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Biden-Harris Agenda Leaves America Worse Off

By Sen. John Thune

October 25, 2024

For the last four years, it’s felt as if the Biden-Harris administration has led us from one crisis to another. Their reckless spending kicked off a historic inflation crisis. Their open-border policies led to an influx of illegal immigrants crossing the southern border. And their weak foreign policy emboldened our adversaries to sow chaos around the world. By a number of important measures, this administration’s agenda has left America worse off.

Every American has felt the impact of the inflation crisis that has come to define the Biden-Harris years. It started soon after Democrats forced through a $1.9 trillion partisan spending bill despite warnings that this much money risked setting off an inflation crisis. Prices started to climb within a few weeks of the bill passing, eventually reaching a 40-year high. Today, prices are up 20 percent since President Biden and Vice President Harris took office, costing a typical family more than $13,000 more per year just to maintain the same standard of living it enjoyed four short years ago.

The crisis at the southern border is another defining feature of the Biden-Harris administration. In its first days, their administration began dismantling the Trump administration’s border security policies, and illegal border crossings soon began to surge. This administration has presided over four of the highest years for illegal border crossings ever recorded – more than 10 million illegal immigrants have crossed the border on its watch. Among these millions are terrorists and violent criminals who threaten public safety and national security. Yet President Biden and Vice President Harris allowed this crisis to rage for years unabated, refusing to even call it a crisis until earlier this year.

We have also seen the effects of the Biden-Harris administration projecting weakness on the world stage. Dating back to its disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Biden-Harris administration has failed to demonstrate strength to our adversaries. In the last few years, we’ve seen Russia invade Ukraine, Hamas terrorists attack Israel, as well as increasingly brazen actions from China, North Korea, and Iran. Today the world faces greater uncertainty and instability, and the Biden-Harris administration’s foreign policy is unsuited to the growing challenges we face.

These crises and others have set America back. Life has gotten more expensive, our country has become less secure, and the world has become more chaotic. These problems won’t be solved by doing more of the same. We need to shift gears to policies that grow our economy, secure the border, and demonstrate strength abroad.