VIDEO: CAPITO HIGHLIGHTS THREE YEARS OF FAILURE FROM PRESIDENT BIDEN AND HIS ADMINISTRATION

Floor Speech

"Mr/Madam President--

This past Saturday, January 20th, marked three years since President Biden took his oath of office. Since then, President Biden has had nearly 1,100 days in the White House to enact the policies that he campaigned on and I can tell you what is clear:

The lives of Americans are not better now than they were three years ago. Our country is not safer than it was three years ago. And, the state of our union is not stronger than it was three years ago.

Time and time again, President Biden has let his tenure be defined by weakness instead of strength. This lack of leadership has had negative implications across a variety of sectors of American life, and left millions of people across our country and world in situations that were avoidable.

It doesn't have to be this way, Mr. President.

Perhaps none of the Biden administration's failures is as glaringly obvious as the southern border and the continued fallout we're seeing as the result of a president who is asleep at the switch on the issue.

There have been 6.7 million illegal encounters at the southern border under President Biden's watch. It's hard to imagine the scope of 6.7 million encounters -- but think of it this way: Only 17 U.S. states have a population higher than 6.7 million. This massive flow of humanity is the equivalent of adding another state to our country that is nearly four times the size of my home state of West Virginia.

But, President Biden's border failure doesn't stop there. Since Fiscal Year 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection has seized 536,000 pounds of meth, 256,000 pounds of cocaine, and 56,000 pounds of deadly fentanyl.

With hundreds of thousands of admitted got-aways, it's impossible to know the amount of illegal narcotics that have made it across the border and into our homeland. When it comes to the southern border, the only thing that President Biden has improved is the business of cartels, who are receiving cover to continue their crimes every day that we don't respond to this crisis.

The list of consequences as a result of President Biden's inaction on the border is long and it has led to everything from violent crimes committed by individuals not lawfully in our country, to our hospitals and health clinics being pushed to the brink. To our children forced to vacate their schools and remote learn to make room for migrant shelters, and even calls from the leaders of blue states, who sent a letter on Monday asking for federal assistance to handle this crisis.

Rather than properly defending our homeland, President Biden has incentivized a crisis that urgently needs a solution.

Unfortunately for this administration, when it comes to failures, the border is just the beginning. Let's look at the economy, and where the unrelenting pursuit of "Bidenomics' has taken us.

President Biden and his supporters want the American public to believe that some positive trends are a sign that his policies are working. But, if you have spent any time in middle-class America over the past three years, you would know that our families are continuously being squeezed by high prices and businesses are being taxed and regulated out of operation.

The quality of life for American families is defined by their ability to put food on the table, to earn an honest living, and to put a roof over their heads, not by broad macroeconomic indicators and unfortunately, there is no relief in-sight for American families under "Bidenomics.'

Since January 2021: Cumulative overall prices have risen 17%. Food prices have increased 20%. Energy prices have increased 32%. And, rent prices have increased 19%. All while average weekly earnings for all employees decreased by 4.5%. The basic truth is that under this president: Americans are spending more and getting less.

Additionally, these policies defined by "Bidenomics' are failing our small businesses and manufactures as well. Small and medium manufacturing companies continue to have historically lower levels of optimism. And, 23% of small business owners reported that inflation was their single most important problem to their business operations.

Another area in which this administration has continued to fail is our national security, and the standing of our country on the world stage. The same president who vowed that "America is Back' in one of his first addresses has instead come to own a foreign policy record that is marred by botched withdrawals, open displays of weakness, and regretful decision-making.

Look no further than the United States' disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, which undoubtedly has damaged the trust between our allies, broadcasted weakness on the world stage, and displayed a lack of resolve that emboldened our adversaries.

When it comes to Iran and the Middle East, President Biden has made disastrous decisions: Like the decision to de-list the Houthis as an FTO, the same Iranian-backed terror group that has perpetrated more than 30 attacks on vessels transiting the Red Sea. Or the administration's willingness to be strung along by Iran on fruitless nuclear negotiations. Today, it is clear that these negotiations were a waste of time -- with Iran now rapidly increasing its production of highly enriched uranium. And how could we forget the decision to unfreeze $6 billion in assets to Iran, and to do so on 9/11 of all days.

The foreign policy of President Biden has been defined by skyrocketing attacks on U.S. troops by foreign adversaries, a large scale ground war in Europe, and the unprecedented buildup of China's military amid concerns about the health of our own defense industrial base here at home.

While there is an undeniable lack of American leadership in our executive branch, we must remind ourselves that it is not too late to reverse course. And while Congressional Republicans did not create these issues at hand, we accept the responsibility of attempting to solve them.

That is why Republicans stand for solutions that change the border policies that have allowed this crisis to thrive, rein in wasteful Washington spending, support our small businesses, manufactures, and middle-class families, unleash American energy, and that prove the true strength and standing of the United States of America on the world stage.

Our country cannot continue to accept the level of failure that this administration has made normal over the past three years.

With that, I yield the floor."

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