Mitch McConnell

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, Kentucky is working to recover from the deadly storms and tornadoes. Each day brings entirely new challenges. Tens of thousands are still dealing with water, gas, or power outages. Families are in shock and grief over the loss of loved ones. Rebuilding the areas in Kentucky leveled by this storm will take months, if not years, to complete. Amid this pain, though, bright lights of hope shine through. In the face of tragedy, Kentuckians are still as strong and as generous as we have always been. Yesterday, I spoke with the Taylor County judge-executive. He told me that 70 families in his county had lost their homes in the storm. Emergency responders made shelters available, but folks were completely taken in by family, friends, or neighbors--just the kind of people we have in Kentucky. In Mayfield, residents are already beginning to rebuild only days after the storm leveled full city blocks. Churches hosted Sunday services this past weekend. Locals brought their chain saws and cleared debris from the city's roads. People from nearby counties and States have flooded--literally flooded--in to help. One man, Jimmy Finch, has struck a chord with America's hearts all across the country. He had no connections to Mayfield whatsoever. He is from Clarksville, TN. But after the disaster, he borrowed a big meat smoker, got into his car, made the hour-and-a-half journey in the dead of night and started serving up food the next morning. This fellow from Tennessee came up to Kentucky and brought a whole bunch of food. On Sunday morning, for hours, he fed chicken, hot links, and burgers to hungry residents who had been without heat or power for days. Western Kentucky's radio and TV stations have kept operating throughout this crisis, delivering vital information, even amid roving power outages. State parks opened their doors to residents who lost their homes. Businesses, individuals, and charities have been generous with food, water, and shelter. Kentucky's first responders are working hand in hand with FEMA to provide coordinated relief. Doctors, nurses, firefighters, and law enforcement officers are working literally through the night. Utility workers are making a Herculean effort to restore power and water. Hundreds of Kentucky National Guardsmen have deployed to Western Kentucky to offer their assistance. And in Fort Campbell, the Federal Government has provided a critical lifeline of support: 61 generators, 74,000 meals, 135,000 liters of water, thousands of cots and blankets, all supplied by Fort Campbell. I am in close contact with Governor Beshear, our Federal Agencies, and local leaders. My staff and I have been in frequent touch with the White House. Kentucky will come back from this bigger and better than ever before. I will make sure the Senate provides all the assistance we can to make sure that is a reality.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, the tornadoes that hit Kentucky this past weekend were some of the most widespread, severe, and devastating in our State's history. It is still difficult to comprehend the vast scope of the storm. Nearly 40 tornadoes touched down across 6 States. One tornado in Kentucky stayed on the ground for over 200 miles--200 miles. This was potentially the longest continuous path of any tornado in U.S. history. Towns have been reduced to rubble. Families are picking up pieces of their shattered lives. Most tragically, our Governor announced today that more than 60 Kentuckians are confirmed to have lost their lives. Many more remain unaccounted for. This is the worst storm to hit Kentucky in my lifetime. The tornadoes have caused considerable damage in 15 counties all across the Commonwealth. Thousands lost their homes. Tens of thousands are still without power. This was, in the words of one meteorologist, ``the worst-case scenario'' for destruction. And it came during the Christmas season. Families are supposed to be gathering soon for rest, relaxation, and reunion. Now, so many Kentuckians are facing exactly the opposite. The whole country is becoming acquainted with Mayfield, KY, likely our hardest hit city. Mayfield is a town of 10,000 in the Jackson Purchase. It has been known for the beautiful Greek Revival facade of the Mayfield First United Methodist Church. Now, First United is completely gone, and the town is literally leveled to the ground. Mayfield's candle factory was operating in full swing this weekend to keep up with the Christmas demand. It was once a mainstay of the community, employing hundreds. On Friday night, the factory was turned into a scene of absolute horror. Many of the employees who were working that evening are feared dead. Rescue operations are ongoing. At least 40 employees were rescued initially. One was saved after being trapped under 5 feet of rubble for hours. The devastation there is absolute. The tornado was so powerful that it ripped 27 train cars off their tracks in Earlington and scattered them across a field. A family photograph that was picked up by the storm in Dawson Springs, KY, was carried nearly 130 miles by the wind and discovered over in Indiana. All across Western Kentucky, residents spent their Saturday and Sunday clearing debris and collecting clothes and possessions that had been scattered. Families were left to inspect the cinderblocks where their houses once stood. The cheery lights of Christmastime have been replaced by absolute destruction. Kentucky has been devastated, but we have not been defeated. Kentuckians are resilient people who will stay strong and united through the crisis. I am incredibly grateful to the first responders who have been on the ground since the outset: Kentucky National Guard, Kentucky State Police, sheriff's departments, city and local law enforcement, EMS responders, firefighters, doctors, and nurses. Quick thinking and selfless action saved lives. Hard-hit communities are receiving an outpouring of support from across the Commonwealth as well as around the country. Americans near and far are coming together to donate food, blood, resources, and shelter to those in need. Businesses and individuals have helped fund relief efforts and donated to assist the storm's victims. Like many of my fellow Kentuckians, I was incredibly touched by the support offered by the University of Kentucky basketball team this past weekend. While visiting the University of Notre Dame, they led a deeply emotional moment of silence before their game on Saturday night. The team visited the school's grotto to light candles for storm victims and to pray for recovery. We are all praying alongside them. Kentucky's State motto is ``United we stand, divided we fall.'' In this time of crisis, Kentuckians are standing shoulder to shoulder, and we will not fail. At every level of local, State, and Federal Government across both political parties, Kentucky's leaders have come together to coordinate and to provide aid. Toward the end of the week, I will travel back to Kentucky to meet with my constituents and visit the areas affected by the storm. My team has been working nonstop to ensure Kentuckians receive the help that they need. I have worked closely with President Biden and Governor Beshear to ensure every Federal resource possible is deployed to our State. Kentucky's congressional delegation has come together to send multiple letters to the President in support of disaster relief. In response, President Biden cut through the redtape to approve our requests at an accelerated pace, providing the rapid support we need to recover. I am especially grateful for the work of DHS Secretary Mayorkas and FEMA Administrator Criswell, who visited Kentucky yesterday to survey damage and to help relief efforts. FEMA has already sent two incident management teams, an urban search and rescue team, and an Army Corps temporary power team. They have turned Kentucky's Fort Campbell into a staging ground for vital relief and supplies. I could not be more grateful for their swift and decisive response to this crisis. Even in the face of such tragedy, we can be confident that Kentucky will bounce back. We are strong; we are united; and we will come back bigger and better than ever before.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, today, the Capitol is once again hosting a hallowed tradition. The U.S. Congress just solemnly welcomed our late friend and colleague, Leader Robert J. Dole, one final time. This most distinguished soldier-statesman now lies in state at the epicenter of our democracy. Our Nation has bestowed this honor only 33 times in its history--to Presidents, to Senators and Representatives, to heroes of war. With today's ceremony, Bob's path aligned one last time with his Army hospital buddy's, turned longtime fellow Senator, Danny Inouye. It was amazing enough that Bob's and Danny's paths converged all the way from bedside bridge games in the 1940s to votes on this floor into the 1990s, but now they have both rested on the exact same catafalque that has held up our great statesmen, dating back to President Lincoln. Bob Dole earned these honors many, many times over--through a heroic fight that began on Hill 913 and left lifelong scars, through accomplished service at both ends of this building, and in a bid for even higher office, conducted with integrity and grace. Bob Dole left this Chamber a quarter of a century ago, but service to his beloved Kansas and his fellow Americans remained the focus of his life until the moment he was called home on Sunday. The sting of losing our friend is still fresh, but we are proud to celebrate this extraordinary American--now draped in the colors to which his entire life