[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 100 (Wednesday, June 9, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4019-S4020]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

      By Mr. SCOTT of Florida (for himself, Mr. Cruz, Mr. Braun, Mr. 
        Barrasso, Ms. Ernst, Mrs. Blackburn, Mr. Tuberville, Mr. 
        Johnson, and Ms. Lummis):
  S. 1990. A bill to establish processes to control inflationary 
pressures and the Federal debt, during Federal debt emergencies; to the 
Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
  Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, America is in a debt crisis. It 
appears, for Joe Biden and my colleagues across the aisle, reckless 
spending has only just begun. If left unchecked, this spending will be 
devastating for families in my State of Florida and all across our 
great Nation.
  Washington's insane spending has our Federal debt rocketing toward 
$30 trillion. That is equal to $233,000 of debt for every American 
family. Think about that. America's debt crisis, caused by decades of 
wasteful and reckless spending by Washington politicians, has now grown 
to the equivalent of every American family owing a quarter of a million 
dollars in debt. Yet Biden and my colleagues across the aisle want more
  President Biden is pushing for trillions in wasteful spending, 
raising the U.S. Federal debt by 60 percent, to $39 trillion, and the 
debt-to-GDP ratio to 117 percent in 2030, the highest level ever 
recorded in American history.
  Enough is enough. It is time to end the madness.
  Today I am introducing the Federal Debt Emergency Control Act to help 
bring some accountability back to Washington.
  On July 31, the current suspension of the Federal debt ceiling is set 
to expire, giving Congress a choice: Act responsibly to reduce Federal 
debt through structural reform to how we approach spending or suspend 
the debt ceiling again, allowing more reckless spending that will 
cripple our Nation with insurmountable debt.
  Reckless spending has consequences. We are already seeing rising 
inflation. Let's remember, inflation doesn't hurt the rich, but it 
devastates our poorest families. It hurts families like mine growing 
up. It hurts poor families. It hurts people on fixed incomes. Just look 
around us. Milk prices are up. Bread prices are up. Gas prices are up. 
Meat prices are up. It seems like everything is up right now.
  When inflation happened in the seventies, I watched. I watched what 
my parents went through. At that point, my mom was taking in ironing 
from other families to make ends meet. At the end of the day, whatever 
she had made that day, either my older brother or I would go to the 
grocery store, and we would watch--and she was worried about milk and 
food, all of the prices going up. She said, ``You only have this amount 
of money,'' and we had to know what everything cost before we went to 
the checkout counter.
  It is not fair. No family should have to go through worrying about 
the price of bread and milk and things going up week after week.
  We can get control of inflation. We can put our Nation on a fiscally 
responsible path, but we have to have real solutions that hold Congress 
accountable.
  My Federal Debt Emergency Control Act aims to rein in Washington's 
out-of-control spending with concrete checks and balances, including 
the declaration of a Federal debt emergency anytime the debt exceeds 
100 percent of GDP.
  By the way, once debt equals 100 percent of GDP, it is very difficult 
to start paying down debt. You have to dramatically either reduce 
spending or dramatically grow your economy.
  Declaring a Federal debt emergency would initiate commonsense debt 
reduction measures, including a requirement that two-thirds of Congress 
vote

[[Page S4020]]

to increase the debt before approving any bill with deficit spending.
  It would also terminate any unobligated funding for the American 
Rescue Plan Act and any previous stimulus bills, sending it back to the 
Treasury General Fund for deficit reduction to reduce our debt.
  Finally, it would ensure that any bill reducing the Federal debt by 
at least 5 percent over 10 years is fast-tracked through the 
legislative process.
  Everyone can get behind these commonsense measures. That is why my 
bill is already endorsed by the National Taxpayers Union, the Council 
for Citizens Against Government Waste, Americans for Tax Reform, 
Americans for Prosperity, FreedomWorks, and Club for Growth.
  I am also proud to have the support of Senators Cruz, Braun, 
Blackburn, Johnson, Barrasso, Ernst, and Tuberville as cosponsors of 
this important legislation.
  With President Biden's budget proposal--and just to put that in 
perspective, his budget proposal is $6 trillion. This year, our Federal 
receipts are only going to be $3.5 trillion. How can we expect to run 
trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars of deficit year after 
year? With his budget proposal, we see how important the need is to get 
Washington's awful spending habits under control and start paying down 
our debt.
  I did it before. I did it as Governor of Florida. I walked in with a 
$4 billion deficit. I started reducing taxes my first year. We reduced 
it every year in 8 years, and we cut over a third of the State debt. We 
did it by being responsible, by holding government accountable for 
watching how we spent every dollar. It can be done.
  So getting back on track is possible, but it takes discipline. It 
takes accountability. It starts with taking concrete steps, like 
rejecting bloated budgets and passing commonsense legislation like the 
Federal Debt Emergency Control Act. We have the chance to do this. We 
know the vote over the debt ceiling increase is a tough vote for 
everybody. Let's take this opportunity to have real structural reform 
so we can start paying down our debt and not leave this debt to future 
generations

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