It’s Time Democrats Stop Ignoring Problems They Caused
By Sen. John Thune
Over the last two years our economic, energy, and national security have been moving in the wrong direction. High inflation has strained family budgets month after month. A radical environmental agenda threatens our energy security. And a failure to address the surge in illegal immigration has led to a humanitarian crisis at our southern border. These crises are the result of President Biden and Democrats putting their big-government priorities over the needs of the American people.
Most Americans just wanted to get back to normal after a year of the pandemic, but Democrats swept into office determined to enact a far-left agenda. They started off with their $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, flooding the economy with unnecessary spending despite economists warning that their proposal could trigger inflation. Even as it became clear that the American Rescue Plan was indeed driving up inflation, Democrats kept pushing ahead with another, even larger reckless tax-and-spending spree. While they were eventually forced to shelve this $5 trillion plan last December, by the following August Democrats had agreed on yet another partisan tax-and-spending bill. And just days after signing this bill into law, President Biden announced a massive student loan giveaway, which alone could cost more than $1 trillion and will, to quote one independent analysis, “meaningfully boost inflation.”
Democrats’ reckless spending has helped drive up prices across the board, including energy prices. But the price of energy is especially high because of Democrats’ attacks on conventional energy production. From canceling the Keystone XL pipeline, to imposing burdensome regulations on investment in the oil and gas sector, to increasing taxes on oil and gas producers, the president and Democrats have pursued an agenda hostile to conventional U.S. energy production. The result has been higher prices for utilities, gas, and diesel, not to mention the energy jobs that will be lost because of the administration’s misguided policies.
After taking office the president also made quick work of dismantling our nation’s border security, sending a clear message to migrants that the border was open. In fiscal year 2022, the Biden administration broke its own record for the highest number of illegal immigrant encounters at the southern border. There were 2.3 million encounters in fiscal year 2022, a 37 percent increase over fiscal year 2021. And that doesn’t include known “gotaways,” immigrants who evaded apprehension after crossing the border – more than 1.1 million combined in the previous two fiscal years alone. Yet Democrats refuse to acknowledge that there is a crisis at the border or that their policies have contributed to the ongoing surge in illegal crossings.
Instead of addressing the crises they helped create, Democrats are focused on passing the rest of their original reckless tax-and-spending bill, which would drive up inflation even further. And if they increase their majority in November, they may again try to gut Senate rules to force through legislation empowering a federal takeover of elections and allowing abortion up until the moment of birth.
Republicans, on the other hand, want to promote growth in our economy by making lower tax rates permanent. We want to unleash American energy production with an all-of-the-above energy agenda. And we want to secure the border, deter illegal immigration, and stop deadly drugs like fentanyl from pouring into our communities.
South Dakotans can’t afford another two years like the last two. And for the sake of our country, I hope we don’t have to see what two more years of Democrat power would bring.
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Interesting that a Republican complains about “democrat” reckless spending when each of the last four Republican presidents each set a new record for the deficit. Each of the last three democrats inherited a trashed economy and a record deficit and the last two dramatically reduced the deficit despite the irresponsible tax cuts.
John you know better than trying to blame the democrats for this fiasco. If you were a GOOD U.S. Senator you would have put together a bi-partisan committee to fix your problems and you would have been able to convince a super-majority of the elected U.S. Senators and Congress persons to support passage as well. You would rather waste time on a blame game pointing fingers and making wild allegations.
Why not try to be a productive, responsible, and reasonable official by working in a bi-partisan effort to fix a problem that every elected official in Washington DC helped create. That is what the people expect. If you don’t want to do it as responsible, reasonable,and productive elected official, then it might be time for you to step aside and let someone else do the heavy lifting for the citizens of this state and nation.
Anyone can point fingers and pass blame. It takes an honest and real person to step-up and get the job done. Think about it, and no excuses Please, we have heard all of them already.
According to the Energy Information Administration, global demand for oil will be at a record high in 2022, and US oil production will be at an all-time high. Meanwhile the world’s largest producer has cut their production to raise price, and Russia cut their production some time ago.
Our senior senator has no plan to address the price of oil any more than he has a serious plan to address immigration reform, or any of the other issues in this latest press release.
Instead he just wants to scare the electorate.
I’m surprised John is playing this “evil democrat” card as much as he is the last two years. Does he think everyone forgot about how the republicans controlled all branches of government in 2016 and didn’t do anything except tax cuts for the top earners? If it was as simple as just putting the other party in, we would have it fixed. The problem is power hungry, money hungry, legislators who are in to represent themselves and their “sponsors” only.
Overturn citizens united, implement term limits, reinstate the 60 vote threshold for judges, be pragmatic. We pay this guy to go to Washington to fund raise for himself, they don’t even write their own legislation anymore. Your political party sucks, vote for your best interests, not anyone else.
Odd that you should say this. I was thinking the same thing about the Democrats.
Not sure what you mean, it was not written to one party or the other, the point is people who party vote are stupid. Do the democrats suck, yep, 100%, but that doesn’t mean the republicans don’t also suck. Quit being a follower and stop worrying about the political party and grievance of the week they come up with.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say they’re “stupid,” just lazy.
Tony why repeat the lie that Trump’s tax cuts were for top earners?
Top earners don’t take the standard deduction, they itemize. And they were the ones who got clobbered with the cap on mortgage interest, state and local tax deductions, absolutely clobbered. The people who take the standard deduction, the true middle class, households earning about $70,000/year, got a whopper tax break.
I thought it was interesting that householders with higher incomes believed they were also middle class, when in fact they were at the top. If your household income is over $200,000, you’re in the top 10%. It surprises me how many people don’t know that.