Keystone XL Pipeline Act - Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, tonight the President of the United States will address the Nation on the state of our Union and talk a little bit about his priorities for the coming year.

I am not sure how much more there is for the President to say than has already been leaked in the press in the drip, drip, drip of social media and other stories, but I am concerned he simply did not get the message that was delivered loud and clear on November 4 by the American voters.

Just a couple of months ago they sent a message that was loud and it was clear. They are fed up with the way things operate in Washington, DC. They are fed up with the dysfunction, and they are fed up with the lack of real leadership that focuses on their concerns, not Washington's concerns--concerns such as more money in their pocket.

I was amused to listen to our good friend, our colleague from New Jersey, complaining about additional exports of oil or actually gasoline and other fuel. It is actually the supply, the glut of gasoline onto the global markets that has caused a pay raise for most hard-working, middle-class families. The price of gasoline has plummeted because of the glut of supply.

But we ought to be focused like a laser on how we put more money into the pocketbook of hard-working American taxpayers--after years of stagnant jobs and stagnant wages, the stagnant number of jobs for the record number of Americans who have been looking for them.

So after sending a message loud and clear on November 4, what is the President's response? He says more of the same. He is set to announce a $320 billion tax hike and hundreds of billions of dollars in more spending--yes, hundreds of billions of dollars more in taxes and hundreds of billions of dollars in more Federal spending. Sadly, the President has doubled down on the same agenda which, in his own words, was on the ballot this last fall and was soundly rejected.

But this agenda and these policies are not only wrong for America today, they are certainly wrong for the America of our future. Future generations deserve a country that provides them more opportunity than our parents had or than we have. That is called the American dream. But hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending and new taxes--when we already face an $18 trillion debt--well, that makes the American promise one unlikely to be fulfilled.

The cause of this problem is pretty clear: The President remains focused on the priorities in Washington, DC, and not on the priorities of hard-working American taxpayers working from paycheck to paycheck, dealing with rising costs of living when it comes to food and other commodities and who are sorely in need of additional money in their pocket.

Things clearly need to change. That to me was what the voters said on November 4. I think I speak for many Americans and many Texans when I say: Mr. President, enough is enough. The American people expect better, and, more importantly, they deserve better.

Sure, we know there are always going to be big challenges, and they are not easy to deal with by any stretch of the imagination. But surely--surely--we can come up with better solutions than more taxes and more spending. This is really doubling down over the last 6 years. One would think that the President, giving the State of the Union now in his seventh year in office, could come up with something a little bit different, particularly after his own party lost nine Senate seats after this referendum on his failed policies that took place on November 4.

The great news--and there is good news--is we do not have to start from scratch. We need to look no further than some of the laboratories of democracy--that is what Louis Brandeis called the State: the laboratories of democracy--to see what actually works. We know what does not work. So let's look and see what does work.

We could learn a lot from States such as Arizona, where the Presiding Officer is from, and my home State of Texas. We are not perfect, but I think we have learned a few important lessons we could teach to the policymakers in the White House. Many policymakers in Washington seem to have forgotten the secret sauce, the formula, the recipe by which strong, sustainable economic growth that lifts the middle class in Texas and in so many other States across the country--why that is alive and well and why those policies actually work.

Just last Friday I had the opportunity to visit Southeast Texas. I was in Beaumont, TX, actually, where the existing gulf coast leg of the Keystone Pipeline is already operating.

I bet many of my colleagues would be amazed to know that we are already transporting Canadian crude from Canada all the way across the country, by and large on railcars, to refineries on the gulf coast. The Keystone XL Pipeline--the legislation that we will be voting on today--will increase the supply, which means more product, and hopefully, that will result in downward pressure on prices for hard-working American taxpayers.

While the President stood in the way of the building of this completed pipeline and the tens of thousands of jobs it would support, the gulf coast leg of the Keystone Pipeline in Texas is already booming. But they are hungry for more crude feedstock so they can produce more and thereby create more jobs.

It has been good for communities. I talked to the mayor of Beaumont and other communities. I talked to a county judge. These taxes, which are provided by investment from the Keystone XL Pipeline, not only create good jobs, but the tax base is necessary to educate our kids in K-12 education. They provide the products and services from local businesses that sell goods. In other words, projects such as the Keystone XL Pipeline is a force multiplier when it comes to our economy and economic growth and opportunity, and of course, it has been good for thousands of construction workers who built the pipeline.

I heard our colleagues on the other side of the aisle try to denigrate these construction jobs. They say that they are just temporary jobs. Mr. President, you and I have a temporary job. We are elected for a term of office, and if we are not reelected, it is a temporary job. In effect, every job is a temporary job. But to denigrate these good, high-paying construction jobs, including those performed by welders--in Texas, properly trained welders can make $140,000 to $150,000 a year. Those are good, high-paying jobs, and we ought to respect and encourage them.

That is just one example of how some of the folks at the White House look down their nose at these construction jobs and try to denigrate the economic contribution of projects such as the Keystone XL Pipeline and what they could learn from this project.

In my State we reduced taxes, cut red tape in favor of sensible regulations, and encouraged businesses to come to Texas to grow and create jobs. If I heard the story one time, I heard it 100 times. In my State, Governor Perry has contacted people in California and said: Come to Texas, where you are welcome and the cost of doing business is lower and the cost of living is cheaper. You can actually buy an affordable home for your family. People have voted with their feet and have come where the opportunity is.

If we add it all up, over the last 6 years two-thirds of all new net jobs created in the United States of America came from just one State, and that is my home State.

Another thing Washington could learn from Texas is how to balance a budget. We actually balance our budget every year. Earlier I mentioned that the President seems to be proud of the fact that the deficit is actually going down. As the Presiding Officer knows, that is the annual difference between what we take in and what we spend.

What he doesn't tell you is that we are actually adding to the debt every year because we are still spending more money than we are bringing in, and it has now gone up about $8 trillion during his administration to an unprecedented $18 trillion national debt. We need to roll up our sleeves, and we invite the President to join us and take on the priorities of hard-working American taxpayers in every State across the country.

We know this is not going to be easy, but that is what we volunteered for. I know there are colleagues here in the Senate--Republicans and Democrats alike--who are eager to address the challenges that confront our country--whether it is economic, national security, or you name it. These are things that need to get done.

At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter what I think the State of our Union is or, for that matter, it doesn't really matter what the President thinks the State of our Union is. What matters is whether the teacher in Katy, TX, believes his students will have the opportunities he did growing up or whether the single mom waiting tables in Fort Worth can find enough work to feed her family.

Our Nation is truly strong when its people believe it to be, and I hope the President understands that and tries something new rather than the same old failed policies of the past.

I yield the floor.

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