Budget (Cong. Rec., March 16, 2021)

Summary

Page S1547 of the Senate section of the Congressional Record for March 16, 2021, under the heading Budget, in interleaved columns. One speaker says the Democrats spent $1.9 trillion after only a month and a half in control and that a 50-50 Senate is a mandate to move to the middle, which is that speaker's view. Another speaker criticizes the President's statement that small groups might gather outdoors in July, saying enough vaccines were already paid for. A third speaker says border encounters of single adults were up 175 percent and family units up 170 percent compared with the prior February, which he attributes to recent policy changes.

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“Budget (Cong. Rec., March 16, 2021).” Original at www.govinfo.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/crec-crec-2021-03-16-crec-2021-03-16-pt1-pgs1547-8fa72ef559/, SHA-256 b36837c455417288cc69dc6cd0b2c04e9a628aca4f75dcf1fe15906569780f09.

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March 16, 2021 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S1547
monitor large areas, they are stuck and have a national mandate. They do posed to be about—getting kids back to
monitoring the open door. not. If there is any mandate when you school, getting people back to work,
Listen, we can have arguments about have a 50–50 Senate and when you have and getting the virus behind us. Presi-
immigration, but, supposedly, we all such a narrow range in the numbers be- dent Biden said ‘‘there is a good
agree we should have border security— tween the Republicans and the Demo- chance’’ that small groups of people
at least we used to. This doesn’t make crats in the House, you would say it is can get together outside in July. Well,
sense. But this is now the reality, and a mandate to move to the middle. That he said, ‘‘that doesn’t mean large
it will sit like this for we don’t know is what the American people voted for. events.’’
how long—maybe forever—until we as They said: Let’s get to the middle. The Democrats spent $1.9 trillion,
a nation determine this has to change. Let’s find solutions to move our coun- and, once again, they moved the goal-
It is an open invitation. try forward. posts. Congress has already paid for
Have things really changed signifi- It does seem, to me, what the Demo- enough vaccines for every American to
cantly on the border? Let me give you crats are doing is an unprecedented get vaccinated by the end of May. The
an example that is pre-COVID—pre- overreach. The Democrats have only Centers for Disease Control and Pre-
COVID, February of last year, before had control in Washington for about a vention says that getting vaccinated
COVID came through. So don’t say month and a half, and it has already means getting your life back. This is
that things have changed in COVID. In cost the American people $1.9 trillion. what they told us. It means you can
February of 2020, we had under 40,000 It is an astonishingly large figure. It have indoor gatherings without masks.
people who were apprehended crossing was supposed to be for coronavirus re- America needs to be fully open before
our southern border that month—under lief, but 1 percent of the money went the Fourth of July.
40,000 pre-COVID. That is a transition for vaccines, and only 9 percent went The Democrats haven’t even finished
and an arrest process. to actually fighting the coronavirus. their victory lap over the spending bill,
This February, with the only thing Yet, before they passed the bill, that is and they are already telling us they
changing being the change of Presi- what the Democrats said it was for. It want more. Here are just a few exam-
dents, we had over 100,000 people ille- does seem to be the oldest page in the ples of what they propose to do, not
gally crossing the border. One year Democratic playbook. with their money but with the Amer-
later, we go from less than 40,000 to We all remember the old ObamaCare ican people’s money—the taxpayers’
over 100,000. bill and debate and discussion. They money, the hard-earned dollars of the
This is a manufactured crisis that is said it was a tax. When they needed people who go to work every day and
happening on our border: a halting of votes in Congress, they said it wasn’t a send their tax dollars to Washington.
closing up the holes in the fence; state- In their $1.9 trillion wish list, the
tax. Then they realized they were
