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.