was dedicated and already at home in eternal rest. Build Back Better Act Now, Mr. President, on an entirely different matter, on Tuesday, I shined a spotlight on Washington Democrats' proposed toddler takeover. They want to spend hundreds of billions of dollars in order to upend families' arrangements, create massive inflation in daycare costs, and attack faith-based providers. Now, Democrats say their plan would not hurt faith-based providers because it wouldn't explicitly block them up front. Ah, but that is only a small part of the story. The reckless taxing-and-spending spree might not ban faith-based providers on day 1, but their scheme of mandates and subsidies would slowly and quietly push them out. The Democrats' bill would deny religious providers an extra funding stream for upgrading their facilities, which their secular competitors would actually get, and their proposal would let woke bureaucrats persecute faith-based groups unless they leave their values at the door. If a Jewish daycare wants to prioritize Jewish families, they could get thrown out of the Democrats' scheme for engaging in discrimination. A Catholic facility could be kicked out if families who are registered parishioners get first dibs. If a faith-based provider decides not to hire somebody who fundamentally rejects their teachings, leftwing bureaucrats and lawyers would come after them as well. The woke mob that stalks cake bakers and florists is now coming for church daycare. Twenty-one organizations, representing hundreds of thousands of faith-based daycares and preschools, signed an open letter to the Senate. Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and Muslims all wrote to Chairwoman Murray and Senator Burr. Here is what they said: The Build Back Better Act will suppress, if not exclude, the participation of many faith-based providers. . . . [P]rovisions in the bill text make it virtually impossible for many religious providers to participate. Let me say that again: [P]rovisions in the bill text make it virtually impossible for many religious providers to participate. Now, the far left says that if you don't support the toddler takeover, you are somehow out of touch, but they are projecting, as it is their Big Government scheme that is out of touch with the diverse aspirations of different families. Last year, a nonpartisan survey asked families what childcare arrangements they would ideally like. Apart from the pandemic, if finances were no obstacle, what would American parents want? The share who said ``center-based childcare'' was 27 percent. This is the only route that Democrats want to subsidize--center-based childcare. Just 27 percent of parents say that is their ideal world, and of that 27 percent, a majority prefer the faith-based options that Democrats would push out. Now, a larger group, nearly 40 percent, said their ideal arrangement would involve full-time parenting in some form, either one parent stays home or the two trade off. Another 9 percent said they would ideally like an extended relative like a grandparent to be the caregiver. Other families would ideally want a nanny share or a neighborhood co-op. The Democrats' daycare scheme would give all these people nothing-- nothing. A family that has sacrificed so much so that a mom or dad can stay home will not get one penny for books or supplies or make up for lost wages. A grandparent who leaves a part-time job to spend weekdays with their grandkids will not get a dime under the Democrats' plan. A neighborhood nanny share gets zero help. Forget about diversity. Forget about choice and fairness. Families would either enroll in a specific pathway that Big Labor and Big Government like best or they get nothing. Meanwhile, even in the centers that Democrats do want to subsidize, parents would get a very mixed bag. Analysts agree the new regulations would send costs skyrocketing. The District of Columbia's local government estimates that these sorts of policies would increase the cost of daycare by roughly $12,000 per child per year. Their plan would supposedly use government subsidies to make up this new inflation, but that assistance would be confusing and uneven. So this bill manages to be wildly inflationary and wildly unfair at the same time. That is pretty hard to pull off--wildly unfair and wildly inflationary at the same time. It insults the diversity of American families and their aspirations. It simply hands money and power to the same woke bureaucrats who are letting far-left propaganda into K-12 schools and then sending the Department of Justice after parents who speak up. This bill would give HHS Secretary Becerra, a hard-core culture warrior, a giant slush fund to start shaping the care of babies and toddlers. And facilities and families who make different choices would be left facing a massively inflated market with zero help. This would be an awful--awful--proposal for American families, even if it were free. But, of course, it isn't. Washington Democrats don't just have to explain to parents why they want to make childcare more expensive, more inflexible, and more unfair; they also get to explain why they want to print and borrow hundreds of billions of dollars to do it. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, for Washington Democrats, 2021 will have one major theme: ramming through inflationary spending on a partisan basis that hurts American families and actually helps China. That is how this all-Democratic Government began the year, jamming through a wasteful excuse for a stimulus bill that drove up prices and made supply chain problems even worse. Not a single Republican supported it, and Democrats now want to end the year with another massive spree that would make it even worse. The whole country understands that Democrats own this mess. They have seized one-party control of the economy. So you better believe that they will have one-party accountability for the resulting nightmare. The President and his allies are badly upside down in overall approval ratings, upside down on the generic ballot, upside down on the economy. And the more the men and women of this country learn about the reckless taxing-and-spending spree that Democrats are planning next, the less they want it or anything close to it. Democrats have wanted to transform the country alone. They want to print and borrow trillion after trillion on their own. They want to create even more inflation on their own. So, as the Republicans have made clear for months, they will have to own a debt ceiling increase as well. This week, the House and Senate have reached a bipartisan agreement to make that happen. As the Democratic leader said yesterday, the Democrats are ``willing to carry the burden.'' And so they will. We have reached an agreement on a one-time, one-shot statutory process that will enable Democrats to raise the debt limit at a fixed dollar amount, which they will specify. Much like the vote on an arms sales resolution that occurred yesterday and the Congressional Review Act vote that will occur today, this will be a standard expedited process, at a simple majority threshold, established by law. Democrats will get one shot at this. They won't be able to add any other amendments. And every single Senate Democrat will have to put their name to the gigantic dollar amount of debt they are prepared to pile on the American people.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Now, Mr. President, on another matter, for the past 2 years, as the country has battled COVID-19, I have been a strong and consistent advocate of following the science and taking precautions. That has included strong support for the safe and effective vaccines that have helped millions of Americans substantially lower their risk of death or serious illness. I took advantage of these modern medical miracles as soon as I could. I have received a booster. I have encouraged Kentuckians and all Americans to take full advantage as well. I have recorded public service announcements. I am a survivor of childhood polio. I have watched vaccines obliterate polio in our entire country in my lifetime. Trust me, there is no bigger proponent of vaccination than I am. But here is the thing: The United States of America is a free country. The Federal Government, elites in Washington, cannot micromanage citizens' personal choices without a legitimate basis in law and the Constitution. And that goes double for Presidents going far beyond the bounds of their office and their authority. President Biden's absurd private-sector vaccine mandate is blatant overreach. It is illegal. The administration has already lost in Federal court and had it blocked. Washington Democrats have lashed themselves to a mast that is very simple: Unvaccinated people should be fired. That is what they want. They don't trust individuals, families, doctors, employers, and customers to sort things out for themselves. They want every worker at a medium-sized business and up to either get the shot or get fired by President Biden. And buried in the illegal mandate is a call to explore whether it should expand to all businesses. This is not how things work in our country, period. Workers are not happy. Medium-sized businesses are not happy, especially not in the middle of this worker shortage. And, frankly, nobody who understands our system of government is happy. I have heard from so many Kentuckians who are affected by the administration's suite of several unwise vaccine mandates. Here is one quote: My wife . . . was notified that if she doesn't get fully vaccinated by January 4 then she would be terminated and lose her job without severance or unemployment. . . . She has been [there] for 17 years and has nothing but exemplary reviews. Here is another: I will lose my job at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. I very much enjoyed my work there and had every intention of retiring from the plant. However, due to Joe Biden's forced vaccine mandate, I will be terminated. . . . Please let a man who wants to work, go to work. Here is another: My firm [of] 103 employees will [either] lose about 25 to the mandate, or lay off 4 to get to 99. Which one should we do? Remember, personally, I would encourage each of these Kentuckians to get the vaccine, but for the purposes of this conversation, that really isn't the point. You better believe I am going to stand up and fight for their freedom. I want to thank the junior Senator from Indiana for spearheading this resolution to overturn the Biden administration's illegal mandate. I am a proud cosponsor. I will proudly vote for it and urge every Senator to do the same.