ments that we are going to do a mora- Democrats tried to double the min-
going to lose in court, and they said it
torium, that we are not going to have imum wage by Federal mandate. They
was a tax all over again. Well, we have
anyone deported anymore; changing failed, but they are going to keep try-
seen the same playbook here. They said
the rules on unaccompanied minors to ing.
we needed more coronavirus relief, and Now, of course, the Office of Manage-
basically invite them to come into the then they passed this liberal wish list. ment and Budget, which took a look at
United States; and, again, statements Once they had the votes, they admitted this thing, said: Well, if they had suc-
like, ‘‘Caravans, I will just tell them to the bill was not about coronavirus ceeded, it would have forced 1.4 million
pause; we are not quite ready for you medical relief, healthcare relief or vac- Americans who have jobs right now to
yet.’’ cines or fighting the disease. No—a lib- be out of their jobs because, when you
That is really not going to be a pause eral wish list. mandate a doubling of the minimum
at all. That is going to be an invita- Now, don’t just take my word for it. wage, small businesses are either going
tion. That is not me saying that. It is The Democratic majority leader, to have to close or lay off certain peo-
the thousands and thousands of people standing right there, called it a ‘‘turn- ple so they can pay the wages to others
who are coming to be able to connect ing point’’ that transforms the United in an effort to keep the doors open. It
with relatives who are already here and States. The White House Press Sec- means less tax revenue overall for the
to be able to walk through a process, to retary called it the ‘‘most progressive country, and it means more spending
be able to go around our visa applica- bill in American history.’’ One Demo- for unemployment insurance. If you
tion process and go around legal immi- cratic leader in the House called it an add it up, it would increase the na-
gration. ‘‘ideological revolution.’’ I guess they tional debt by about an additional $54
I remind us as a country that we forgot it was supposed to be about the billion.
allow a million people a year to legally coronavirus. It doesn’t sound like In their $1.9 trillion wish list, the
come to the United States and become coronavirus healthcare relief to me. Democrats also wrote a big check to
citizens—a million people a year. We After the bill passed, Speaker PELOSI the teachers unions.
are not a stingy nation in engaging admitted this was the same bill that Now, they actually didn’t need the
with legal immigration. There is a she put forward last summer. Back money because, in the five bipartisan
right way to do it, and we welcome then, the New York Times looked at it coronavirus bills that we have passed
people to do it the right way. This is and called it ‘‘more a messaging docu- in overwhelming majorities, we sent
welcoming people to do it the wrong ment than a viable piece of legisla- schools $113 billion. The schools
way, and that does not help our secu- tion.’’ POLITICO called it a ‘‘Demo- haven’t even spent most of that money
rity as a nation. cratic wish list filled up with all the yet. In fact, they have only spent about
I yield the floor. party’s favorite policies.’’ $16 billion of the $113 billion. There is
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Sen- This was never a coronavirus relief almost $100 billion yet to spend. On top
ator from Wyoming. bill. They used the coronavirus to of that, the Democrats have just put up
BUDGET cover the payoff to all of the most pow- another $170 billion in their wish list. If
Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I erful people in the Democratic Party: you add it up, that is nearly $270 bil-
come to the floor to talk about Presi- $85 billion to union pension plans, irre- lion to spend with no promise—none—
dent Biden’s runaway spending pro- sponsibly run; $26 billion for California to reopen the schools.
posals. Gavin Newsom; $12.5 billion for New The Democratic leader wants to for-
Of course, as a conservative Repub- York and Governor Andrew Cuomo; a give $1 trillion in student loans. Sub-
lican, when I look at this thing, I have big payoff for teachers unions and po- sidizing student loans just lets colleges
to say: Wait a second. This is not some- tentially millions for Planned Parent- raise prices. That is exactly what

