DV Journal

The Biden administration expressed shock when Israel released proof that members of a UN organization receiving hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars participated in the Oct. 7 attack. But all they had to do was follow Dave McCormick on Twitter.

Back in December, the GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate warned the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was doing the work of Hamas terrorists.

“UNRWA is currently using U.S. tax dollars to support educating the next generation of terrorists,” McCormick posted. “As a senator, I would vote to end that funding immediately. Bob Casey & Joe Biden made this mess. I’ll help fix it.”

The same when Iranian-backed militants launched a drone attack that killed three U.S. servicemembers and injured dozens more. McCormick has been warning for years that the policy of allowing millions of dollars to flow to Iran’s mullahs would lead to American deaths.

So, how did last weekend’s events happen if the danger was well known? Because of the policy decisions of Democrats like Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden — and backed by Senate Democrats like Pennsylvania’s own Bob Casey Jr.

When Biden took office, one of his first foreign policy moves was restoring taxpayer funding for UNRWA, which President Donald Trump had halted. At the time, critics pointed to evidence UNRWA was working with Hamas and distributing antisemitic propaganda in Gaza.

Biden ignored those reports. But on Jan. 26, he was forced to “temporarily pause additional funding for UNRWA” after evidence emerged that at least 12 UNRWA employees were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.

“U.S. taxpayer dollars helped cover the paychecks for some of the perpetrators of the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust,” said David May with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. “Support for terrorism among UNRWA employees isn’t a bug; it’s a feature.”

And then there’s Iran.

The drone attack that took American lives last weekend was hardly a surprise. While these were the first U.S. deaths in the region since the conflict began last autumn, American troops in Iraq and Syria have been targeted over 158 times since October, all carried out by groups sponsored by or affiliated with Iran.

And Casey has repeatedly backed Obama and Biden policies allowing cash to flow to Iran’s terror-sponsoring regime.

In 2015, he was part of the Democratic minority that saved Obama’s Iran deal. The Obama administration arranged for a plane to secretly deliver $400 million in cash to the Islamist regime.

Casey said at the time that the Iran deal “is the best option available to us” because it “will be in our national security interest.” He added that, while he didn’t trust Iran, he believed the agreement kept Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.

“Implementation of this agreement may be challenging, and we need to be prepared for the possibility that Iran will violate the agreement,” Casey posted on social media.

While Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Iran deal — over Casey’s public objections — Biden took office pledging to return to the Obama-era policy. He has allowed millions in sanctions relief to flow to the Islamic Republic over the past three years, money that made its way to the terrorist group that killed Americans last weekend.

Richard Goldberg, a defense expert and former U.S. National Security Council staffer, recently described the Biden Iran policy this way:

“Biden removed the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen from the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations, rescinded the American snapback of U.N. sanctions at the Security Council, relaxed sanctions to free up cash for Iran to pay some debts and increase oil exports to China, pulled European allies back from censuring Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, and allowed Iran’s proxies in Iraq and Syria to attack U.S. forces with near impunity.”

All with Casey’s support.

But rather than slowing the flow of dollars to UNRWA or Iran, Casey has been an advocate. He has also declined to cosponsor the UNRWA Accountability and Transparency Act.

While Casey has remained silent on the UNRWA scandal, Republicans are speaking out.

“Today’s news further underscores that UNRWA is an irredeemable organization that plays a critical role in Hamas’ terrorist infrastructure,” Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) said. “Biden should have never reversed the Trump administration’s decision to cut off U.S. support of UNRWA.”

On Sunday, Casey on social media about the deadly Iran-backed attack:

“I’m praying for the families of the U.S. servicemembers killed and for those injured by the attacks in Jordan,” Casey said. “This is a troubling pattern of Iran-backed groups feeling emboldened, and we must hold all of those responsible accountable for attacks on the U.S. and our allies.”

But, Republicans like McCormick ask, will it be enough to finally get Casey to change his policy on Iran?

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I hope you will indulge me for just a few moments to make a couple of other recommendations. I have got one for my Republican colleagues; I have got one for my Democratic colleagues—mostly for my Democratic colleagues— and two for this institution that we have had this privilege to serve in.

