On the recordNovember 18, 2021
I think I can find something I agree with my Democrat colleagues on. This bill is a transformational bill. It is a bill made up by people who think America is fundamentally broken and that we have to make big changes. That is what we are going to get. I will focus quickly on five areas. One, illegal immigration. Under this bill, we are adding no new Border Patrol agents, but we are making it more difficult to deport people who have committed serious crimes here. We are using an additional carrot to get people here in that we are giving away free college to match the free healthcare we are already giving. One way that this bill would transform America is you get a lot more illegal immigrants. Since yesterday, for the first time, we topped 100,000 illegal drug deaths in this country. I think this bill ensures that number is going to continue to go up. That is an undersold story. Secondly, I have always felt the biggest problem in America right now is an out-of-control welfare system that destroys families. That system becomes more generous in this bill, be it through much more low-income housing or an earned income tax credit provision that increases the marriage penalty or Pell grants. This is a transformative bill, and I strongly wish my colleagues would vote against it.
