Remain in Mexico.'' They replaced detain-and-deport with catch-and- release. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris presided over an invasion of our southern border by 10 million illegal immigrants.
Since the time that Vice President Harris was appointed as border czar, millions and millions of illegal immigrants have come into the country, millions and millions of more known ``got-aways'' hiding from authorities have gotten into this country. There is a total, we are looking at, of 10 million illegal immigrants now in our communities.
Many communities across this country are overrun and overwhelmed. Yet Joe Biden and Kamala Harris don't seem to care. They don't seem to care about the drugs and the death and the destruction that are harming American families from coast to coast.
Vice President Harris has a view of border security that, to me, is particularly twisted and tortured. Here is her view, and she stated it: Basically, if you are an illegal immigrant, you are not a criminal, according to Kamala Harris. But if you are an agent of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, in her words, you are comparable to the Ku Klux Klan. That is from the Vice President of the United States.
She also believes this: If you are an illegal immigrant, you are entitled to free healthcare. If you are an American citizen, she proposes that you would actually lose your ability to choose your healthcare and that private healthcare in this country would be eliminated. No private healthcare for American citizens who would then be forced to pay for healthcare for illegal immigrants--that is the view of the Vice President of the United States and now the candidate for President for the Democratic Party. It is ignorant; it is insulting; and it is out of touch.
If her views are America's policy, millions and millions more illegal immigrants will continue to flood across our southern border. It is a magnet drawing people in.
It wasn't that way 4 years ago under the Trump administration. Back then, paychecks rose, prices were in check, and poverty fell at record rates. America was energy independent. Gas prices were affordable. Our border was safe and was secure.
None of that is true today, not under this administration or these policies of the Biden-Harris administration. Democrats and this administration at this time in our country will always be known as the party of high prices and open borders.
Most Americans believe that our country is on the wrong track. And I believe most Americans are right; we are on the right track. There is good news, and that is that America can get back on track. We can get back on track with commonsense policies--policies that work, policies the American people are asking for.
Senate Republicans have solutions to the most pressing problems that are facing the American public today. First, we are going to address the No. 1 issue facing Americans. Americans will tell you what the No. 1 issue is they are concerned about, and that is the economy, the cost of things.
We are going to make life more affordable for all families, and that starts with making us energy dominant again and lowering the cost of energy. The Republicans will put a stop to Democrats' punishing political regulations that are just coming at us like a tidal wave since the day this administration began.
We will end America's dependence on Communist China; we will strengthen American manufacturing; and we will put American workers and businesses first.
Republicans also have solutions that will make our communities safer. Republicans will secure the border. We will finish the wall. Republicans will restore a program that worked called Remain in Mexico. This will stop the flood of illegal immigrants and the flow of deadly drugs.
Republicans support our police officers, and we stand against the deadly ``defund the police movement,'' the very movement that Kamala Harris and Democrats proudly support.
Kamala Harris actually came into this Chamber to break the tie for radical nominees by this administration, the number of whom support defunding the police. That is the stand and that is the policy of the Biden-Harris administration.
Abroad, Republicans will restore America's commitment to peace through strength. Here in the Senate, Republicans will protect our institutions and protect the rule of law. We firmly reject Democrats' plans to pack the court and rig the elections.
These are solutions that unite Americans. Joe Biden is leaving behind a catastrophic record of ruin. We cannot afford 4 more years of these policies.
Yet what we see is Vice President Harris and Democrats want to nationalize the dangerously liberal policies of San Francisco Democrats. That is what she is, a very liberal, dangerous San Francisco Democrat. That is her history.
That is how her voting record had been in the U.S. Senate, voted the most liberal Member of the U.S. Senate, more liberal than Bernie Sanders, the most liberal of 100 U.S. Senators.
What we see is that as Vice President, and now Presidential nominee, she wants to bring the California nightmare of high taxes, high crime, and no accountability to every household in America. These policies would crush the middle class.
What do Americans want? Lower prices and secure borders. What are the Democrats? The party of high prices and open borders.
Senate Republicans will lower Democrats' wallet-wrecking high prices. Senate Republicans will work to secure our wide open border and will work to keep Americans safe, at home as well as abroad.
There is no question that Republicans are committed to get America back on track.
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