‘Working Americans know that’s not what they voted for. This summer, they’ll see who wants to borrow and spend trillions more dollars for no reason… And who would rather help them get their jobs back, their stable prices back, their small businesses back, and their lives back.’
U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks Tuesday on the Senate floor regarding Democrats’ spending spree:
“Senators have just spent two weeks traveling our home states and hearing what’s on the minds of working families.
“I got to spend time with all kinds of hardworking Kentuckians across the Bluegrass.
“No question, we’re in a better place than we were a year ago.
“Thanks to the genius of science, the success of Operation Warp Speed, and the bipartisan rescue packages the Republican-led Senate passed in 2020, the year 2021 was primed and set up for an historic American comeback well before this new Democratic Congress or this new Democratic Administration were even sworn in.
“But Democrats still wanted to rush ahead with the huge borrowing and spending sprees they had promised the far left.
“Top economists — including famous Democrats — warned our colleagues to think again.
“Even liberal experts tried to warn our colleagues that the socialist ideas they’d drawn up in 2020 were not suited to what Americans needed in 2021. Overspending and over-borrowing would unleash inflation, slow re-hiring, and hurt small businesses.
“But Democrats rushed ahead. They rammed through what the White House bragged was the most left-wing legislation in our nation’s history.
“And now Democrats want to follow up with an even more absurd summer sequel.
“Well, let me tell you: I just spent two weeks hearing from my fellow Kentuckians and they are already paying a heavy price.
“Manufacturers are still absolutely hammered by supply chain shocks.
“Employers large and small say the Democrats’ special bonus for workers who stay unemployed is badly hampering their ability to fully reopen and serve their customers.
“Most of our surrounding states have already put a stop to this awful idea, but our governor hasn’t.
“It isn’t just for-profit businesses, either.
“I heard from one residential treatment center for pregnant women and new moms grappling with substance abuse.
“They said that because of the generous federal bonus for staying home, they’ve had trouble finding enough support staff to even reopen one of their facilities post-COVID.
“About 80 percent of the people who schedule an interview don’t even show up.
“These backward bonuses have also invited heaps of fraud.
“In California, for example, a significant share of the state’s COVID unemployment benefits were paid out fraudulently. Billions and billions of dollars to people who shouldn’t have gotten it.
“But now — get this — Democrats want to give the California Labor Secretary who was in charge of that nightmare a promotion!
“In fact, we are scheduled to vote on her confirmation later today to a leading position at the Department of Labor. You cannot make this up.
“And then there is inflation.
“Just this morning we learned that runaway inflation is continuing to hit working American families and hit them hard. Consumer prices spiked in June considerably more than had been forecast. Inflation is up 5.4% year-on-year, the fastest jump in about 13 years. Stunningly, it’s up 0.9% just month over month.
“Families are feeling it everywhere — from the supermarket to the gas pump to housing to the used car lot. And beyond.
“All thanks, in large part, to the Democrats’ half-baked spending spree from the springtime.
“And now they want an even more absurd, even more damaging summer sequel.
“What Democrats say they want to force through this summer through reconciliation would make our current inflationary mess look like small potatoes.
“Nobody serious thinks our country needs another gigantic overdose of over-borrowing, overspending, and over-taxing.
“And this isn’t what the American people voted for, either.
“Our distinguished colleague the junior Senator for Vermont, the chair of the Budget Committee, has been very transparent about his socialist ideology for decades.
“But the country did not elect a 50-50 Senate and a president who claimed to be a moderate so that Chairman Sanders could turn America into a socialist country.
“Working Americans know that’s not what they voted for.
“This summer, they’ll see who wants to borrow and spend trillions more dollars for no reason…
“…And who would rather help them get their jobs back, their stable prices back, their small businesses back, and their lives back.”
###
