Source: United States Senator for Kentucky Mitch McConnell
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding President Biden’s first year in office:
“Today marks exactly one year since President Biden became our 46th president.
“This all-Democrat government has had 365 days to start delivering on their core promises.
“What were some of those promises, in their own words?
“‘Crushing the virus.’ ‘Strengthen[ing] our alliances.’ And above all else, ‘lower[ing] the temperature’ and reuniting a divided country.
“Now remember, upon taking office, this Administration had historic tailwinds at its back.
“President Biden inherited lifesaving vaccines and a distribution system that was already up and running. He inherited a string of bipartisan rescue packages including one that was only a few days old. He inherited an economy that was primed for a roaring comeback.
“Those were the promises. That was the inheritance. So let’s take a look at the progress report.
***
“Last spring, against expert advice, the Biden Administration dumped another mountain of borrowed cash on an already white-hot economy.
“As a result, we are now being hammered by the worst inflation in 40 years. Practically everything families need and want has gotten much more expensive. Constant shortages disrupt families’ shopping. Households are getting hit with soaring heating costs if they stay home and soaring gas prices if they go out.
“Our economic trajectory looks shakier today than it did when Democrats were sworn in.
“Of course we have continued adding back jobs from the COVID lockdowns. That was a given.
“But job creation has massively underperformed Democrats’ own projections for job creation with their super-costly springtime stimulus package.
“When 2021 was said and done, the country had added roughly the same number of jobs that we were on track to create before Democrats implemented one policy or spent one dime. They managed to blow $1.9 trillion but only barely beat the starting trajectory they inherited.
“They called that spending a COVID package. But less than 10% of the money went to the actual medical fight. And it shows.
“Americans are entering the third year of this pandemic with too few tests. Too few treatments. Too many new cases. Too many school closures.
“Muddled guidance on boosters that caused FDA experts to resign in protest.
“And needlessly divisive vaccine mandates that were not even constitutional.
“One year in, the coronavirus is decidedly un-crushed.
***
“And COVID wasn’t the only epidemic sweeping American streets.
“Take violent crime. Far-left rhetoric and anti-law-enforcement local policies have led major cities to set all-time records for homicides in 2021.
“Or take fentanyl. This deadly imported poison was the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45 last year. The number one killer of Americans in their prime. Fentanyl.
“Why aren’t Democrats treating this like an emergency? When was the last time President Biden even addressed it?
“And drug deaths are not the only consequence of our weak borders.
“Candidate Biden’s rhetoric incentivized an historic flood of illegal immigration and then President Biden’s weak policies lit the fuse. The result? The biggest surge in illegal border crossings in at least 60 years.
***
“All these issues are priorities for American families. But the Biden Administration spent most of 2021 focused on none of them.
“Washington Democrats spent months chasing a reckless taxing and spending spree packed with far-left policies that citizens never wanted. They spent half of 2021 trying and failing to blow $5 trillion on windmills and welfare.
“When that effort failed, Democrats abruptly pivoted and started shouting that American democracy is on death’s door.
“They propagandized that some evil anti-voting conspiracy is sweeping America.
“And the only solution to this grand crisis was a gigantic, partisan election takeover bill that Democrats had conveniently written years before the events which they say prompted it.
“The American people didn’t buy the fake hysteria. One half of one percent of the country thinks election laws are our top issue. In fact, more Americans believe voting laws are too loose than too tight!
“But Democrats went all in on this obsession.
“A few days ago, the sitting President of the United States called millions of Americans are his domestic ‘enemies’ and analogized United States Senators to Jefferson Davis.
“Last night, this fake panic drove 48 Senate Democrats to walk the plank on a failed effort to shatter the Senate itself for short-term power.
“And now Washington Democrats appear to be launching an absurd and reckless campaign to delegitimize the next election in advance in case they lose it.
“Yesterday the President told reporters that he might not accept the 2022 election results as legitimate if his election takeover bills do not pass Congress first.
“This morning, the House majority whip followed suit. He was asked if the legitimacy of our elections is contingent on Washington Democrats passing these bills, and he replied, ‘I’m absolutely concerned about that.’
“The Democrats who preached countless sermons about accepting voters’ decisions are now saying the midterms may be illegitimate unless they win.
“So America, after all of this — do you feel unified? Do you feel healed? Do you feel like our core institutions are being protected?
***
“Senate Republicans have met this Administration more than halfway.
“In 2021, the Senate built and passed a major infrastructure deal. We passed bipartisan legislation on competing with China.
“But beyond that, this Administration deliberately chose to build their whole governing strategy around the party-line reconciliation process.
“So the President cannot deflect blame for his disappointing first year.
“The American people know where the buck stops.
“And if our Democratic friends do not change course, before long, the buck will stop somewhere else.”
###