On Wednesday night, President Biden gave an address to some members of Congress. Unlike the State of the Union, not all members were invited and few were in attendance. I was not invited to attend the speech, but want to address four topics.
Spending
The President touted his $1.9 trillion "COVID-19 relief" bill as a success. This was, however, one of the largest spending bills in the history of our country, and it came at a time where our economy was rebounding and people were getting back to work. What's more, a very small portion of this bill went toward COVID-19 health spending, the large majority of spending went toward other things, like a plethora of liberal wish-list items that Democrats have been trying to pass for years. America is over $28 trillion in debt, and on top of his already out-of-control spending, President Biden is now championing an "infrastructure" bill that contains provisions that don't meet the definition of infrastructure and contains many radical Green New Deal policies that will cost taxpayers money and threaten jobs.
Energy
In his speech, President Biden spoke about climate change and the opportunity it presents to create jobs. Biden tried to create jobs in the energy sector in 2011 when he and President Obama gave $535 million of taxpayer money to Solyndra.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden got a nice photo op. They got to make speeches about being "green." But then Solyndra went bankrupt. Americans lost jobs. Taxpayers got stuck with the bill. -The Chicago Tribune
Instead of using your tax dollars to pick winners and losers like he has done in the past, President Biden should be reducing the number of burdensome regulations on businesses to allow them to expand, hire more workers, and innovate. After his day one decision to halt construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, a decision that cost America 11,000 jobs (hundreds in Wisconsin alone), I do not believe that he learned from his past mistakes. That is why I will continue to fight for American energy independence and advocate for ways to make sure you are not being overcharged at the pump and your tax dollars are not being wasted on politicians' pet projects.
Border Security
Before President Biden took office, our immigration system had vastly improved. After taking office, there was a surge of migrants at the border, with levels we have not seen since the early 2000s. Despite this, he failed to provide us with details on how he plans to address the growing crisis during his speech. I have been to the border many times and have documented the deterioration under the current President. The House Oversight Committee, of which I am a member, put together a timeline of events, detailing and explaining how the current crisis at the border has escalated since President Biden took office. For more information on what I am doing to secure the border, please look to the next section.
Unity
In his inaugural address, Joe Biden promised to be a unifying President. He has been anything but. His embrace of the radical, one-time fringe element of the Democrat party has only further divided the country. Not only have he and Congressional Democrats not given Republicans adequate input on massive spending bills and sweeping pieces of legislation that have passed the House, but they have been introducing and passing these bills at breakneck speed. When legislation is forced through Congress too quickly, not only does it alienate the minority, it also leaves the bill subject to errors that could have been fixed during committee hearings and markups. Bills that fall into this category include the so-called For the People Act, the so-called Equality Act, the PRO Act, two anti-Second Amendment bills, and a pro-amnesty bill. All these high-profile bills were brought to the floor without having committees spend appropriate time analyzing them.