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thing that I can support in any way. hood. would happen if Leader SCHUMER’s plan
We have a 50–50 Senate here in the President Biden signed the bill, and were to become law. Colleges don’t
United States. The Democrats have then he gave a speech a few hours need to raise prices. They need to lower
won a narrow margin in the House, but later. In effect, he admitted the bill the cost of education.
the Democrats in Washington are act- doesn’t get us 1 day closer to reopening Senator SANDERS has an even more
ing like they have won in a landslide our country. This is what this was sup- radical proposal. He wants to forgive

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S1548 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE March 16, 2021
all Federal student loans, and that da. They didn’t vote for $12 trillion in ber of unaccompanied alien children
would cost $1.6 trillion. Forgive them new spending and new taxes with in- was up 171 percent.
all. Just forgive all of the loans. It creased tax rates and increased taxes The Department of Health and
doesn’t matter. Rich or poor, forgive on long-term investments like your Human Services, which is responsible
all of the loans. Well, that would drive home and increased taxes like the for the care of the unaccompanied chil-
up the price of tuition even higher. If it death tax—oh—and more money for the dren after they arrive in the United
allows colleges to get the money di- IRS so it can send agents to inves- States, had 7,300 unaccompanied chil-
rectly from the Federal Government tigate the American public even fur- dren referrals in February. That is the
without having to go through the stu- ther. highest number of February referrals
dents, the costs will escalate dramati- I would urge the Biden administra- in the history of the program.
cally. tion and my Democratic colleagues to As of late last week, Health and
Let me remind my Democratic col- listen to the people and to the people Human Services had over 8,500 unac-
leagues that most Americans don’t from whom I hear every weekend in companied children in its facilities.
have college degrees. Yet, under the Wyoming. It is time to put down the As of this past weekend, more than
Democratic plan, all taxpayers—all 4,200 were being held by the Customs
credit card. It is time to stop the
and Border Patrol holding facilities,
taxpayers—would have to pay for the spending spree. It is time to move to
with nearly 3,000 being held past the
college tuitions for all of the students, the middle to solve problems—that
legal limit of 72 hours.
including those who have families who would be best for our Nation if we These are the ‘‘kids in cages,’’ whom
can clearly afford to pay the tuitions would address them—for the people of many of our Democratic colleagues
to the colleges which they attend. It this great Nation. were so outraged about a few years
doesn’t matter. If you go to the most I yield the floor. ago, blaming Trump, even though the
exclusive college or if you go to your I suggest the absence of a quorum. so-called cages were created in the
State college, if you have a debt, we The PRESIDING OFFICER. The
Obama administration, just being re-
are going to get rid of it, says the clerk will call the roll.
used again.
Democratic proposal, and the hard- The senior assistant legislative clerk Curiously, we are not seeing nearly
working taxpayers of America are proceeded to call the roll. as much outrage now as we saw during
going to be stuck with the bill. Count Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask
the Trump episode. Where is our fair
me out on that one. unanimous consent that the order for and balanced press today?
The Democrats want to take tax dol- the quorum call be rescinded. Reports emerged late last week that
lars from people who don’t have college The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without one Border Patrol facility in Texas was
degrees or who never went to college objection, it is so ordered. operating at 729 percent of pandemic
and give it to the leftwing professors at BORDER SECURITY capacity. Many minors who had been in
so many universities, and this is Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, we custody for over 5 days were reportedly
wrong. welcome about a million immigrants able to shower only once.
President Biden also wants to double every year. We welcome them because If this were happening during the
down on ObamaCare. He thinks they come here, abiding by our laws, Trump administration, our Democratic
ObamaCare didn’t go far enough. Ac- and we need immigrants. We have been colleagues would be expressing their
cording to one estimate, President a welcoming country for a long time, anger and their outrage on any media
Biden’s healthcare plan would cost but I come to the floor to speak about outlet that they could find. But be-
about an additional $2.25 trillion. These the ongoing crisis at our southern bor- cause this crisis is happening as a re-
are astronomically large figures. His der—a crisis that, I think, this admin- sult of President Biden’s policies, we
housing plan would cost $640 billion. istration doesn’t want to admit is a have mostly silence.
The Democrats have proposed another crisis. Because of some changes in pol- President Biden’s border crisis
$2 trillion in infrastructure spending. icy, we have that crisis, and that crisis reaches beyond just these staggering
One Democratic Senator even called is people entering our country in viola- numbers that I have given you. First,
for doubling that amount—$4 trillion tion of our laws. it is a humanitarian tragedy—a crisis.
in new infrastructure spending. Since taking office, this administra- The Biden administration’s policies
This is just the tip of the iceberg. I tion has advanced policies that have have incentivized unaccompanied chil-
could go on and on. If you add up all of undermined immigration enforcement. dren and family units to make an in-
the new spending proposals by the These policies undermine efforts to se- credibly dangerous trip to our southern
Democrats and the White House and cure our southern border, and they en- borders.
courage illegal immigration into our On March 10, Reuters reported that
the Senate, it could cost nearly $12
country. President Biden has signaled the Mexican Government is worried
trillion. By the end of this year, the
that, when it comes to immigration that the Biden administration’s asy-
national debt is going to be bigger than
that violates our laws, the United lum policies ‘‘are stoking illegal immi-
our economy, and we have the biggest
gration and creating business for orga-
economy in the world. Even before the States is open for business. Speaker
nized crime’’—from the Mexican Gov-
Democrats passed their wish list, we PELOSI and House Democrats are dou-
ernment, reported by Reuters.
were on track this year to have the bling down on that position this very There is no doubt that cartels are
second biggest deficit since World War week. They are working to pass several profiting greatly from this trafficking.
II. mass amnesty bills that contain no One Mexican official was quoted as
When the Democrats increase spend- provisions related to securing the bor- saying: ‘‘Migrants have become a com-
ing, we know what is next—massive der. modity.’’
tax increases on the American public. It turns out that people are finally The article went on to discuss how
We heard it yesterday in the news. It paying attention. U.S. Customs and gangs are ‘‘diversifying methods of
was in the headlines. That is President Border Protection recently confirmed smuggling’’ and how smugglers are ad-
Biden’s plan—the first major tax in- that it had encountered over 100,000 mi- vising migrants on how to more easily
crease in 28 years. He is proposing the grants attempting to cross the south- apply for asylum in the United States,
biggest tax increase since 1993. He ern border in February—the first full including by bringing children.
wants to raise taxes on businesses and month of this new administration. It also described how higher con-
on families, and he even wants to res- That is the highest total for the month centrations of migrants in areas near
urrect the death tax. Let me remind of February since 2006. News reports the U.S.-Mexican border have encour-
President Biden what happened after are that Democrats are blaming aged gangs to recruit some migrants as

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1993. A year later, the Republicans Trump’s policies for this situation that drug mules and to kidnap other mi-
took back the House and took back the we are in. Yet the number of single grants. For what? For money. This is a
Senate. adults encountered at the southern tragedy, and it is a tragedy created in
The 2020 elections were close. The border was up 175 percent compared to just recent weeks by changes of poli-
American people didn’t vote for this last February. The number of family cies at the border by this new adminis-
radical agenda, and it is a radical agen- units was up 170 percent, and the num- tration.

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