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, now on one final matter, the national murder rate just recorded its biggest jump in more than a century. In some cities, homicides have set alltime records. From Albuquerque to Milwaukee, Memphis to Des Moines, city officials reported more murders last year than in any prior year. In my hometown of Louisville, homicides this year have now broken last year's alltime record. All last year, liberal politicians and activists made absurd and false claims about law enforcement. Here are some of them: ``We need to completely dismantle'' local police. Here is another one: ``Policing in our country is inherently and intentionally racist.'' A leftwing messaging campaign has spent a year and a half trying to chill law enforcement and policing. A network of liberal district attorneys around the country is matching their rhetoric with incredibly soft-on-crime practices behind the scenes, and the predictable result of all this has been a collapse--a collapse--in public safety. For example, last month a man killed six people and injured dozens more at a Christmas market in Wisconsin--listen to this--just weeks after he was released on bail for another set of violent charges. This criminal had already been arrested and locked up in neighboring Milwaukee County, but he was let out by a liberal DA who remarked several years ago: Is there going to be an individual I divert, or I put into treatment program, who's going to go out and kill somebody? You bet. Guaranteed. It's guaranteed to happen. It does not invalidate the overall approach. Stunning. There are now a whole bunch of grieving families in this Wisconsin city who have strong feelings about that ``approach.'' Here is a headline from New York City just this week: Man busted for assault set free, allegedly beats two random [New York City] women--then cut loose again. Smash-and-grabs, flash mob thefts, and carjackings are increasingly facts of life in multiple major cities, but against this backdrop, Democrats just want to keep getting weaker on crime and softer on public safety. We expect a vote today on the nomination of Rachael Rollins to be U.S. attorney for Massachusetts. Ms. Rollins has spent years in her current job as a DA pushing the idea that the State should wipe entire categories of crimes off the list of things worth prosecuting. She would rather her office not go after trespassers, shoplifters, or even those found possessing drugs with intent to distribute. This soft-on- crime advocacy should have earned the nominee a pink slip. Instead, President Biden is giving her a promotion. I would urge all Senators to vote no. Law-abiding Americans don't want prosecutors who refuse to prosecute. They don't want city jails equipped with revolving doors. And they need leaders who will defend the rule of law.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, the last time Washington Democrats pushed through a huge change that disrupted families' arrangements, it earned President Obama the ``Lie of the Year'' award. Democrats insisted that if you liked your healthcare plan, you could keep your healthcare plan. It turned out that was totally false. Their reckless government takeover threw many families into chaos. This year, many of the same Democrats want to write a sequel. They want to ram through a radical, reckless, multitrillion-dollar taxing- and-spending spree between now and Christmas. And a huge part of their bill would completely upend childcare and pre-K as they exist for families all across our country. If you like your childcare, you can keep your childcare. Well, buckle up, parents. What could possibly go wrong? The Democrats have written their toddler takeover in ways that would turn families' finances literally upside down and make already expensive childcare even costlier. So let's walk through how they did it. First, their reckless taxing-and-spending spree would make childcare dramatically more expensive through an avalanche of new mandates, regulations, and micromanagement--the usual Washington, DC, routine. State and local governments are panicking about the childcare inflation this would cause. Here in the District, as one liberal analyst uncovered, local officials have formally estimated--listen to this--that the per-child daycare cost for a toddler or an infant would jump up $12,000 a year--increase the cost of childcare $12,000 a year; $12,000 more per child per year. President Biden's inflation is coming for daycare. That is why the other half of their clumsy scheme is to dump subsidies onto some families. They want to borrow and print even more so they can throw money at the same thing they have just made more expensive. But here is where the bad idea turns literally into a terrible one. The Democrats wouldn't help families directly. This isn't some simple voucher that families can use as they please. My colleagues have produced an insanely tangled scheme where the truckloads of money go from Washington to State governments, to the childcare centers, one leaky bucket after another. The problems run deeper than that. Democrats want States to sign up for badly underfunded mandates. That is the effect, because the retirement programs would surely last forever; but, for accounting purposes, Democrats are pretending the money stops after a decade. Many States will not be keen to be socialist guinea pigs. Then there is the fact that the assistance is doled out in incredibly confusing and uneven ways. The subsidies start and stop with no rhyme or reason. Listen to what a left-leaning organization, the People's Policy Project, has uncovered. They have found that, in year one, a family that earns $1 over their State median income ``will be eligible for zero subsidies, meaning that they will be on the hook for the entire unsubsidized price,'' which they estimate will now cost ``at least $13,000 per year higher than'' it does right now. The researcher repeats himself because it is so unbelievable. Here is the quote: Having a family income just $1 higher than [your State's median income] would result in you being ineligible for child care subsidies in 2022 even as the unsubsidized price of child care skyrockets due to the wage and other mandates in the Democratic proposal. This is obviously a perverse outcome and it's not clear whether lawmakers even realize what they are about to do. This isn't just one technical glitch. It is emblematic of how ill- conceived their whole experiment is. There are 10 problems like this on every single page. I should add, the families who even get to participate in the mess I've just laid out, they are actually the lucky ones because Democrats want Big Government to pick winners and losers among different families who make different choices. Many American families make one set of sacrifices so that both parents can work full time. These are the people the Democrats are trying to reward, although their plan fails in practice. But Americans are allowed to have different aspirations. Some families make different sacrifices to have a parent at home full time. Others prefer flexible middle grounds that involve part-time work plus in-home childcare. The Democrats' toddler takeover wouldn't give any of them a dime--no diversity, no flexibility. Institutional daycare or nothing. In fact, it is worse than nothing, because a family who wants a provider to come to their house part time or wants to participate in a neighborhood nanny share will now be stuck in an inflated market. They will have to bid against the employers the Democrats have blessed and subsidized. This is the essence of what the Democratic plan would do: Big Government and Big Labor work together to reward some family arrangements and punish others. Our all-Democrat government is already botching the things that actually are government's job--projecting strength abroad, maintaining energy independence--but they can't even do that right. Just look at the poll numbers. The last thing families need are for Democrats to appoint themselves national daycare czars and then botch that, too. I haven't even touched on one of the most sinister parts of this whole proposal. For parents who do use childcare outside the home, faith-based options are incredibly popular. The Bipartisan Policy Center estimates that 53 percent of parents who use center-based care use ones that are linked to faith-based organizations, but the same Democrats who are letting far-left propaganda trickle down from the universities into K- 12 schools are now declaring war on faith-based childcare. Washington Democrats want to unleash the woke mob on church daycare. There are at least two parts of their bill that are direct attacks. First, liberals are trying to chase faith-based providers out of the daycare