John Thune

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Arkansas (Mr. Boozman), the Senator from Arkansas (Mr. Cotton), the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer), the Senator from Montana (Mr. Daines), the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Mullin), the Senator from Utah (Mr. Romney), the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio), the Senator from South Carolina (Mr. Scott), the Senator from Alaska (Mr. Sullivan), and the Senator from Mississippi (Mr. Wicker).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. McConnell), the Senator from Alaska (Mr. Sullivan), and the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Tillis).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Alaska (Mr. Sullivan).

Mr. THUNE

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, President Biden came to Congress on Thursday night to deliver the State of the Union Address. And, unfortunately, it was exactly what you might expect from the President: the same old tired tax-and- spend proposals, a far-left agenda, and a couple--or I should say--a complete failure to address some of the biggest challenges facing the country. Let's step back in time for a minute to the beginning of the President's administration. Mr. President, 3 years ago this month, the President signed into law a massive and partisan $1.9 trillion spending bill under the guise of COVID relief, despite the fact that Congress had just passed a fifth--fifth--bipartisan COVID bill that met, essentially, all current pressing COVID needs. Economists, including some left-leaning economists--warned at the time that the bill ran the risk of setting off inflation. But Democrats and the President proceeded anyway. And every American knows what resulted--an inflation crisis that saw inflation reach its highest level in more than 40 years. An inflation crisis that, 3 years later, still--still--isn't over. But if you thought 3 years of inflation had taught President Biden to be wary of excessive government spending, you would be wrong. The President's State of the Union address was bursting with ideas for new spending--and new taxes to go along with them. Yet the President had the audacity to claim that he is ``delivering real results in fiscally responsible ways.'' Well, when you have passed an unnecessary $1.9 trillion spending bill that plunged the country into an inflation crisis from which it has not still emerged, I would think you might be cautious about asserting any claims to fiscal responsibility. But the President isn't overly troubled by the facts in these matters. He went on to assert that he has cut the Federal deficit by more than $1 trillion, a deceptive claim he has repeated so often that it earned him a ``Bottomless Pinocchio'' from the Washington Post's Fact Checker column. As CNN put it in its State of the Union fact check, ``Biden's actions have clearly added to deficits.'' Mr. President, the President's address featured lots of new spending ideas and proposals for new taxes. What it didn't feature was solutions to the challenges that are actually facing the American people. The President didn't get around to discussing the border and inflation--two of the biggest issues on the minds of Americans--until around halfway through his speech. And even then--even then--it was not to offer solutions; it was to dodge responsibility for these crises. Despite the fact that the crisis at our southern border is a direct result of President Biden's policies, the President spent his entire discussion of the border suggesting that it is Congress's responsibility to act. President Biden created this border crisis, and he has the power to end it. And he could start today. For example, the President could crack down on abuse of the asylum system by tightening the standard for asylum claims, which could help weed out many of the specious claims that are being made that allow individuals to get years of, essentially, legal permanent residence. But I don't think the President is really interested in securing the border. He is interested, however, in preventing the border crisis from hindering his reelection. So he is taking steps to put the blame anywhere but on himself. As for inflation, well, the President has tried a variety of tactics for messaging on inflation, from minimizing the crisis to blaming it on others. In the State of the Union, he trotted out his latest blame- deflecting strategy, complaining about so-called shrinkflation. I hate to tell the President this, but a 10-percent shrinkage in the size of a Snickers bar is not the reason why Americans are paying $1,000 more a month these days to maintain the same standard of living they had when the President took office. Shrinkflation is not an explanation for the inflation crisis the President helped create. It is just one more attempt by the President to shift the blame. There are a lot of other things I could say about the President's speech. I could talk about the President once again touting his Green New Deal policies, including his plan to install 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations, even as our electric grid heads for disaster. I could talk about how disappointed I was that the President chose to resurrect the ugly moments early in his Presidency when he and his Democratic colleagues attempted to manufacture a nonexistent voter suppression crisis in order to justify legislation to give Democrats a permanent advantage in elections. And, of course, I thought it was deeply sad that the President's definition of freedom seems to be mostly centered around abortion. The way the President made it sound in his speech, the core American freedom these days is the right to kill unborn Americans. Well, there is a lot more to say, but I will stop here. Suffice it to say that if Americans were looking for solutions to the challenges facing our country, they did not hear them in the State of the Union. I yield the floor.

Mr. THUNE

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

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Mississippi (Mrs. Hyde-Smith) and the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. Kennedy).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Mississippi (Mrs. Hyde-Smith) and the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. Kennedy).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Braun), the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer), the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz), the Senator from Mississippi (Mrs. Hyde-Smith), and the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. Kennedy).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso), the Senator from Arkansas (Mr. Cotton), the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Hawley), the Senator from Utah (Mr. Romney), the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Vance), and the Senator from Mississippi (Mr. Wicker). Further, if present and voting: the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Vance) would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. THUNE. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Alabama (Mrs. Britt).

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Alabama (Mrs. Britt), the Senator from Arkansas (Mr. Cotton), the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cruz), the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Hawley), the Senator from Lousiana (Mr. Kennedy), the Senator from Wyoming (Ms. Lummis), and the Senator from Mississippi (Mr. Wicker).