For my Republican colleagues, let me just say, our party can’t be about or beholden to any one man. We are much bigger than that. Our party is much bigger than that. We are the political representation of this huge center-right coalition across America. On a good day, that is more than half of Americans.

And I hope we resist the temptation to adopt the protectionist, nativist, isolationist, redistributive policies that some are suggesting we embrace. I think those are inconsistent with the core values of a majority of the people in this coalition. More importantly, I think those ideas lead to bad outcomes for our country.

For my Democratic colleagues, I have heard many of you passionately— and I believe sincerely—declare your determination to defend our democracy, but I would suggest we all remember that democracy requires much more than the ease of voting in an election.

Elections are absolutely necessary, but they are an insufficient condition for a truly democratic society. Elections really are a means to an end; they are not the end themselves. The end, or purpose, of elections is to provide the mechanism of account ability of the government to the people whose consent is our sole source of legitimacy.

When we hand over Congress’s responsibilities to unelected and, therefore, unaccountable parts of our government—be that the courts or independent regulators or executive branch agencies—we really undermine our democracy, which, of course, is really our Republic, because we weaken the accountability of our government.

Now, look, both sides have done this over time, but I would just hope we could all agree that preserving more responsibility and, therefore, accountability for the legislative branch of government is a good thing for our Republic.

And then two suggestions for this amazing, historic institution. The first one—and it is the most important one: Please keep the filibuster. It is the only mechanism that forces bipartisan consensus. It prevents government governance from the extremes. By forcing bipartisanship, it results in more durable legislation and so lessens the likelihood of big swings in policies. It provides stability for our constituents. And if you want to see more polarization, get rid of the filibuster and we will have much more polarization.

The second thought I had that I wanted to share with you is, I think we can all agree that the Senate has not been functioning as well as it once did and as it really should. I don’t think too many committees are producing too much legislation the old-fashioned way. The old-fashioned way was actually a pretty good vetting process for developing legislative ideas. And when legislation does get to the floor, typi- cally, there are very few substantive amendments that are allowed to be considered.

The result is, as a body, it is very difficult for us to discover whether and where there might be a consensus. I know there are a lot of reasons for this, including political polarization, reasons why the Senate behaves in a way that tends to block debate and voting.

But there might be some relatively modest tweaks in Senate rules that might just facilitate restoring some of what used to be normal functioning. I know a lot of you have done a lot of work in this and that work is still underway. Let me suggest you considerone small tweak, a small but important technical change to a rule, the rule which enables the obstruction of the body.

I am not talking about the filibuster but, rather, the rule that effectively requires unanimous consent, in most cases, to allow a vote on an amendment, any amendment, even a germane amendment.

I can tell you, most Pennsylvanians are very surprised to learn that in order for a Senator to get a vote on almost anything, he or she needs the permission of every other Senator. I don’t think this rule is workable any longer, and it contributes to the dysfunction.

So I have just got a simple idea: Consider raising the threshold for blocking an amendment to some number greater than one.

Now, I support the filibuster because I think it is reasonable for 41 Senators to be able to block legislation. It just doesn’t seem reasonable for one. So I don’t know what the right number is, and I am not religious about this. Maybe it is 10. Maybe it is 20. Maybe it is 50. But I would just suggest that this body consider somehow raising the bar of preventing the Senate from functioning. There may be better ways to do it, but that is one suggestion.

Let me conclude with this: You know, we have all inherited something really, really, truly special. I know we all appreciate that, the fact that we live in the greatest country in the history of humanity and that we serve in this amazing legislative body.

I suspect we all get asked—I know I get asked from time to time—some version of the question: How worried are you about our country’s future?  And, often, there is some combination of national security, political polarization, and the future of our economy that is the primary concern of the people posing the question.

My short reply is usually: Look, we have gotten through much tougher times. But think about it. I think that is so true, and it is important to remember.

On national security, we have got real threats out there. Russia is obviously led by a violent, dangerous bully. The Chinese Communist Party is a rising and increasingly aggressive threat. But nowhere do we face the imminent threats that we faced during World War II and at several moments during the Cold War.

