[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 101 (Tuesday, June 14, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H5541-H5545]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           BIDEN'S ECONOMICS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2021, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Pennsylvania 
(Mr. Smucker) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. SMUCKER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss something that has 
been on my mind--discuss an issue that we have been talking about and 
we have been holding hearings in both the Budget Committee and the Ways 
and Means Committee, and that is the state of our economy, which I 
would characterize as the dire state of our economy, which I believe--I 
will demonstrate with some charts this evening--is due to the reckless 
budgetary policies of this administration.
  What I am talking about is today we have inflation at 8.6 percent, 
which is the highest level in over 40 years. We also have a GDP, or 
gross domestic product, the total output of our economy that is 
shrinking in the first quarter. It shrank 1.4 percent. We may well be 
on the way to a recession if the second quarter shows that it is 
shrinking as well.
  So there is no better time than right now to renew our Nation's 
commitment to fiscal responsibility, and to make a difference in the 
lives of the people that we represent.
  Let's talk a little bit about inflation. Food prices are up 10.1 
percent. Real wages--that is the difference between inflation and the 
rise of wages--are down 3.4 percent as of today, meaning that the 
average family is facing an effective pay cut of $1,500 just this year.
  Everyone knows gas prices are at their highest ever with average 
prices in my hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, now exceeding $5 a 
gallon. Overall energy costs, home fuel oil, and others included, is up 
34.6 percent.
  Unfortunately, as I will point out tonight, the spending policies 
enacted and pushed by the Biden administration and by Democrats in 
Congress are really responsible for driving inflation and are 
certainly--even if you don't agree with that--they are certainly 
saddling future generations with debt. Someone will pay the price for 
the massive debt we have now, and unfortunately, that will be our kids 
and grandkids and future generations.
  It has been said that Congress has a habit of only addressing 
problems when we reach a crisis--only addressing issues when we reach a 
crisis. That crisis may have already begun right now. We are in a 
pretty tough spot in our economy at the moment and people are feeling 
it every single day. We must step up to begin to address this.
  Every Member of Congress, I am sure, has talked to their constituents 
and can share stories about how their constituents are impacted by 
rising prices. I can tell you myself, growing up as a child, I 
experienced what it was like to have it be difficult for my family to 
afford food.
  I was one of 12 kids. My father was first a farmer and a roofer, my 
mom was a stay-at-home mom. I can tell you about a stressful time for 
my mother was going to the grocery store. The reason for that is 
because she knew she would not have quite enough money to buy 
everything that she thought she needed.
  I remember walking with her up and down the aisles and she was 
calculating in her head how much she was putting in the cart. She was 
very concerned that she would get to the register and be embarrassed 
that she would have to put some things back. Today, people are feeling 
that.
  I hear in my district, for instance, my constituent, Lamar, he put 
the impact of inflation in clear terms. He tells me that he spends more 
now but has less. He is doing with less. Paul says he is sadly giving 
up on his hopes of retirement at this time. Tim said he has to choose 
between gas and groceries every week. Lavern is 66 years old and had to 
go back to work to help out his children and his grandchildren now, 
though the impact of inflation on future debt will mean, as I mentioned 
earlier, that his grandchildren will be paying the cost of the reckless 
spending that we are seeing now. They will be paying for that for 
decades.

  We have all heard from our constituents. We have heard their 
outcries. We have heard them talk to us about needing to rein in 
inflation. I think it is time that we take it as a wakeup call. Let's 
identify the causes of inflation and work to mitigate them.
  That is one of the reasons that I wanted to get up and speak tonight 
because we have had debates in both of the committees that I mentioned 
about the causes of inflation--and that is not just a political 
debate--it is not just because. It is because the only way that we can 
begin to solve it is to understand the root cause of inflation, what 
led to where we are now, and then what we can do to change it.

