Pregnancy Centers

Floor Speech

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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I appreciate so much hearing my colleague talk about the issues at the border, and I want to touch on some of those today, also. But I want to talk some about inflation and what we are hearing at home in Tennessee.

And as I talked this weekend--you know, we have had a terrible cold snap in Tennessee. We have had a lot of snow. We have had single-digit temperatures, even subzero temperatures. And people have talked a lot about the priorities of this administration when it comes to energy and about how President Biden said: We are going to do this transition; we are going to have the Green New Deal. And he spent $6 trillion on this Green New Deal concept.

Well, that, with the inflation, has caused higher prices, lower wages, and really has inserted uncertainty into our economy.

Now, the President has really ignored the chaos that has come about from his failed Bidenomics and failed Green New Deal agendas. He keeps trying to say, and he has been out giving speeches saying, that we are a--and I am quoting him--story of progress.

Well, let me tell you something. If he is talking about progress, it is the wrong direction because, as I said, people are facing higher prices; they are facing wage stagnation; and they are looking at uncertainty when it comes to job security, when it comes to economic security.

The President also likes to say that he is ``growing [the] economy from the middle out and the bottom up.''

But let me tell you, when I talk to Tennesseans, that is not happening. They talk about how the economy is shrinking. And they also talk about how costs are just hammering them every single month.

Now, I think that when we talk about inflation and the state of the Nation's economy, we have to look at where President Biden started. When he took the oath of office, the inflation rate in this country was at 1.4 percent. What he did was to run that inflation up to a 40-year high, at 9.1 percent. And now they run around saying: Oh, we have gotten inflation back down to 3.4 percent.

But, still, you have to look collectively at what has happened.

Now, under President Biden, I have got some of the headlines here that show you what is happening. Here is the reason why prices across the board--it is not 3.4 percent that people are seeing; it is 17.3 percent. The cost of clothing is up 7 percent. Rent prices are up 19 percent. Food prices are up 20 percent. Gas prices, when you go to the pump, is up 30 percent, and home heating and cooling, 31 percent. And mortgage rates are at a two-decade high. That has led to Bidenflation. And it has led to some of these headlines: Analysis finds Americans need an extra $11,400 a year to afford the basics--the basics. That means just treading water, doing nothing extra. Sixty-two percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck as holiday spending and credit card debt rise. People are pulling the plastic out in order to try to make ends meet. And then you have another one from Yahoo Finance: ``Why a record number of Americans are struggling to pay rent.''

CBS: ``Millions of older workers are nearing retirement with nothing saved.''

You have CNN Business: ``Inflation isn't beaten yet and the risk of a new price shock are rising.''

And we also know that according to the Joint Economic Committee, families in Tennessee spent $10,344 more last year than they did in 2021 just to meet the purchasing of the same basket of goods.

That is what Joe Biden's economic policies have done to our pocketbooks. It is what it is doing to hard-working taxpayers. And at the same time, our Nation's debt has now reached a record $34 trillion.

Now, if any of my colleagues have a grandchild or a baby who was born this year, they can welcome that baby with $100,000 worth of Federal debt. That is their share of this Nation's debt.

Now, President Biden's out-of-control inflationary spending would be bad enough for the American people, but to make matters worse, his administration has tried to regulate every single part of your life: the car you drive, the stove that you use, the washing machine for washing clothes, the type dishwasher, even what you are wanting to do with the fireplace.

This is what they are doing with regulations. And these regulations are estimated to cost families another $10,000 each year because of added cost. It is not sustainable. And Congress absolutely cannot keep kicking the can down the road on this. Dealing with this out-of-control spending and this debt is an imperative.

Now, there are some things that we could do. We could return to regular order and pass spending bills that would get this house in order. That means no more massive omnibus bills that saddle future generations with an unsustainable debt.

Each year, in order to address this problem, I have introduced legislation that would make 1 percent, 2 percent, or 5 percent across- the-board spending cuts. That would target nondefense, nonhomeland security, and nonveterans affairs discretionary spending for the next fiscal year.

We also need to cut down on the size of the Federal bureaucracy. We have 2.2 million Federal bureaucrats who cost Americans billions of dollars in taxes and overbearing regulations. Addressing the rising salaries and the size of the Federal Government workforce should be a top priority when considering how to rein in Federal Government and how to control spending. This would begin the process of draining the swamp of unelected bureaucrats who are not accountable to anyone and would change the decisions that they are making about Americans' lives. Houthis

Mr. President, last week--after weeks of attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea--President Biden designated the Iran-backed Houthis as a ``Specially Designated Global Terrorist'' group.

Now, the Houthis should never have been taken off the list of terrorist organizations. They had been placed on that list by President Trump, and then President Biden decided to take them off. He was trying to appease Iran. But in doing this, he only emboldened the Ayatollah's terror proxies. And we all know that Hamas and Hezbollah, the Houthis, ISIS in Syria, ISIS in Iraq--they are all proxy groups for Iran. Yet the national security spokesman, John Kirby, is still defending the decision to take the Houthis off the list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

It is difficult to unravel all the catastrophic mistakes that this administration has made on this very issue.

Now, we have had over 150 missile attacks from Iran-backed proxies against our Armed Forces and also against commercial vessels. President Biden has redesignated the Houthis only as a ``Specially Designated Global Terrorist'' group.

As I said, he didn't go all the way and designate them a ``Foreign Terrorist Organization,'' which is what President Trump had done.

Now, here is the difference in that designation and why it is significant. This means that the Houthis can still obtain U.S. visas; there is not a criminal penalty to support them; and U.S. banks are not required to seize their funds. So the Houthis can still get a visa to come to the United States. U.S. banks cannot freeze the funds that the Houthis have and prohibit them from getting to those funds.

Now, who gives them most of their money? It comes from Iran, which gives them about $100 million a year; plus, trains them; plus, equips them; plus, arms them and allows them to carry out their bad deeds.

Now, the White House also admitted this, which I think is rather stunning when you consider the fact that Iran, through the Houthis--you have had 150 attacks on U.S. ships and commercial vessels. So the White House said: OK, Houthis, if you will stop your attacks and stop attacking us in the Red Sea, in the Gulf of Aden, then the United States will immediately reevaluate your designation--again, practicing appeasement. Terrorists only understand one thing, and that is strength. And they know that this administration is weak.

In 2021, the Biden administration moved Patriot missile systems out of CENTCOM to reduce our military presence in the Middle East. But in October, the President was forced to return them over growing attacks from Iran's terror proxy groups.

Our military needs to continue attacking these threats until they no longer pose a danger to the American people, to our ships and commercial vessels.

One thing is clear: We can only achieve peace through strength, and our adversaries are watching a very weak administration.

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