And we are polarized, and it is uncomfortable and it is problematic; but, in 1968, we had political assassinationsand cities were being burned down. And this Chamber, this very Chamber we are in right now, first opened its doors in 1859. Imagine living through the decade that followed that.

As for the economy, look, there are always risks to any economy. Ours is no exception. I think inflation is a significant problem. There is a possibility we have a recession next year. We have huge and growing national debt, and I think that is going to be a real challenge for us.

But I think it is worth remembering this: The vast majority of Americans have a much higher standard of living today than our parents did when they were our age. And a rising standard of living is, after all, the purpose of economic growth.

So I always answer that question about America’s future with the truth, and that is that, despite our challenges, I am extremely bullish on America. And I think my optimism is easily justified by our history.

America has always been able to survive and thrive, and America remains the greatest nation in the history of the world. If we keep on being Americans, we will remain the greatest nation on the planet.

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Throughout America’s history, we have been blessed with strong leadership when faced with severe challenges.  While America has certainly had its fair share of weak leaders – Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama to name a few – when our Nation has come face-to-face with real problems, our strongest leaders have guided us through with strength and determination.

When our Republic was in its infancy, we elected George Washington who guided us through our first founding years as a Nation. Abraham Lincoln held us together through a brutal civil war with sheer determination and grit. After a decade of economic stagnation and an aggressive communist threat, we elected Ronald Reagan, who reinvigorated our economy and defeated the Soviet Union.

All three of these leaders, along with many others, built the success of their presidencies on the strength of their leadership qualities.  During his four years in office, Donald Trump showed that same strength, fighting back against the woke media, communist China and a Democrat party controlled by socialists.

But now, as America is beset by enemies, we have a President all too eager to cave to our enemies abroad and those destroying our way of life from within.  Americans across our country and our soldiers abroad are paying the price for this new leadership in Washington.

As a member of the Trump Administration’s foreign policy team, I saw first-hand how our administration dealt with growing threats abroad. Make no mistake – the Chinese Communist Party and Vladimir Putin want nothing more than to see America weakened. That is what they are getting from a Biden Administration that continuously refuses to stand up for American interests.

There is no better example of the consequence of weak leadership than the catastrophe we saw over the summer in Afghanistan.  When President Trump left office, we had gone nearly an entire year without losing a soldier in battle.  Yet, shortly after taking office Joe Biden stubbornly ignored his generals’ advice to leave forces in place and terrorists pressed their advantage.  In just a few weeks, we went from a stable situation with no combat deaths, to thirteen dead American service members and hundreds stranded behind enemy lines, subject to the thirteenth-century brutality of the Taliban regime.

That same weakness is evident in the Biden Administration’s refusal to secure our border. While the mainstream leftist media mocked President Trump for his insistence on the need to secure our border, he stood firm and made significant progress improving our border security by making transformative deals with Mexico, building a wall, and backing our border patrol officers.

But in ten months, Biden’s administration has reversed all of that progress. Each day we see thousands of migrants storming our southern border, carrying signs thanking the Biden administration for their refusal to enforce American laws.  They know that Joe Biden has become an open-borders radical unwilling to stand up for American citizens against the trafficking of humans and drugs coming into our Nation. The Biden administration doesn’t have the resilience or fortitude to do what is necessary to secure our border. In fact, they are doing the opposite. Last week, it was even reported that the Biden administration is compensating illegal immigrants to the tune of almost half a million dollars each, taking money out of the pockets of American citizens and giving it away to those willfully breaking our laws.

Finally, Biden is incapable of preventing socialists from ruining our economy and destroying America’s way of life.  In 2020, Biden campaigned as a moderate. Yet in 2021, he’s embraced the radical positions of Bernie Sanders, pushing for spending, unlike anything America has ever seen and advocating for a Green New Deal that would eliminate hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs and radically reduce Americans’ personal liberty. He has completely abdicated his duties to the American people who elected him based on his campaign promises and is allowing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders to run our government.

We are in trying times. We need strong leadership now more than ever and Joe Biden is simply not up to the task.

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