[[Page H5542]]

  It is going to take leadership at all levels of government to address 
not only inflation, but the $30 trillion now in debt, and trillions of 
dollars in deficits as far as we can see and as far as the Biden budget 
projects.
  I am a businessowner, not an economist, so I can't even say that I 
have all the answers. What I can tell you is that I believe that 
capitalism, freedom, and free enterprise have made the United States 
the most powerful Nation in the history of the world and has provided 
more opportunity than ever before in the history of humankind. I think 
returning to those core values can help lead us--will help lead us--out 
of this mess.
  First of all, there is a chart I will show you. Inflation does not 
arrive randomly. There are forces that cause inflation. Every time we 
have seen inflation in our history there are forces that cause it.
  In this case, we have had things that are outside of our control, 
Democrats will argue, and the President blames inflation on COVID-19, 
supply chain disruptions, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the big bad oil 
and gas companies, and other things. I don't know what the next thing 
is that he will be blaming inflation on. I agree, they have certainly 
played a role in causing inflation.
  However, those challenges are the same challenges that every other 
country across the world has faced and they do not explain why 
inflation in the United States spiked earlier and is much worse than 
what we are seeing in other countries.
  This chart shows the annual core CPI inflation compared to OECD, 
which is sort of peer countries, the Organization for Economic 
Cooperation in Development Countries. It shows how inflation spiked 
starting roughly the beginning of 2021 and far exceeded that of a 
comparable country. What caused that?
  I have another chart that puts a little finer point on this. This 
shows that inflation started about the time that Biden took office and 
really accelerated after the passing of the American Rescue Plan, which 
put trillions of dollars in spending into our economy.
  Now, I showed that chart today in a hearing in the Budget Committee 
to Mr. Stephen Moore of the Save America Coalition, and he agreed that 
the clear difference between what we saw in the past chart, the blue 
line, and the other countries, the clear difference was the stimulus 
that was provided, the increase in demand that was provided by 
inserting trillions of dollars into the U.S. economy through the 
American Rescue Plan Act.
  Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record an article I wrote, an op-ed 
that was published in The Hill on how President Biden's policies have 
caused and will further fuel inflation.

                     [From The Hill, Mar. 31, 2022]

           Biden's Spending Plan Will Further Fuel Inflation

                        (By Rep. Lloyd Smucker)

       Americans are concerned about the economy. A recent NBC 
     poll indicated that only 33 percent of Americans approve of 
     President Joe Biden's handling of the economy. Inflation is 
     now at a 40-year high and has families concerned about their 
     financial well-being as they gather to review their budgets 
     around the kitchen table.
       Democrats try to dismiss inflation as a mere nuisance for 
     Americans who have to cut back on so-called ``luxuries.'' 
     When my constituents point out that gas is too expensive, 
     Democrats shrug and tell them to buy a Tesla. The Penn 
     Wharton Budget Model concluded that inflation 
     disproportionately impacts lower income Americans who have to 
     pay an even higher percentage of their income on necessities 
     like food and transportation. The latest consumer price index 
     report shows prices for food are up 7.9 percent, gasoline 
     prices recently reached record highs. We need to help the 
     Americans who can't afford to put gas in their car, let alone 
     buy an expensive new electric car.
       Inflation isn't just an economic term; it has real world 
     consequences for the constituents that I represent. In my 
     district, I think of Connie who at 70 years old is looking 
     for a part-time job to help make ends meet because of the 
     higher cost of everyday necessities. I think of Tim who told 
     me he must decide between buying gas or groceries. I think of 
     Lynne who told me that she and her husband are planning to 
     put off retiring because of higher prices.
       These kinds of stories are commonplace as inflation strains 
     family budgets across the nation. The Biden administration 
     claimed inflation was ``temporary'' and now places blame on 
     everything except his reckless spending. We know that the 
     left's irresponsible spending has accelerated inflation past 
     harmful levels. A study from the Federal Reserve Bank of San 
     Francisco concludes that Biden's spending led to higher 
     levels of inflation.
       As the saying goes, an organization's budget is a statement 
     of its values. Now that President Biden released his Fiscal 
     Year 2023 budget, albeit seven weeks past the statutory 
     deadline, we can see clearly that this administration puts 
     wasteful, inflationary spending before all else. While the 
     president preaches fiscal restraint, this budget puts forth 
     policies reaffirming the president's tax-and-spend march 
     towards socialism.
       Biden's proposed budget would spend $5.8 trillion next 
     fiscal year. His proposal would continue to pile on to the 
     national debt, which eclipsed $30 trillion earlier this year. 
     By their own estimates, his spending plan will add nearly $15 
     trillion in new debt over the next decade, with annual budget 
     deficits of at least $1 trillion per year.
       The Biden administration continues to live in an alternate 
     reality when it comes to their inflation predictions. Their 
     budget report estimated the consumer price index (CPI) would 
     increase 4.7 percent for 2022. The most recent reading from 
     the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that CPI is up 7.9 
     percent over the last year. In last year's budget, they 
     predicted only a 2.1 percent change in CPI for 2022, far off 
     the mark from the high levels of inflation that we're 
     experiencing.
       Buried deep within the administration's remarks in the 
     ``analytical perspectives'' the Biden administration believes 
     that inflation will return to its long-term trend in 2023 
     despite ``considerable uncertainty'' and their efforts to 
     continue the White House's messaging blaming Russia for 
     increased inflation. They have spent nearly a year deflecting 
     that their policies contribute to inflation, but at least the 
     administration is no longer parroting that inflation is 
     temporary.
       From what we've read in Biden's first two budget proposals, 
     Americans should remain concerned about his dangerous levels 
     of spending, what it means for the future financial health of 
     our nation, and what it means for the future of inflation 
     levels. Our $30 trillion national debt significantly impacts 
     the next generation of Americans. Continuing to run trillion-
     dollar deficits and adding more to our mountainous debt 
     further endangers our future.
       While President Biden and congressional Democrats have 
     tried to move on from their months-long public feud on 
     spending, House Republicans are united in our fundamental 
     principles of working to renew fiscal sanity in Washington 
     through a limited government, pro-growth tax policy, and 
     strengthening our free enterprise system to create 
     opportunities for Americans to live the American Dream. We 
     will exercise robust oversight of President Biden's spending 
     spree to hold this administration accountable. We will 
     continue to fight against wasteful spending ballooning our 
     debt and deficit. House Republicans will work to put 
     America's fiscal house in order.

