[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 70 (Wednesday, April 26, 2023)] [House] [Pages H1979-H2039] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Date: 2023-04-26
Chamber: HOUSE
Mr. SCALISE: I thank my friend from Texas, not only a leader but the chairman of the House Budget Committee, Mr. Arrington, for bringing this bill to the floor. Mr. Speaker, we all know our Nation is at a crossroads. This is a very fragile time for the American people. They are looking at inflation that is going through the roof, decades high, paying more for everything, and they know why that happened. They are paying more for everything when they go to the grocery store, the gas pump, and anywhere else because Washington has spent trillions of dollars that this country doesn't have. Over the last 2 years, President Biden has maxed out the Nation's credit card. That is what the debt ceiling is. That is what this debate is about. As the President has maxed out the Nation's credit card, Americans know what that means. They have credit cards. They work hard not to max out theirs. They all know that we are going to make the minimum payment on those cards. If somebody maxed out the credit card like President Biden did, the first thing you do is not give them another credit card to max out, as President Biden has asked and demanded. He said to just give him more money to keep spending money that we don't have to rack up more inflation on hardworking families. Mr. Speaker, that would be irresponsible, yet that is what the President has asked for. What House Republicans have done is come together to say there is a better way. Sure, we need to address the debt ceiling, but we also need to address, at the same time, the problems that have brought us to this moment. It is not by accident that the Nation's credit card got maxed out. This is how bad the problem is. We can talk trillions all day long, and the numbers get so big that people just tune it out. Let's talk some basic numbers. For every $100 that the Federal Government takes in, the Federal Government is spending $129. Now, if a family did that, it wouldn't last long before they would go under, before they would lose their house, before they would go bankrupt. $100 coming in and $129 going out, that is the spending problem in Washington. President Biden said he wants to spend another $129 with $100 still coming in. Most families would look at that and say it is irresponsible to do that, and we agree, as House Republicans. You would think the President has acknowledged this finally and said: ``Okay, why don't we sit down at the table and figure this out? We do not need a debt crisis in this Nation.'' Instead of sitting down to negotiate, which is what anybody responsible would do, Speaker McCarthy has said: Mr. President, let's sit down. They did it once over 2 months ago. The President himself, in fact, days later said: Do you know what? We ought to do it again. The problem is the President then went into hiding. The President willnot sit down and meet with the Speaker to negotiate how to solve this problem because the President wants to run the clock out and create a debt crisis.  That is the height of irresponsibility, Mr. Speaker. If the President is going to shirk his responsibility and try to hide and wait until the clock strikes midnight, House Republicans are not going to sit on the sidelines. We are going to lead and present a solution. That is what this bill is. That is what Mr. Arrington's legislation does, Mr. Speaker. It says, as we deal with the debt ceiling, let's also deal with the spending problem that got us here. How do we do it? I think reading the bill would be really important. We will send an extra copy down to the White House so that they can actually see some of the basic things we are talking about. These are things that families get. Right now, in America, if you talk to any small business owner, they are all looking for workers. You would think we have full employment, that everybody who wants to work and is capable of working is working. Unfortunately, that is not the case. President Biden put in place over the last few years different changes to welfare so that people who are fully able-bodied, that aren't even--they are not turning down work. They are not even looking for work, some of them making over $35,000 a year to sit at home. That is costing taxpayers over $100 billion. What we say is, frankly, a question a lot of people have asked over the years. I am just going to read it to you as the voters of the State of Wisconsin had presented to them just a few weeks ago, Mr. Speaker: ``Shall able-bodied, childless adults be required to look for work in order to receive taxpayer-funded welfare benefits?'' That is a pretty straightforward question. In fact, 79.5 percent of Wisconsin voters just a few weeks ago said, yes, they should look for work before they get taxpayer benefits. Should a single mom who is working two jobs have to pay for somebody who is just sitting at home and who just chooses not to work? This is America. If you want to sit at home and not work, that is your prerogative, but should you be asking a hardworking taxpayer to pay $35,000 or more a year for you to sit at home when everybody is looking for workers? We say let's just put those basic work requirements back in place, just like the voters of Wisconsin said a few weeks ago. Now, you would think the White House--that that is some kind of far- reaching idea. Most people get this. This isn't just about saving taxpayer money. It saves a lot of taxpayer money to do this. Do you know what else it does, Mr. Speaker? Our bill strengthens Social Security because when President Biden is sending tens of billions of dollars every month to pay people not to work, not only are they not working, not only are they eating up all kind of money that our children are ultimately going to have to pay back, they are also taking money out of Social Security because they are not paying into it. By putting these basic work requirements back in place, there are millions of people who are sitting on the sidelines that would finally get back into the workplace, finally have an opportunity to achieve the American Dream again, finally be able to lift up their standard of living. Do you know what else they are going to be doing, Mr. Speaker? They are going to be paying into Social Security. They will be paying into Medicare. That would add tens of billions of dollars to strengthen Social Security and Medicare. Why would the President be against that? We claw back some of the unspent COVID money. President Biden himself said the COVID emergency is over. Yet, there are tens of billions of dollars out there being spent on things that have nothing to do with COVID, all under the name of the pandemic. Why not save that money for taxpayers? In addition to saving taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars, we also put in pro-growth policies in this bill, things like the Lower Energy Cost Act. When you talk to families about the things that are angering them that are coming out of Washington, clearly, inflation and the cost of everything going up is the biggest item. The biggest item driving inflation is President Biden's anti-American energy policies. Families today are paying 50 percent more when they go fill up their cars at the pump, 50 percent more than the day President Biden took office. There is no reason for that. Instead of President Biden getting on Air Force One and going to beg Saudi princes to produce more energy, or begging Putin to produce more energy, we can make it here in America cleaner than anywhere else in the world, actually lowering carbon emissions. Yet, President Biden keeps saying no to American energy. He says ``yes'' to foreign oil but no to American oil. That doesn't pass the smell test. In our bill, we actually fix that and allow Americans to produce more energy here, to produce more critical minerals. Why should we be relying on China for computer chips? Over 90 percent of solar panels in the world are made in China. Why not make more of those things here? Car batteries--they talk about electric cars all day, yet over 90 percent of car batteries are made in China because they won't let America access our minerals here, so we have become dependent on foreign countries.  {time}  1530  I am tired of being dependent on countries like China because President Biden has gotten the policies wrong over and over again. Let's fix this. We do fix these problems in this bill. If President Biden has got a better idea, it is long past time he puts those ideas on the table. This is not a problem you run and hide from. In fact, when you ask to be President of the United States, you are the Commander in Chief, you are the leader of the free world, Mr. Speaker. This is not a job where you run and hide from the tough things. These are the moments where you step up, you rise to the moment. The American people are calling for us all to do that. Some people want to sit and hide and hope that the clock strikes midnight, and they can just force some bad deal on the taxpayers of America. Well, that is what they are sick about Washington over. Time and time again, Washington doesn't answer the needs of hardworking families who are struggling and just waits until the midnight hour to jam a bad deal down the throats of people. Let's not wait until that midnight hour. We are standing up and leading. It is long past time that President Biden gets off the sidelines and does his job, too, and gets to the negotiating table with Speaker McCarthy so we can solve this problem and put America on a stronger financial footing that will benefit all Americans. It is time to end this madness. Let's pass this legislation. Let's start this conversation that families have been having for a long time. It is long past time Washington gets into the middle of this conversation, too. Let's pass this bill. Let's solve this problem.