Mr. THUNE. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Alabama (Mrs. Britt).

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: The Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso), the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Hawley), and the Senator from Utah (Mr. Romney).

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso), the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Hawley), and the Senator from Utah (Mr. Romney).

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: The Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso), the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Hawley), and the Senator from Utah (Mr. Romney). Further, if present and voting: The Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso) would have voted ``yea'', and the Senator from Missouri (Mr. Hawley) would have voted ``yea''.

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Wyoming (Mr. Barrasso) and the Senator from Utah (Mr. Romney).

Mr. THUNE

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

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, tonight President Biden will come to Congress to deliver his State of the Union Address. It is a natural time to look at a President's legacy. And if one thing is certain, it is that the Biden Presidency hasn't done much for the state of our union. Yesterday, I came down to the floor to talk about the national security crisis we are facing at our southern border. It is a crisis we have been facing almost since the day the President took office. The President marked his inauguration by taking measures that weakened our Nation's border security, including halting construction of the border wall, rescinding the declaration of a national emergency at our southern border, and pausing deportations except under certain conditions. The effect was to declare to the world that the U.S. borders were effectively open, and the number of migrant encounters at our southern border ticked up accordingly. And the surge has never stopped. President Biden has presided over 3 recordbreaking years of illegal immigration at our southern border. And if we continue on our current track, he will likely be presiding over a fourth. The first 4 months of fiscal year 2024 saw nearly 1 million migrant encounters at our southern border--1 million in just 4 months. These kinds of numbers not only represent a logistical and humanitarian crisis, they represent a gaping hole in our national security. There is no question that the kind of numbers we are seeing smooth the way for dangerous individuals to enter our country. Last year, 169 individuals on the Terrorist Watchlist were apprehended attempting to cross our southern border, and we are on track to exceed that number this year. And those numbers only reflect individuals who were actually apprehended. With around 1.8 million known ``got-aways'' since President Biden took office and an untold number of unknown ``got- aways,'' I think we can safely assume that there are plenty of dangerous people making their way into our country without being stopped. And President Biden's border crisis is not the only way in which he has jeopardized our national security. His disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan weakened our standing with our allies, and his failure to prioritize ensuring our military is equipped to meet and defeat current and future threats sends a dangerous signal to bad actors around the world. Then, of course, there is the fact that the President is setting us up for a future energy crisis that will jeopardize our Nation's security by jeopardizing our energy security, not to mention jeopardizing American's pocketbooks. The President's hostility to conventional energy production and his determination to push us into a Green New Deal regime that our current energy system simply cannot cope with is setting us up for long-term instability in our Nation's energy supply. That threatens our national security, which depends on stable access to energy; and it threatens America's financial security as an unstable supply will almost unquestionably result in higher prices. The steep rise in energy prices so far under the Biden administration could look small compared to the energy prices Americans could see under the Green New Deal regime President Biden envisions for the future. Speaking of higher prices, perhaps the defining feature of the Biden administration is the inflation crisis the President helped create when he signed the so-called American Rescue Plan Act and flooded the economy with unnecessary government spending. Three years in, inflation is still well above the Federal Reserve's target rate. Americans continue to suffer. Today, it costs the typical family $1,000 more per month to maintain the standard of living it had when President Biden took office--$1,000 more per month, just to tread water. Grocery prices are up 21 percent under President Biden, and the cost of food now takes up a larger share of Americans' disposable income than it has at any point in more than 30 years. Then there is the 31 percent increase in energy costs, as I alluded to earlier, the 19 percent increase in housing costs, the 27 percent increase in the cost of car repairs, and the list goes on. The President likes to talk about giving American families breathing room. Well, President Biden has eliminated the breathing room for a lot of American families. Along with higher prices--much higher prices--on everything from groceries to gas, Americans are also dealing with the high interest rates the Federal Reserve has had to impose to deal with President Biden's inflation crisis. Those interest rates have helped to drive up mortgage rates and credit card rates, compounding hardship for a lot of Americans. It is no wonder that, in a recent poll, just one in three voters said the economy was on the right track, or that 57 percent of respondents in another recent poll rated the economy as ``fairly bad'' or ``very bad.'' Sixty-six percent of respondents in that same poll said that things in America are going ``somewhat'' or ``very'' badly. The inflation crisis, the national security crisis at our southern border, and the potential energy crisis--it is no wonder that Americans aren't feeling very optimistic about the state of our Nation. It would be nice if the President spoke to their concerns tonight, but I expect that his speech tonight will involve more blame shifting than solutions to the crises that he has helped create, along with, of course, a host of election-year handouts designed to attract voters. If Americans are looking for relief, they are not going to find it from President Biden in his speech tonight on the state of the Union. I yield the floor.

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Alabama (Mrs. Britt).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Alabama (Mrs. Britt).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Alabama (Mrs. Britt) and the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Marshall). Further, if present and voting: the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Marshall) would have voted ``nay.''

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Alabama (Mrs. Britt).

Mr. THUNE

Mr. THUNE. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Alabama (Mrs. Britt).

Mr. THUNE

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