industry by denying funds to any facility they deem discriminatory. Of course, today's radical left tosses around these kinds of accusations at any remotely traditional institution. Faith- based childcare centers could potentially get their subsidies ripped away if they don't hire who secular bureaucrats want them to hire, set up their facilities the way secular bureaucrats want them set up, or even--listen to this--if they give preference to kids of their own faith. Orthodox Jewish daycare centers could get kicked out if they say Orthodox Jewish families get first dibs. Evangelical centers could get punished by bureaucrats if the families who belong to the church are accommodated first. This is a joke. The left is trying to weaponize the word ``discrimination'' to push faith-based childcare out of business. Another part of their bill goes out of its way to deny money for facility upgrades to buildings that are used for ``sectarian instruction or religious worship.'' If a faith-based center leads kids in prayer or teaches them their families' faiths, they don't get the funding that everybody else gets? We see this over and over from the culture warriors. They pretend they are happy to have religious groups in the public square but only if they check their beliefs at the door. Now, a few years ago, the Supreme Court had to strike down a similar policy that penalized faith-based organizations. A State had tried to deny a church a widely available grant to fix up its playground. The Court took a look at it and struck down the law 7 to 2. But the political left is right back at it. Just look at which Federal bureaucrat would oversee this giant mess. Well, of course, it is none other than Secretary Becerra, the hard-left culture warrior who got famous by suing the Little Sisters of the Poor for being too Catholic and by suing crisis pregnancy centers for being pro-life. This is the person whom Democrats want to give sweeping new powers over families' private choices? Secretary Becerra gets a giant slush fund to bring President Biden's inflation into childcare and discriminate against people of faith--just one more way Democrats' reckless taxing- and-spending spree would hurt working families. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, earlier this year, a disastrous retreat from Afghanistan gave our allies and partners reason to doubt that the United States could be counted on. Today, some of our colleagues want to double down on that mistake by blocking defensive support to yet another important partner. Saudi Arabia is literally surrounded by violent threats conceived, funded, and orchestrated by Iran. To the north, they have got Iran- backed terrorists sowing violence in Iraq and Syria. To the east, they have a gulf filled with the flags of Iran's own increasingly belligerent navy. To the south, the Saudis have Iran-backed Houthi terrorists strangling Yemen and lobbying rockets, missiles, and armed drones over their border. To be sure, this violence and the plight of the Yemeni people have only worsened since the Biden administration removed the Houthis from the terrorist list and imposed new restrictions on our support to the Saudi-led coalition. Around the world, from time to time, we all have legitimate concerns about the behavior of our partners, but we are in a better position to influence their conduct if they trust in our partnership. So our colleagues don't get to vent their moral outrage in a vacuum without accounting for what comes next. A vote to block the sale of defensive military systems to Saudi Arabia would undermine one of our most important regional partners, but there is even more at stake. Whether we help or not, our Arab partners will still be under siege tomorrow. They still need military capabilities to defend themselves. And we know that Russia and China will happily sell them advanced weapons systems. The importance of so- called great power competition is a matter of general consensus. So we should be wary of turning our backs on longtime partners and of pushing them into the arms of our adversaries. So here is what our colleagues' resolution would actually do. It would give the world yet another reason to doubt the resolve of the United States, and it would give our biggest adversaries a new foothold to exert their influence over a rapidly changing and important region.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, it is hard to believe it has been 25 years since Senator Dole took leave of the Senate. It is even harder to believe he passed away this past weekend, not because it comes as a shock to say goodbye to an elder statesman at age 98 but because our colleague was still so energetic, so involved, and so forward-looking right through to his final months. If you didn't know Bob Dole, if you just read a summary of his impressive Senate career, his leadership tenure, his Presidential campaign, he might sound like a man of contrasts. On one hand, our friend from Kansas preached conservative values-- personal responsibility and fiscal discipline--but this son of the Dust Bowl and wounded warrior was also laser-focused on caring for the most vulnerable, notching landmark wins on subjects from food insecurity to veterans' issues, to the rights of disabled Americans. On the one hand, Senator Dole took pride in our Republican Party. He rose to key roles that were necessarily somewhat partisan, first leading our Senate Republican conference for many years and then leading a Presidential ticket. But he was also a consensus-finding legislator, an honest broker with deep friendships and working relationships that spanned the aisle. On the one hand, our colleague was earnest, unironic, and somewhat serious--a true ``greatest generation'' midwesterner. But he also wielded a charming, disarming, and self-deprecating sense of humor, whether he was cracking one-liners, often at his own expense, or doing a joint appearance with his comic impersonator. Allow me just one example of Bob Dole's comedic talent. In January of 1997, just after President Clinton had defeated Bob and won his reelection, the President graciously bestowed on Bob the Presidential Medal of Freedom. There they were, in mid-January, just 3 days before the day Bob had spent months hoping he would be inaugurated, but President Clinton would be reinaugurated instead. It was a gracious gesture and a warm event all around. The time comes for Bob's remarks. He walks up to the podium, looks around, and he begins: I, Robert J. Dole-- The crowd is already cracking up. do solemnly swear-- Then a theatrical pause. Oh, sorry. Wrong speech. Once the laughs began to die down, there came the self-deprecating punch line: [I thought] I would be here this historic week receiving something from the President . . . but I thought it would be the front door key. The thing is, there was no contradiction in any of it, no paradox. Bob's life and career were very, very consistent. The virtues and the values that led Bob Dole to raise his right hand, enlist in the Army, and fight bravely until he could not raise that hand any longer were the same virtues and values that compelled him to raise his left hand for a different oath in the Kansas State Capitol a few years later and then across the Rotunda in the U.S. House and then here in the Senate. The same virtues and values that animated Bob's passionate, pointed speeches in the 1960s about a citizen's duty animated his great empathy toward those who needed help. With Bob Dole, what you saw was what you got, and from his comrades in the 10th Mountain Division to his constituents in Kansas, to the whole Senate and the entire country, what we got was extraordinary. I cannot summarize in one speech the full life or legacy of our friend Bob Dole. There are the battlefield heroics, the hospital-bed friendships with fellow future Senators Phil Hart and ``the best bridge player at Percy Jones Hospital,'' Dan Inouye. There is the policy legacy that endures to this day. These remembrances will take Congress this whole week, and they will occupy historians for decades to come. Bob Dole had the same chief hero for his entire adult life: his fellow son of Kansas, a general, and then a President, Dwight Eisenhower. Bob didn't just like Ike; he idolized him. In Senator Dole's Senate farewell speech in 1996, he saved the second-to-the-last quotation for his hero from Abilene, KS. He kept his foot personally on the gas pedal for the Eisenhower Memorial here in Washington well into his nineties. He invoked and praised Ike constantly throughout his career. One such occasion was in late 1979. An event was held at Eisenhower's boyhood home, Presidential library, and the gravesite in Abilene on what would have been his 89th birthday. It so happened that only a couple of weeks later Mrs. Eisenhower would pass away and be laid to rest there as well. On that day, Senator Dole explained that America had gotten ``lucky.'' Why? Because ``when we were thirsty for leadership, we turned to a man from Kansas, a genuine hero who embodied in his own life the finest qualities of the American people . . . a man from grassroots America, steeped in the traditions of neighborhood and patriotism and service . . . a strong man who earned his strength in war yet never forgot the disease of poverty or the scourge of personal suffering.'' Bob was always eloquent, and those lines of his certainly did describe Ike. But now that our friend's 98 amazing years have come to a close, we can say with certainty that Eisenhower isn't the only Kansan who meets those standards. Not only General Eisenhower but also 2LT Robert J. Dole was a genuine hero from Kansas who helped satisfy a nation's thirst for leadership, who was steeped in homespun American values and proud of it, who fought with great courage and valor on the battlefield, and whose concern for the most vulnerable in our society came right with him into the halls of power. I mentioned that Eisenhower was Bob's second-to-last quotation in his farewell remarks to the Senate, so I want to close today where he closed 25 years ago. Musing on both his past and his future, our colleague's final quote was from the midwestern poet Carl Sandburg: [Y]esterday is a wind gone down, a sun dropped in the west. I tell you there is nothing in the world, only an ocean of tomorrows, a sky of tomorrows. Now, for our remarkable friend, the Sun of this world has set at last. But we pray in faith that he now beholds an even brighter light; that the endless ocean of tomorrows now stretches before him. The entire Senate sends our prayers to Elizabeth and Robin and to so many family, friends, and former staff of Senator Dole. The whole country stands with you, not only in grief but in gladness and thanksgiving, for almost a century that was lived so patriotically, so gratefully, and so well.