[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 185 (Thursday, October 21, 2021)]
[House]
[Page H5733]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
WASTEFUL SPENDING IS NOT WHAT THE UNITED STATES ECONOMY NEEDS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Tennessee (Mr. Rose) for 5 minutes.
Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, Democrats are determined to pass their
massive socialist tax and spending bill that will turn the American
Dream into a socialist nightmare.
Democrats are proposing the largest tax increase in most of our
lifetimes. Their $5.5 trillion plan--Senator Bernie Sanders' socialist
spending plan--is the largest spending bill in our history and will
take Americans out of the frying pan and into the fire.
We need targeted infrastructure improvements, but instead, this style
of cradle-to-grave Big Government gives Washington bureaucrats control
over our personal and family decisions.
This spending bill promises to stretch the social safety net to every
American household regardless of need. It promises extreme climate
change proposals like $3 billion for tree equity and $12 billion for
electric cars.
It promises subsidized government daycare, taxpayer-funded free
college classes for illegal immigrants, universal pre-K, and new
funding for gender identity issues and bias training.
The Biden administration is actively trying to gaslight the American
people by claiming that this spending package will cost nothing.
Just this morning I heard the President emphasizing a single
statement three times that the cost of this plan would be zero. This is
an outright lie.
It will be America's middle-class families that foot the bill for
Democrats' multitrillion-dollar giveaway through crippling tax
increases. This massive package will not deliver opportunity or
economic relief, instead it leaves rural America behind and will
accelerate inflation, discourage work, and empower Washington
bureaucrats.
More wasteful spending is not what our economy needs. It has already
contributed to the harmful inflation that Americans across the board
are experiencing. Today, inflation is more than 5 percent, the highest
it has been in 30 years, more than half of my lifetime and more than
the lifetimes of many Americans. Wholesale prices have risen at the
fastest pace on record.
Americans do not want a government that defines them. Rather,
Americans want to be able to define their own government.
We can meet our country's funding needs without jeopardizing our
economic recovery and saddling future generations with more debt.
I ran for Congress because I am worried about the country that we are
going to leave to my sons, Guy and Sam, and to the children and
grandchildren and great-grandchildren of every American. I cannot in
good conscience support a proposal that will mortgage their future,
that will imperil their freedom and liberty.
But Democrats are bent on spending massively to enact their radical
far-left socialist policies that will change our economy, change our
Nation, and change our fiscal future for the worse.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from
engaging in personalities toward the President.
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