  Mr. SMUCKER. Mr. Speaker, March 2021, the Biden administration and 
congressional Democrats rammed through $1.9 trillion in deficit 
spending, and only a small portion of that really went to solving 
problems and helping people that needed help through the pandemic--that 
helped to defeat the pandemic. Much of this was not needed and only 
served to fuel inflation.
  By the way, they were warned by many economic experts. We warned 
them. Republicans on the Budget Committee and the Ways and Means 
Committee warned Democrats at the time this was passed in early 2021 
that we would see exactly this result. We were relying on the forecasts 
of many economists who were saying exactly that, who were warning the 
administration of that at the time. Not just Republican economists, by 
the way.
  There is a name that many of you will know, he is a former Obama and 
Clinton economist, Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, warned that the 
American Rescue Plan would be the biggest macroeconomic mistake in 40 
years, and it would cause inflationary pressures of a kind that we have 
not seen in a generation.
  Again, Larry Summers, a very well-respected Democrat administration 
economist warning that we would be seeing the inflation that we are 
seeing now, over a year ago, when the American Rescue Plan was passed.
  Just recently a study by the San Francisco Federal Reserve confirms 
that prediction, attributing the American Rescue Plan for at least 
three points of the current 8.6 percent. Mark Goldwein of the Committee 
for a Responsible Federal Budget, CRFB, described the American Rescue 
Plan as ``pouring gasoline on the fire,'' in terms of an already 
stimulated economy.
  In my discussion with CBO director, Phillip Swagel, during a House 
Budget

[[Page H5543]]

Committee hearing last month, he also agreed--head of CBO--that the 
American Rescue Plan Act pumped trillions of dollars into the economy 
that artificially fueled demand and ultimately drove today's inflation 
crisis.