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, two-thirds of Americans are worried about inflation. About half of the middle class and 70 percent of low- income families just told Gallup that rising prices have been a personal hardship for their households. That is why 67 percent of the American people say that Washington needs to ``cut back on spending and printing money,'' but here in Washington, Democrats are bound and determined to do just the opposite. They want to try the crazy strategy of inflating their way out of inflation--another massive, reckless taxing-and-spending spree. Even the most generous estimates, when the CBO has to swallow all-- all--of the Democrats' accounting gimmicks at face value, still say their proposal would entail $800 billion in new deficit spending over the next 5 years alone--over just 5 years. Outside experts who are allowed to reject the Democrats' obvious budget gimmicks find the real cost--the real cost--of their bill would actually be close to $5 trillion. That is with a ``t''--trillion dollars. After a decade, it would increase deficits by $2.8 trillion, but the reckless pricetag, actually, isn't the only problem. What is remarkable is that the Democrats want to spend all these trillions but not leave citizens with any impressive, enduring national project in return. There is no Hoover Dam, Interstate Highway System, or Moon landing on the other side of their mountains of borrowed money--nothing like that. It is just a giant catalog of socialist mediocrity: new entitlements here, new transfer programs there, new ways to let bureaucrats run families' lives, and shameless--shameless-- goodies for specific interest groups that support the political left--a giant, muddled mess that would leave families with fewer childcare choices and higher costs, with fewer new prescription drugs and cures, with higher prices for less reliable energy. It is, literally, a reckless taxing-and-spending spree that hurts American families and actually--believe it or not--helps China. There are a lot of big, sweeping, radical changes in their proposal that would change families' lives dramatically and entirely for the worse. But in between the sweeping wish-fulfillment for people who call themselves ``democratic socialists,'' there is also a remarkable amount of just pure waste, absurd--literally absurd--little giveaways, and interest group goodies. A billion here, a billion there, and hope the American people won't notice if it is buried in enough bureaucratic gibberish. Here are just a few examples. This bill would supply billions of dollars to help colleges and universities indoctrinate college students with even more leftwing propaganda and billions more to give them made-up Potemkin jobs in a make-work program they are calling a Civilian Climate Corps--this at a time when industries already cannot find workers. Their bill would set aside multiple billions of dollars to put Federal Government employees, like IRS agents and postal carriers, into brandnew electric vehicles. Earlier this year, the Biden administration made sure that luxury Teslas, with a sticker price up to $97,000, were on the list for government procurement--$97,000 per vehicle. So working families might be having to choose between heating costs and new shoes for the kids. Oh, but don't worry, Democrats will make sure IRS auditors can cruise around in Silicon Valley's finest. Their proposal would create a huge $29 billion slush fund that activists are applauding as the foundation for something called--now, listen to this--a national green bank. Can you say Solyndra on steroids? An entire bank to finance pipe dreams that can't earn support out in the real economy. Separately, they are planning to spend multiple billions of taxpayer dollars for something the liberals are calling--listen to this one now--tree equity. I will let that one speak for itself. Of course, the Green New Deal folks aren't the only constituency Democrats want to pay off. This reckless taxing-and-spending spree is also designed to knock out all their Christmas shopping for trial lawyers, Big Labor bosses, Ivy League administrators, and blue-State millionaires, all in one fell swoop. There is the State and local tax carve-out, the SALT gimmick, that would give an extra tax cut to two-thirds of the households making a million dollars or more a year. Perhaps to make sure these reckless policies get good press, Democrats have included a $1.6 billion bailout for the news media. I am not making this up. We are essentially talking about government welfare for newsrooms--for newsrooms. All this, and it goes on and on and on. There is a new special tax break for rich universities' massive endowments--hundreds of millions of dollars to overhaul kids' school lunch menus, including making sure they are ``culturally appropriate.'' I guess they want to make sure that children's cafeteria trays are sufficiently woke. And goodness knows they couldn't skip over Big Labor. So the Democrats' plan would let working Americans' above-the-line tax deduction for charitable contributions expire--that goes away--but they would replace it with a brandnew deduction that only applies to union dues. And then there is pure pork of the old-school kind. The Speaker of the House tried to sneak in hundreds of millions of dollars for a special park in San Francisco. And the Senate Democratic leader has spent much trying to double the bill's funding for public housing so the chronically mismanaged authority in his hometown could get $40 billion to clean up its messes. There is even what appears to be a $33 million kickback that is largely for one Democratic Congressman whose vote Speaker Pelosi literally had to lock down. Out of nowhere, one mostly dormant government Commission that is important to this particular Democrat's district gets a funding increase of 13,000 percent--13,000 percent. You heard that right, a funding increase of 13,000 percent. What a terrific coincidence for this particular Democratic House Member. So take a step back. Our colleagues' proposal isn't some big national leap into the 21st century; it is an endless--endless--hodgepodge of this nonsense: partisan back-scratching, interest group giveaways, and shameless--shameless--waste. And through tax hikes and inflation, working American families will foot the bill. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, inflation is hammering working families from coast to coast, but Democrats want to print, borrow, and spend billions more. Our economy is already sputtering on their watch, but Democrats want to wallop the country with massive tax hikes that would kill American jobs and discourage industry from locating here in our country. Everybody with a lick of common sense knows the massive, reckless taxing-and-spending spree that Democrats are writing behind closed doors is crazy. A supermajority of Americans--67 percent--say that inflation and rising costs are harming everyone in the country and government should cut back on spending and printing money as a result. Sixty-seven percent of the American people--two in three Americans-- want Washington Democrats to step back from the precipice--an overwhelming consensus. But a few loud voices on the far left are yelling at Democrats to ignore the people and take the plunge. The sheer financial cost of what Democrats want to do to our country is literally jaw-dropping. Even when the Congressional Budget Office had to swallow all the Democrats' budget gimmicks and fuzzy math at face value, they still found that this reckless taxing-and-spending spree would add--listen to this--$800 billion to the deficit in the next 5 years; even with swallowing all the gimmicks, another $800 billion in deficit spending during a time of inflation. But even that almost certainly undershoots the impact. The Democrats' legislation pretends that liberals will let all of these huge new entitlements simply expire after a few years. We all know that is a total accounting fiction. They are marketing these new welfare programs as moral imperatives. Democrats don't want them to expire, but they draft bills with these fake expiration dates to make it appear like it costs less. Outside experts have tried to estimate the real cost of the bill. So listen to this: If all these new welfare entitlements did not magically fall away after a few years, they say the bill would actually cost double--double--what Democrats say and leave us with $2.8 trillion in new debt. Nonpartisan experts who look past the Democrats' fictional accounting and fake