Blackburn Calls Out Biden's Dangerous Policy Agenda

September 27, 2021

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) delivered floor remarks to discuss the Biden administration's dangerous policy agenda and how it affects average Americans.

 

To watch Senator Blackburn’s speech, click below or here.





You can read the transcript below or in the Congressional Record.



Madam President, I have noticed over the past few 

months that my Democratic colleagues have developed a habit of 

explaining away the anger of the citizens of this country. There is 

anger, and there is frustration. And what they do is to do a little 

turn in the conversation and make it the cause of the citizens.

  It is kind of blaming it on them instead of looking at themselves as 

Members of the Senate and saying, ``You know, what could we do 

better?''

What I have seen is my colleagues on the other side of the aisle 

demand to know what is wrong with the American people; how could they 

not be on board with President Biden's so-called transformative 

agenda--change it all? Why won't they stand by and let us spend the 

country into economic oblivion while businesses fail, Main Streets see 

shuttered businesses, and once-safe border communities are being turned 

into war zones?

You see, what they are really doing is trying to force the American 

people to adjust and abandon their principles--things that they have 

long believed, the founding first principles of this country. They want 

them to abandon that--abandon their expectations, and then accommodate 

the miserable failure that is Joe Biden's first few months in office. 

He has been wrong about most all of it.

I honestly believe that many of the Democratic leaders have it wrong 

on this. The people aren't the ones who need to adjust. That burden 

belongs to the Democratic leadership--in the Senate, in the House, in 

the White House.

No matter how they try to dress it up or change it or smile, they are 

fast-tracking the road to socialism.

The anger bubbling to the surface didn't come from out of nowhere. 

Contrary to popular belief, outrage is not our natural state, no. What 

you are seeing is beyond buyer's remorse or even buyer's fear. It is 

buyer's anger, righteous anger, at what they see happening; and it is 

the culmination of almost a year's worth of confusion, fear, 

frustration at the Biden administration for how they have failed to 

lead--weak leadership.

You see, the American people aren't accustomed to watching their 

leaders intentionally--intentionally--jeopardize our security and 

prosperity on such a fundamental level. They are looking at all that 

has fallen apart and realizing that things are the way they are because 

President Biden and the Democratic leadership wants it to be this way. 

This is intentional.

On day one, President Biden halted construction of the border wall 

and left those crossings wide open to drug traffickers, to sex 

traffickers, human traffickers, and gangs--basically hung out the 

``y'all come, you're welcome'' sign, opening that southern border.

 They did this knowing that hundreds of thousands of migrants were 

already on their way from Mexico and Central America. One hundred fifty 

countries this year have crossed that border illegally, and that--the 

vast majority of them would pay the cartels for their passage north by 

serving as drug mules, as prostitutes. What is being done to women and 

children is really awful. It is a humanitarian crisis.

If they wanted to, Biden and the Democrats could put themselves 

between us and that threat. They could support strong immigration 

policies that protect refugees and also secure the border. It is 

possible, but they have refused to do it. Instead, they are funneling 

crowds of unvetted migrants into American communities and enabling the 

cartels to traffic women and children across State lines with impunity.

How dare they? How dare they traffic like they are trafficking?

Ignoring this problem isn't humanitarianism. It is not anti-racism. 

It is dangerous and exposes an appalling lack of wisdom on the part of 

the President; the Vice President, who is supposed to be the border 

czar; and their advisers.

This administration seems to believe that threats to our national 

security will evaporate if we ignore them: Just don't think about it; 

don't talk about it; what you are seeing, you are really not seeing.

  What they are doing is creating policy in a bubble, which works well 

for grad seminars but fails miserably when there are lives on the line.

  The Biden administration failed in Afghanistan. Now, we can argue for 

the next decade--and I am sure we will--about lessons learned, but here 

is what the American people see: The Biden administration gave a 

terrorist organization the benefit of the doubt.

  That is right. They trusted the words of the Taliban above the words 

of the commanders on the ground. The commanders on the ground warned 

that such an abrupt withdrawal would end in chaos and casualties.

  But you know what? They wanted to be out by September 11. They wanted 

that date circled on the calendar. Joe Biden wanted to be the President 

who ended the war, but all he has done is emboldened the terrorists. 

And the war on terror continues. It continues. He ended nothing with 

the war on terror.

 

We came out of Afghanistan, but now the families of 13 American 

servicemembers are left to grieve, while State Department officials 

make absurd claims about the power of diplomacy and the Taliban's role 

in regional politics, all the while ignoring the allies and the 

partners they abandoned. They still don't know how many Americans, how 

many of our SIV holders, applicants, their families are left behind 

enemy lines. 

And the people? The people in Tennessee whom I talk with when I go 

home every weekend--they are watching this. They are astounded, and 

they cannot believe what they are seeing the Democratic Party do.

There is no reason, no accountability, no incentive to trust that the 

self-proclaimed ``adults in the room'' know what is best.

  Especially when it comes to the economy, Tennesseans can see a 

socialist agenda pulling the strings. Right now, they are staring down 

the barrel of a $3.5 trillion budget that the Democrats have weaponized 

against personal responsibility and decentralized control. Just seeing 

that pricetag was bad enough, and now we are hearing the pricetag is 

growing.  

But, now, Tennesseans know that the Democrats don't even care how 

much this costs nor do they care that, if all goes to plan, American 

businesses will carry a heavier tax burden than communist China. That 

is correct. The American businesses will have a higher tax burden than 

those in communist China. Living life as we know it will be too 

expensive for most of us to afford.

No serious person could stand here on the floor of the Senate and 

pretend to be shocked at the level of anger and frustration that we are 

seeing back home. I talk to people every single week who feel 

betrayed--betrayed--by this administration. They feel unsafe.

Many of the Tennesseans I speak to every day who voted for President 

Biden wish they had made another choice in the voting booth because, 

yes, they voted for the President, but they did not vote for this. They 

did not vote for the Afghanistan withdrawal and the manner we came out. 

They did not vote to embolden the communist Chinese. They did not vote 

for open borders. They did not vote for inflation that is skyrocketing, 

taxes--$2 trillion of taxes coming their way. No, they did not vote for 

that, and this is what makes them angry.

I hear their anger with every telephone townhall, with every 

conversation. I hear their frustration. They are angry at the White 

House officials who use the full force of the U.S. Government to cover 

up their mistakes and try to make it sound like it is the problem of 

the people, because they know they have messed up.

And the people have every right to be angry. The things we do in this 

Chamber don't exist in a bubble. They have real world consequences for 

real people who have real lives that they are living every day, and 

they know that they are beginning to live these lives in a more 

dangerous setting: crime on the streets, crime on the rise, open 

borders, unvetted migrants coming to their communities, COVID, measles 

Outbreaks.

They are angry. They have ``buyer's anger.'' I like to say, as I talk 

to women: Security moms are back. They are back in full force. They are 

back because they don't like the crime in the streets. They want safe 

communities. They want their children safe. They want their children 

who are going to college this fall to be safe. They are upset with the 

Afghanistan withdrawal, with the continuation of the war on terror, and 

that their children are going to have to go refight this.

They are angry, and we hear their anger, and we know it is time for 

Members in this Chamber to stop playing politics with how much spending 

you can force out the door and address these problems that moms and 

dads and Americans across this country are faced with each and every 

day.