The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“BUDGET” mentioning Mitch McConnell was published in the Senate section on pages S182-S183 on Jan. 28.
Of the 100 senators in 117th Congress, 24 percent were women, and 76 percent were men, according to the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Senators' salaries are historically higher than the median US income.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
BUDGET
Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, now, on a totally different matter, the country has waited to see whether the new administration would follow a pro-job, pro-worker, pro-working family approach or give in to the far left and put ideological concerns before kitchen table ones. Unfortunately, we didn't have to wait long.
As recently as October, now-President Biden said: ``You can't
[legislate] by executive action unless you're a dictator.'' Well, in 1 week, he signed more than 30 unilateral actions, and working Americans are getting short shrift.
The President abruptly canceled the Keystone Pipeline, a massive setback for energy security in North America. The Canadian leader called it ``a gut punch.'' I imagine the 11,000 American workers, including 8,000 union workers who were counting on that work, feel the same way.
We have headed back into an international pact that would have us self-inflict serious pain on working families, has failed to curb China's emissions, and without which our own emissions have been dropping anyway. And yesterday, the administration slammed the brakes on further domestic energy development on the huge swaths of land owned by the Federal Government: no new oil, gas, or coal leases on Federal land.
Our responsible use of these lands accounts for more than a fifth--
one-fifth--of our domestic production, about 2.8 million barrels per day. That is almost the equivalent of Kuwait's daily oil production from our Federal lands alone; plus, more than 10 percent of domestic natural gas.
And 2019 marked the first time in nearly 70 years when U.S. energy exports outpaced imports. For the first time since the 1950s, our Nation ran an energy surplus, not a deficit. That has been great news, but some leftwing elites are not happy. The sources of this affordable domestic energy are not sufficiently trendy.
As John Kerry explained yesterday on behalf of the administration, he wants the large numbers of American workers in those sectors to find
``better choices''--better choices than their good jobs that feed their families and strengthen our independence. Remember, with the pipeline cancellation, the President effectively closed the door on thousands of American jobs with the stroke of a pen.
According to one news report, one welder from Pipeliners Local 798, who had been working in Nebraska, says he has already had to lay off his whole team before losing his job himself. He said he sat down in his truck and simply cried.
This latest new prohibition will replicate that heartbreak many times over. According to one study, the decision on Federal lands will leave us down nearly 1 million American jobs by next year alone--1 million lost jobs by next year alone.
It is a heck of a way to kick off a Presidency: mass layoffs of our own citizens, and working Americans in other sectors will pay as well. One analysis found this decision could increase household energy costs by almost $20 billion over the next decade, and President Biden, John Kerry, and the whole gang appear to be just getting warmed up.
Mr. Kerry admitted yesterday that even if the United States somehow brought our carbon emissions to zero, it wouldn't make much difference in the global picture. That is because our competitors, including China, have already gone roaring past us.
But there is one kind of cooling these policies will achieve. They will ice the job market in communities all across America. In the State of New Mexico, 65 percent of oil and gas production is tied to Federal lands. By one estimate, 16,000 jobs will be on the chopping block in that State alone--that State alone--next year if President Biden's ban holds up.
In Colorado, it would cost another 3,000 jobs and more than 40 percent of the State's natural gas production.
As a Kentuckian, I am all too familiar with the way these Democratic policies can hurt communities. Kentucky paid dearly for the first round of these liberal policies under President Obama. We have no desire to be subjected to a sequel, especially when John Kerry says we should take the rate at which coal is already declining and quintuple it.
In her confirmation hearing yesterday, the President's nominee to be Energy Secretary referenced ``jobs that might be sacrificed.'' Yeah, that is absolutely right. Well, she gets some points for honesty. That is what happened the last time these folks called the shots. Jobs were sacrificed, including, ultimately, some of the jobs of the Democratic politicians who backed these policies.
There is a concept in sports that a coach or a manager should never make a decision that will make the opposing team happy. If they are torn about a risky play call or if they are overthinking a pitching change, they should ask themselves which decision their opponents would rather see and do the opposite. Our new administration is failing that test on domestic energy.
China, Russia, and our other competitors must be thrilled, absolutely thrilled that our new government is essentially declaring war on some of our own economic foundations to satisfy a craving for symbolic gestures--willfully throwing our own people out of work, reducing our domestic energy security, raising costs and prices for working families--all for no meaningful impact on global temperatures, just to buy applause at those international conferences, where the participants all assemble by private jet.
It shouldn't be this way, not with a President who campaigned on protecting the lunch-pail union jobs that his left flank wants to eliminate. The President was not elected to enact policies that prompt a certain young Congresswoman from New York City to boast online that her radical ideas are shaping his energy policies. The last 4 years proved that growing our prosperity, reducing emissions, and expanding domestic energy are actually not in tension. We can achieve all three.
There is nothing green about a tsunami of pink slips for American workers or carting Canadian crude around in trucks and trains instead of a pipeline. This piecemeal Green New Deal is the wrong prescription, wrong for the environment, wrong for national security, and most of all for the working Americans who will soon be formerly working Americans if this keeps up.
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