assumptions find the bill would add $2.8 trillion to the deficit. So that is how you risk turning a couple years of inflation into a full-on lost decade--a full-on lost decade. But the problem with their reckless taxing-and-spending spree is not just the pricetag. It is not the case that Democrats have cooked up a great list of investments that would strengthen America but we just can't afford it at this particular moment, no. Our colleagues want to ram through a far- left wish list that would hurt families and help China. So, look, there is no grand national project waiting on the other side of all these trillions, no 21st-century version of the Hoover Dam or the Interstate Highway System or the space race, nothing to really make us proud; just a mediocre assortment of new welfare programs, new transfers, and new bureaucratic power grabs. And somehow it all seems tailormade to take existing problems in our country and actually make them worse. Take, for example, the nationwide labor shortage facing our economy right now. One of the most vocal of the House's self-styled Democratic socialists said last year that even after workplaces were once again safe, people should simply refuse to go back to work--refuse to go back to work. Forget science, forget economic recovery; just say no. Well, this spring, the far left got their wish: a massive, unnecessary spending package that stunted our comeback and literally paid people to stay on the sidelines. By summertime, unfilled positions were setting new all-time highs. Yet Washington Democrats now want to double down with a plan that would shatter a decades-old consensus about the link between welfare and work. They want to massively expand access to welfare, including to people in this country--listen to this--who are in this country illegally by hijacking the child tax credit that was designed for working families with actual tax liabilities. That is what the child tax credit was for: to help working families who had actual tax liabilities. Or look at the ongoing obsession with the Green New Deal policies. President Biden's cave to the far-left's climate agenda started on day one: canceling American jobs, the Keystone XL Pipeline, and freezing exploration on new sources of domestic energy. Last year, the United States was a net energy exporter. Now, on Democrats' watch, we have doubled our imports of Russian oil, and American households are staring down an historic spike in home heating costs. Was it time to pump the brakes on green radicalism? Not if you ask Washington Democrats. Their reckless taxing-and-spending spree would heap a fresh batch of fees and mandates on producers of the most affordable domestic energy while showering incentives on the pricey and unreliable alternatives blue State liberals prefer. Pouring government subsidies into green pet projects like electric cars and solar panels would mean handing a massive windfall to Chinese producers that dominate the markets for a slew of the rare earth materials these products require. So it would hurt our families and help China. Look at education. The same Democrats who let their Big Labor benefactors rob kids of in-person schooling are now letting the Justice Department of the Biden administration scrutinize parents who dare to question woke propaganda. Their reckless taxing-and-spending spree would go even further to take power and control away from parents. Democrats want to bring even more of kids' learning, down to pre-K, under the thumb of woke bureaucrats and Big Labor. Even prior to pre-K, Democrats have cooked up a crazy new labyrinth of regulations and subsidies and mandates for daycare. President Biden and Speaker Pelosi want to tell the American people how to raise their kids and how to structure their private family arrangements. These liberals want to take families' most personal life decisions and have Washington pick winners and losers. So listen to this: The cost of childcare would actually be driven up. Families who have made different sets of sacrifices to have a parent or grandparent raise their young kids would get absolutely nothing. Oh, and listen to this: Many Americans' faith-based providers would be intentionally shut out from important funding, and the culture warrior Secretary Becerra would be calling the shots. So it is like I said. The actual substance of their bill is as awful as the pricetag. Democrats' plan wouldn't just waste trillions and exacerbate inflation; it would also make American families' lives considerably worse. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, yesterday, a bipartisan majority of Senators rejected the Democratic leader's efforts to shut down debate on the National Defense Authorization Act and block new measures to get tougher on Russia. The Democratic leader wants to block the Senate from fully and robustly debating a number of important issues--from how to manage the fallout from the reckless Afghanistan retreat to how to respond to China's dramatic and destabilizing military modernization, to how to restore deterrence against an emboldened Iran. The NDAA is supposed to be the bipartisan forum for debating and acting on these kinds of issues. Months ago, the Armed Services Committee moved this process forward--listen to this--23 to 3, but the Democratic leader has botched the floor process. It is especially bizarre to see the Democratic leader so focused, so intent, on blocking the Senate from dealing seriously with the growing aggression from Putin's Russia. He seems downright desperate to block new bipartisan action on Nord Stream 2. It is really quite strange to see. Senators Risch and Cruz have proposed language concerning this Putin pipeline that the House was able to pass almost unanimously. Unlike the House provision, the Risch-Cruz amendment includes a waiver provision that would give the President more flexibility, which makes the Democratic leader's effort to shut the process down and block their amendment all the more baffling. If there is opposition to the amendment--if it can be improved with modifications--then, by all means, let's have a public debate. Likewise, Senator Portman has been a leading voice for bolstering our European partners and delivering more meaningful support to Ukraine's military. As Putin amasses forces on Ukraine's border, the Senate should debate how to help the Ukrainians defend themselves. The Democratic leader is trying to shut that down as well. So the NDAA is not finished yet. So the Senate cannot be finished yet either. We need the same kind of normal, robust, bipartisan amendment process that always characterizes this bill, and we need the Democratic leader to stop trying to block the Senate from sanctioning Putin's cronies. Inflation Now, Mr. President, on an entirely different matter, 88 percent of Americans are concerned about inflation--most of them are very concerned--and 77 percent of Americans say inflation has affected them personally. We have a big and diverse country. It is hard to get that many Americans to agree on anything. But President Biden did promise he would unite the country, and on the Democrats' watch, under the Democrats' policies, the American people are united in their fear and frustration at runaway prices, falling purchasing power, and all the consequences of inflation. The men and women of this country are spending 20 percent more than last year for beef at the grocery store, 50 percent more to fill up the gas tank, 26 percent more for less choice in used cars. One recent article in the New York Times suggested that perhaps Americans should forget about trying to buy their family members normal gifts and settle for exchanging handwritten promises to tackle household chores, such as ``washing out the reusable plastic bags.'' I guess the Grinch is doing some ghostwriting in his spare time. Some weeks back, the White House Press Secretary tried to laugh off reporters' questions about the supply chain and inflation crises. She literally laughed at the idea that anybody would be worried about the ``tragedy of the treadmill that's delayed.'' Well, the President's staff are yukking it up, but working parents aren't laughing. Middle-class families aren't laughing. A Kentuckian named Mike Halligan isn't laughing either. He runs a big food bank in Lexington called God's Pantry. They distribute more than 40 million pounds of food every year at the local pantries all across my State. Here is what he says: We've seen the cost of our ``sharing Thanksgiving basket'' go up this year by 14.5 percent. . . . We've seen our costs go up by about 50 percent. The transportation component of that is literally doubled. And he also explained that, since inflation is also hammering his contributors, charities and nonprofits may face ``donor fatigue'' at precisely the time they cannot afford a fall-off. The Democrats' inflation is hitting, literally, every part of our society. A famous economist once said that inflation is the only form of tax that can be levied without any legislation, but what is remarkable about 2021 is that Democrats did directly legislate a big chunk of this inflation into existence. It is unusually traceable to deliberate policy decisions they have made. One of the most famous Democratic economists in the country, Larry Summers, tried to warn them. On February 4, he wrote that the Democrats' stimulus could ``set off inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation.'' He said the same thing all springtime long. So did President Obama's CEA chair: Jason Furman . . . said that the American Rescue Plan is definitely ``too big for the moment,'' stating, ``I don't know of any economist that was recommending something the size of what