“What Would this Administration Say Is Going Well?”
'The soul of America has not been restored. It is anxious and uneasy. And in too many cases, the more that Democrats’ policies have taken effect, the more problems American families have faced.’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding the Biden Administration:
“It’s been a little more than six months since the Biden Administration and our Democrat-led Congress were sworn in. So let’s zoom out from the daily political drama and ask the simplest possible question: How’s it going?
“How’s this leadership working out for middle-class families? Or put more directly: What big aspects of our national life could Democrats even claim are heading in the right direction on their watch?
“In January our Democratic friends inherited the most favorable trendlines that any incoming administration could possibly ask for. Three safe and effective vaccines had been discovered, developed, and were already spreading across the country. Our economy was packed with dry powder and ready for an historic comeback.
“It was already ‘morning in America’ when this Democratic government showed up. Mostly what they had to do was not get in the way. So where are we six months in?
“Well, the U.S. economy has broken some recent records. Mostly the wrong ones. Inflation just clocked its steepest 12-month increase in more than a decade. The month before, a separate measure of core inflation rose at its fastest rate since 1992.
“Higher gas prices. Higher grocery prices. Soaring costs for everything from household purchases to automobiles to housing itself. Inflation is painful enough, but it isn’t the only problem. Employment growth has not been fast enough. Last quarter, GDP grew much more slowly than anticipated.
“Six months and trillions of dollars of government spending into the Democrats’ effort at a recovery, and Gallup says Americans’ economic confidence is still only neutral. We are not where we need to be.
“What about the rule of law? There’s still an historic surge in people trying to come across our southern border. But Administration officials have spent far more energy denying responsibility for the problem than trying to fix it. Catch-and-release is still the name of the game.
“According to news reporting, out of tens of thousands of illegal immigrants who’ve simply been released into the interior of our country without a court date, just thirteen percent have shown up at their mandatory meeting with ICE afterwards.
“The border is functionally open. Especially absurd at a time when many leaders are asking American citizens to step up various COVID precautions. Not much testing, social distancing, or mask-wearing is happening in the Rio Grande Valley.
“Meanwhile a surge in violent crime, including record-breaking murders in many places, has too many citizens afraid of their own city streets.
Perhaps our Democratic friends think foreign policy is going well. I wish it were. The President’s rushed pull-back from Afghanistan has left our friends and partners in the lurch and rolled out a red carpet for a Taliban takeover that is already underway.
“Its approach to Iran appears to be promising big concessions to our adversary for no reason, even as their terrorist proxies continue to attack U.S., Israeli, and Arab interests across the region. And while I appreciate the Administration’s tough talk on Russia and China, those words ring hollow when they fail to impose real consequences on cyberattacks and propose to cut our defense spending after inflation.
“What about COVID-19 itself? Certainly the pandemic is not the fault of any American or any political party. But this Administration boasted with great confidence they had a playbook that was guaranteed to crush the virus. They have continued to roll out the vaccines the prior Administration helped develop, and for that, they certainly deserve some credit.
“But especially recently, Americans have received far too many mixed messages and muddled communications about masks, vaccines, and what risks remain for whom. Meanwhile, the Democrats’ allies in the teachers’ unions continue to speculate publicly that perhaps schools may not remain open this fall after all.
“They’re flirting with another lost year for our kids. Even when there are safe and effective vaccines that can reduce adults’ risk of grave illness to almost nil… and when we know that mercifully this virus has mostly spared children from serious illness this whole time.
“So, look — everyone is rooting for America. Everyone is rooting for the recovery that middle-class families deserve. But that is not what our Democratic friends’ decisions and policies are delivering.
“No wonder Americans’ optimism has been in free-fall in the last few months. One survey found that a majority – 55% – are pessimistic about where the country is headed in the coming year. That pessimism has increased almost 20 percentage points since just this spring.
“The soul of America has not been restored. It is anxious and uneasy. And in too many cases, the more that Democrats’ policies have taken effect, the more problems American families have faced.
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“Now, certainly, the six-month mark still provides plenty of time for my Democratic colleagues to recalibrate. We have already notched some bipartisan wins here in the Senate. Our colleagues could put away the partisan approach that has already supercharged inflation, slowed rehiring, and is setting back our national security.
“But, alas — our Democratic colleagues are signaling they are still addicted to going it alone. My friends on the other side are signaling that, a few days from now, they’ll begin the process of ramming through reckless multi-trillion-dollar taxing and spending spree that will stick middle-class families with higher costs, more inflation, fewer jobs, and lower wages.
“It’s not the strategy that will turn around Democrats’ lackluster report card. It’s the opposite. It almost seems designed to make every problem that families are facing even worse.
“It would meet significant inflation with another massive avalanche of printing and borrowing. It would hammer a tenuous economic recovery with historic tax hikes and job-killing Green New Deal regulations. It would, for some reason, respond to a live border crisis with a big amnesty to lure even more people here illegally.
“No working American – in Kentucky or anywhere else – would look at a plan like this and get on board. And neither will a single Senate Republican. If Washington Democrats really want to take the remarkable head-start they inherited at the dawn of this recovery year and squander it through bad policy, they’ll need to do it alone.”
Related Issues: Economy, Taxes, Jobs, Immigration, Middle Class, Senate Democrats, Health Care, Iran, COVID-19
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