[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 63 (Monday, April 17, 2023)] [House] [Pages H1755-H1757] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Date: 2023-04-17
Chamber: HOUSE
Mr. GOOD : I thank Chairman Biggs, my friend from Arizona for his leadership on this all-important issue. I also thank my friend from Montana and his remarks just a moment ago. Mr. Speaker, the Founders gave, in the Constitution, the authority for spending to the House of Representatives. It is the House of Representatives that most directly reflects where the American people are, what the American people's wishes are on a Federal level. It is not the White House. It is not the Senate. It certainly is not the Supreme Court. It is the people's House, the House of Representatives, which proportionally represents everyone across the country equally with some 800,000 citizens per representative. It is the House of Representatives that has the responsibility to ensure our ability to pay our Nation's debts and to protect the credit or the borrowing capacity for when it is necessary of the United States Federal Government. We talk often about what are the greatest threats to the country. There are numerous existential threats to our country right now, I would submit like never before in the history of the United States, brought on by the policies of this administration, Mr. Speaker, and those who had the majority of both Houses for the previous 2 years. Whether it is the open border where some 6 to 7 million illegals have swarmed into our country, facilitated and helped by this administration's policies. Whether it is our broken education system, our indoctrination on our college campuses, our K-12. Whether it is the weakening of our military, our failures on the national stage. Whether it is the threat of China. Whether it is our national debt and our spending. As we address tonight and discuss the national debt and the spending and the debt ceiling issue, the spending piece of this, the responsibility of the House is not just addressing that issue, but how we manage the United States' spending. The Federal spending addresses all of the other issues: to utilize the power of the purse, to stop funding the harmful policies. Not just the wasteful reckless spending, but the literal harmful spending that is making our country less safe, less secure, less prosperous, and less free. As we talked specifically about the national debt, it has been said already tonight, over $31 trillion. I happen to serve on the Budget Committee. A couple of weeks ago we brought before our committee, once again, OMB Director Shalanda Young, the Biden administration's budget director--funny term to apply budget director to anybody in this administration, Mr. Speaker--as we were having a chance to question the budget director for the Biden administration, I asked Ms. Young: What is the national debt? She could not tell me. She said it was somewhere around maybe $24 trillion. I corrected her that it was over $31 trillion. I asked her: How much does that equate to per American citizen? She did not know. I helped her with the fact that it is nearly $100,000 for 330 million American citizens. $100,000 per citizen. That means about $300,000 per taxpayer or per family. Mr. Speaker, I then asked her what is the percentage of debt to GDP? She did not know, Mr. Speaker. She thought it might be 90-some percent. I helped her with the information that it is about 125 percent debt to GDP ratio. I asked: When was the last time it was that high in the history of our country? She did not know. I helped her to realize that it was World War II. To follow up on what my friend from Arizona (Mr. Biggs) was saying a moment ago. We also had--another committee that I serve on, another caucus I am a part of, the Republican Study Committee--Federal Reserve Chairman Powell--he spoke to us about interest rates and about trying to bring down inflation. He shared his remarks. Once again, he did not deal with the issue of the national debt. He didn't even bring it up. He didn't bring up the Federal spending. I said to him: What is the number one cause of inflation? Historically, when we raise interest rates, we are trying to what? Cool a hot economy to ward off a recession. Instead, we have caused the inflation with the spending, and now we are making it worse on the American people by raising the interest rates in a futile attempt to reduce inflation in a weak economy and making things worse for the American people. Mr. Speaker, with respect to the remarks a few moments ago from my colleague from Arizona (Mr. Biggs), I led a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellan asking her about what Mr. Biggs was speaking about a moment ago.  What is her plan to ensure we do not have a default when we reach the debt ceiling limit? How will she prioritize spending to ensure we don't result in a default when we reach that debt limit? We have not gotten satisfactory answers to that. Mr. Biggs is exactly right, Mr. Speaker. When we exhaust these so- called extraordinary measures, which part of my letter also asked: When will we exhaust those? How is that determined? We have not gotten satisfactory answers to that. But the fact is, when we reach the debt limit and we can no longer utilize gimmicks and clever tactics to try to extend that, we will simply have to prioritize our spending. We have got a record $5 trillion coming into the Treasury. Never happened before in the history of the country. Frankly, because of the Trump Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which has done what always happens in history when you cut taxes, you get more income and more revenue. Don't let the Democrats or the administration lie to us, Mr. Speaker, and tell us we have a deficit because of the tax cuts. That is simply not true, with $5 trillion in revenue coming into the Treasury for the first time in history. However, as Mr. Biggs said, we are spending over $6 trillion if we reach the debt limit, and we can no longer delay through these extraordinary measures. We will simply have to prioritize spending. That is why they don't want to do it. That is why they want your $3 or $4 trillion, as Mr. Rosendale and Mr. Biggs stated a few moments ago, because they don't want to prioritize spending. There is more than enough revenue coming in to fund Social Security and Medicare. There is more than enough revenue to pay the interest on the debt. We would simply be forced to cut discretionary spending.  We have a plan that we in the House Freedom Caucus have put forward to cut somewhere in the range of $1.5 trillion immediately out of the gate. Mr. Biggs led the way on this with 500 bills with 500 specific target cuts toward those 1,200 unauthorized, but still appropriated in the previous Congress' programs. That would save us another $500 billion so that we would never have to raise the debt ceiling again if we have the immediate $1.5 trillion in cuts now, and we use the appropriations process this fall to cut even further.  {time}  2140