was done.'' But Washington Democrats had already decided months ago they would try to use the temporary pandemic as a Trojan horse for permanent socialism. Remember last spring, when one of the senior-most House Democrats called it a ``tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision'' or, earlier this fall, when President Biden himself said the pandemic ``does present us with an opportunity.'' For Democrats, this go-around, it has never been about what families need; it has only been about what activists want. So we got the first massive spending bill in the springtime, and now a majority of Americans ``worry they won't be able to afford what they need during the holidays due to inflation.'' President Biden inherited an economy that was primed and ready for a historic comeback--a fantastic inheritance. Since then, they have had less than a year at the controls, and we have got more than half the country actively worried their checking accounts might not even get them through the holidays. But Democrats aren't offering the country any contrition, any apology, or, more importantly, any course correction. Amazingly enough, they want to come back around for an even bigger bite at the apple. They want to try to inflate their way out of inflation. Our colleagues have spent months huddled behind closed doors, neglecting the most basic governing duties, writing another reckless taxing-and-spending spree that even the most conservative estimates say would add about $800 billion to deficits over the next 5 years alone. They want to take the inflationary fire they helped start and pour jet fuel on it. Even the CBO, which has to swallow most of the Democrats' gimmicky math, estimates this bill would spend nearly $2 trillion and pile almost hundreds of billions more onto deficits over the next decade. Perhaps more realistic are the outside, nonpartisan estimates that actually account for what we all know: Democrats would never let the new entitlements in their bill expire. Those more realistic estimates put the total cost--listen to this--just short of $5 trillion, at a time when Chairman Powell, who has been willing to let the country run hot, is now warning that current uncertainties could keep inflation elevated to a troubling level. Now, I could talk all day about how the actual contents of this bill would hurt American families even more, about how it would take another big step toward socialized medicine and pour cold water on the innovations and cures that save lives, how it would incinerate huge chunks of our energy sector and the jobs it supports in order to keep pace with green preferences of California liberals, how it would wrestle authority over intimate decisions about childcare away from American families and put it in the hands of Washington bureaucrats, but the overall picture is impossible to mistake: Inflation is hurting the American people, and Democrats want to print, borrow, and spend trillions more--the most out-of-touch agenda you could possibly imagine. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, today's Democratic Party does not make the policy decisions of a party that is serious about protecting our country. In May, President Biden released a budget proposal that proposed a de facto cut in defense spending, and that was before the President's own supercharged inflation further cut the purchasing power of every defense dollar. In August, his botched Afghanistan retreat shattered our allies' trust and delighted the terrorists. In 10 months in office, despite naive happy talk from the administration, the threats we face are markedly worse. The vacuum they left in Afghanistan has emboldened terrorists, from Iran's militias in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen to the highest ranks of the Taliban's government. Their desperation to return to a failed nuclear deal has given Iran the upper hand in negotiations. For 4 years, my colleague the Democratic leader seemed constantly focused on Putin and Russia. But now, with Putin flaunting his power and Russia engaged in ongoing cyber attacks, weapons tests, and troop buildups? Crickets. And for all their talk about China's threat, we have seen no evidence that Democrats intend for the United States to keep pace with the PLA's investments in nuclear and hypersonic weapons. The bipartisan National Defense Strategy Commission has made clear that we cannot shortchange our military modernization and have a prayer of competing with the People's Republic of China or even the declining but dangerous Russian Republic. Our colleagues across the aisle have missed one opportunity after another to right the ship. They have used the reconciliation process to pass trillions in new partisan spending without a cent for defending the Nation. And despite the strong bipartisan work of our colleagues on the Armed Services Committee, the Democratic leader kept this year's Defense authorization bill in limbo literally for months and now wants to block the Senate from a real debate and a real amendment process. Debating the right way to confront Russian threats to America and our allies and equip our friends in Ukraine is certainly worth the Senate's time. Putin is massing tens of thousands of troops on Ukraine's border, but the Democratic leader is trying to block a debate about responding to Russian aggression? It makes no sense. Considering sanctions on the pipeline that fuels Putin's encroachment over Europe--including provisions from Senator Risch that closely mirror language that the House added unanimously--is certainly worth the Senate's time. Setting the record straight on our resolve to maintain a strong and credible nuclear deterrent that can check the worst impulses of our adversaries is also worth the Senate's time. Yet, once again, the Democratic leader seems to want to put national security last. My colleague is trying to overcorrect for poor planning by cramming a 2-week bill into 2 or 3 days' time. I imagine there might be finger-pointing at the Republicans if that proves impossible. So nothing less than the safety of the American people is at stake. This is more important than political timetables or partisan wish lists. So if the Democratic leader insists on forcing a cloture vote later today, I will oppose cutting off these important debates prematurely when they have really just begun.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, now on a related matter, why do our Democratic colleagues want to shortchange our national defense? Well, to free up their time and attention for another massive, reckless taxing-and-spending spree, a radical wish list that would hurt American families and help China. Working families are already getting slammed by runaway costs because the Democrats' last massive spending spree drove up inflation. Gas prices are up about 50 percent, used car prices are up more than 25 percent, and grocery prices across practically every category are up significantly over this time last year. But, in response, Washington Democrats want to print, borrow, and spend trillions more. Even if you accept all their budget gimmicks at face value, this bill alone would unleash $800 billion in not-paid-for spending in the next 5 years. Years 5 through 10 are when their crushing tax hikes and phony accounting would actually begin to kick in. But even then the bill is not paid for. President Biden promised Americans over and over that this legislation would cost zero dollars. Obviously, that is false. The Congressional Budget Office says that after 10 years, after their tax hikes and fake offsets are factored in, their spree would still add up to $367 billion and add that all to the deficit. President Biden said the deficit impact would be zero. In reality, it is hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars. President Biden promised Americans something else too. He said he would never raise taxes on the middle class. People earning less than $400,000 per year were not to pay a penny more. He has completely broken this promise as well. Among the $1.5 trillion in job-killing tax increases are new burdens for small businesses, family farms, and direct hikes on middle-class families earning less than six figures. Meanwhile, amazingly, Democrats did find room in their plan to include $300 billion in tax cuts for the wealthiest blue-State ZIP codes in New York and California. Our colleagues want to pretend they are launching another New Deal. Yet one of the biggest components is a direct cash giveaway to their richest constituents. So the cost of this spending spree would be astronomical, and the massive tax hikes that would only partly pay for it would literally crush an already fragile economy. Well, what about the content of the liberal wish list? If Democrats get to steal the American people's credit card for this historic spending spree, what would our citizens even get to unwrap? Well, there would be massive government giveaways to supposedly green initiatives, giving rise to a whole new generation of waste and abuse like Solyndra. There would be a gigantic slush fund so that HHS Secretary Becerra, the culture warrior who sued Catholic nuns, could take over daycare and prekindergarten across America. He would be in charge of subsidizing certain kinds of private family choices but not others and tilting the playing field against faith-based childcare. There would be a continuation of inflationary welfare payments that Washington is sending out with zero work requirements whatsoever, and illegal immigrants would get the money as well. Oh, and, as we speak, Senate Democrats are still trying desperately behind the scenes to get sweeping amnesty included in the bill as well. So it goes on and on like this, a hodgepodge catalog that is built to satisfy the demands of activists, not the needs of families. If you ask any working-class or middle-class American family for their top concerns, you aren't going to hear many people pining for massive tax hikes, electric car charging stations, and woke bureaucrats getting control of their kids' early childhoods. My colleagues across the aisle seem determined to spend the weeks ahead on ways to waste Americans' money while making Americans' problems even worse. So let's hope enough of our Democratic colleagues step back, take stock, do the responsible thing, and kill this bill.

Mr. McCONNELL

Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. McCONNELL. Well, at long last the Senate will officially turn to the NDAA. Every day, world events remind us that America faces serious rolling threats. In too many cases President Biden's decisions have actually made things worse, so our annual opportunity for the Senate to have its say is as important this year as it has ever been. Over in Russia, Putin is preparing to escalate military hostilities along the border with Ukraine, and he is using Europe's reliance on natural gas to bully our friends. But President Biden actually removed obstacles to Putin's brandnew pipeline that will further extend his leverage and further enrich his cronies. So I hope the Senate will consider an NDAA amendment to sanction this project and to provide additional lethal support to Ukraine. These initiatives have previously won bipartisan support, so I would hope Democrats would join Republicans in pushing back on Moscow. China is flaunting major military innovations, like hypersonic weapons systems, stepping up airspace intrusions over Taiwan, and blaming America for their bad behavior. But while President Biden and our colleagues like to talk a good game about China, they have yet to really walk the walk. President Biden's budget request for our military and defense does not even keep pace with President Biden's inflation. In addition, while Russia openly threatens its neighbors and China builds up its conventional and nuclear forces, there are reports that Democrats are considering unprecedented new constraints on America's own nuclear options through a ``no first use'' or ``sole purpose'' policy. Our allies have strong concerns about this. I hope the Senate will use the NDAA process to demonstrate bipartisan support for finally modernizing our nuclear triad. That is the bedrock of deterrence and our strongest defense against these serious threats. So, what about terrorism? Following President Biden's Afghanistan disaster, we are facing new and growing threats there as well. The new Taliban government has made cabinet ministers out of terrorists whom the Obama-Biden administration let out of Guantanamo Bay. But the Biden-Harris administration still naively acted like these characters care one bit about international norms. That is why Republicans have an amendment to ensure that none of the funding for Afghanistan aid can flow to the Taliban. It is an indictment of President Biden's policy that such an amendment is even necessary, but yet that is where we are. In the Middle East, Iranian-backed terrorists are rampaging from Yemen to Iraq to Syria. They are emboldened as our deterrence has eroded. Given the multiple attacks on U.S. forces and facilities, we are fortunate more Americans haven't been killed. It may only be a matter of time before we see U.S. casualties at the hands of Iranian- backed terrorists. However, in the wake of these growing threats, Democrats want to use the NDAA--a bill that should strengthen our national defense--as an occasion to weaken the authorities that support our military's presence and operational flexibility by repealing the 2002 AUMF. I expect a robust debate about that. I am glad we will finally be able to have these debates and these votes. America needs a course correction, and the Senate needs to supply it. The Economy Madam President, on an entirely different matter, American families are dealing with painful inflation every single day. They have been fighting this daily battle for months now. A few months ago, a grandfather raising four grandkids in Missouri told reporters he had to cancel summer camp for his 8-year-old and his 6-year-old in order to keep affording diapers for their twin younger brothers. One Maryland woman told the local news she had gone to the grocery store to buy meat for her family, but was turned away by the pricetag and had to leave with a $2 loaf of bread instead. One man in Massachusetts, who cares for his elderly mother, told reporters that his 94-year-old mom needs the house kept warm, so they are getting absolutely crushed--crushed--by runaway heating costs. Here's what he had to say about it: Before, you'd go to the store, and if you had a $100, you could buy four bags of groceries and be happy. Now you are lucky to get a bag. Milk, orange juice, eggs. Plus the oil for the house, the water bills. It's just crazy. It's so much money. How is someone supposed to survive? This persistent and painful inflation has been directly fueled by the reckless spending spree that Democrats rammed through in March. Even if Washington Democrats didn't inflict more new damage, economists still say ``we're going to see inflation get worse before it gets better.'' The Democratic leader said on March 12: ``I do not think the dangers of inflation, at least in the near-term, are very real.'' He was catastrophically wrong. And these same people want yet another multitrillion-dollar bite at the apple. Look, American families know the spending part of Democrats' reckless tax-and-spending spree would spell disaster. Sixty-seven percent just told a survey that Washington should cut back on printing and spending because of inflation and rising costs. And then there is the taxing part of their reckless taxing-and- spending spree. The bill that Democrats are writing behind closed doors would hike taxes on the American people by an estimated $1.5 trillion-- a trillion and a half dollars in tax increases. Democrats have already turned a strong economy into a shaky economy. Now they want to add the biggest tax hikes in a generation. A huge chunk of that is hundreds of billions of dollars for tax hikes on American industries and employers, because the Biden administration has become enamored with a global scheme where countries around the world supposedly all agree to hike their tax rates together. This is an awful idea. Remember, in 2019, Republican policies had set up the best economy for working Americans in a generation. This is in large part because we just cut taxes substantially. We made America a more attractive place to do business. So President Biden wants to do just the opposite of that: thrust America into some kind of global noncompete agreement. We are supposed to promise Europe and Asia that we won't make America an especially attractive place to bring jobs and prosperity. Let me say that again. We are in the process of promising Europe and Asia that we won't make America an especially attractive place to bring jobs and prosperity. Look, it gets worse. President Biden and Secretary Yellen want America to leap over the cliff first, tax the heck out of American industries while we just wait and see if our competitors actually follow suit. Well, you better believe China would be just thrilled to see the Democrats' bill drain hundreds of billions of dollars out of our own private sector as a symbolic gesture to the rest of the world. Democrats' tax policies are just like their energy policies. They won't build back better. They will build back Beijing. They won't build back better. They will build back Beijing. This is just one part of a $1.5 trillion job-killing tax hike. There are all kinds of tax increases that would hit major employers, Main Street small businesses, and American families. Nonpartisan experts have confirmed the Democrats' bill would completely break the President's promise not to raise ``a single penny more,'' he said, in taxes on middle-class households. They even want to send tens of billions in extra funding to the IRS so they can hire an army of new agents to snoop and audit their way across the country. But less than 3 percent of the huge IRS windfall would fund better customer service for taxpayers. Finally, in the midst of all these tax hikes, Democrats from New York, New Jersey, and California have managed to include--listen to this--a massive tax cut for wealthy people who choose to reside in high-tax blue States. This bonanza for blue State millionaires and billionaires would cost almost $300 billion on its own. Even the Washington Post could only marvel at the audacity of this. Here's their headline: ``The second-biggest program in the Democrats' spending plan gives billions to the rich.'' That is the Washington Post's assessment of it. In fact, even though Democrats want to hike taxes by $1.5 trillion, their bill still manages to give a net tax cut to 89 percent of people making between $500,000 and $1 million, and 69 percent of households making over $1 million. This bears repeating. Even though Democrats want to hike taxes by $1.5 trillion, their bill still manages to give a net tax cut to 89 percent of people making between $500,000 and $1 million, and 69 percent of households making over $1 million. All of this is a huge blow to American competitiveness: job-killing tax hikes. But Democrats make sure to look out for the ultrawealthy out on the coasts. A supermajority of them get tax cuts. I am almost impressed our colleagues have found a way to be this out of touch. I suggest the absence of a quorum.