                              {time}  2015

  So what happened?
  We had far too much cash in the economy and far too much demand.
  I will show you, Mr. Speaker, something that my Governor in 
Pennsylvania said. Governor Wolf tweeted that he wanted to send more 
money to people all across Pennsylvania after jobs were open and people 
were back to work because he said, ``States are swimming with cash.''
  They have an unusual problem in Pennsylvania right now today. This is 
the week they are finishing the Pennsylvania budget, and they have more 
money than they know what to do with. Much of that came as a result of 
the American Rescue Plan, and it was excess money that wasn't needed in 
the economy.
  So those funds would have been far better used paying down the 
deficit, paying down the debt, and not fueling inflation by 
artificially boosting demand. So it really is unfortunate because this 
hurts my constituents, and it hurts people all across the country that 
the White House did not heed the call of experts sooner and did not 
take steps to reduce the impact of inflation.
  For a while the White House instead said that inflation would be 
transitory, and now just recently Secretary of the Treasury Yellen and 
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell backed off that argument and agreed that 
they were wrong, and that inflation was not transitory. We have a real 
problem dealing with inflation at this point.
  Secretary Yellen said in a Ways and Means hearing just last week: ``I 
think I was wrong then about the path that inflation could take.''
  One of the sad things about inflation is that it impacts different 
people differently. The White House has claimed that inflation and the 
economy's challenges that we are seeing today are high-class woes 
reserved for the rich. But instead, it is the people on the lower end 
of the economic scale who are making less money who are impacted more 
than any others by inflation.
  The Penn Wharton Budget Model concluded that inflation 
disproportionately impacts lower-income Americans who have to pay an 
even higher percentage of their income on necessities like food and 
transportation, the price increases for which outpace the general 
inflation rate.
  As I mentioned earlier, the White House tries to blame multiple 
sources: corporate greed, gas companies, Russia, and whatever else may 
be as a source of inflation. But I think that only serves to deflect 
blame, obscure the truth, and prevent us from coming to an agreement 
where we can then begin to solve this.
  I think the President became more interested in inflation after 
seeing his plummeting approval rate. He is now talking about inflation 
being a top priority of the administration. In fact, just recently he 
wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal titled: ``My Plan for 
Fighting Inflation.''
  I will talk just briefly about that. He begins the op-ed by arguing 
that our economy is actually in great shape, which strikes me as being 
about as out of touch as you can get. He apparently isn't talking to 
the constituents whom I talk to on a regular basis.
  He lays out three points for combating inflation.
  One, well, it is the Fed's job; two, his energy policies and build 
back better agenda will fix it; and three, a supposed newfound 
commitment to fiscal discipline.
  In the op-ed he said that he welcomes debate on his plan. And maybe 
tonight that is what we are doing. We are debating what really are the 
ways that we can combat inflation and whether his plan really will 
work.
  So let's talk about the Fed because the President's first point was 
arguing that it is the Fed's responsibility to control inflation. And 
the President, again, has spent 1\1/2\ years pushing policies that fuel 
inflation and then points to the Fed to fix the problem.
  Now, I do agree that the Fed has a role in controlling inflation, and 
essentially the tool they have will be to raise interest rates to try 
to slow down the economy. But we all know that raising rates will be 
required, which they are doing now. Tomorrow they are talking about a 
0.75 percent increase in the Federal rate, which is a significant 
increase, and they are talking about doing that multiple times. So it 
has significant consequences on our economy both in the short and long 
term.
  What do I mean by that?
  It makes it more expensive for businesses to borrow money. It makes 
it more expensive for individuals to borrow money. We are seeing home 
mortgage rates go up significantly already that will continue to do 
that, and hundreds of thousands fewer people today are able to afford 
to buy a home when they could have done so when they were lower. So 
there will be a decrease for demand of goods and services which, again, 
is an attempt to tamp down the economy to decrease demand and decrease 
spending.
  The other entity that is affected by rising interest rates is the 
Federal Government. We are $30 trillion in debt. This chart shows what 
will happen as interest rates are being raised. By just raising one-
half of a percent--you see the first line--will increase interest costs 
over the next 10 years by $1.3 trillion. Going up 2 percent will 
increase interest costs by $5.3 trillion over the next 10 years.
  Now, let's put that in perspective. That would be, under the 
President's plan, 1.5 times our current Medicare spending, 1.4 times 
our current defense spending, and 11 times our current veterans' 
healthcare spending. So every single dollar that we have to pay in 
additional interest costs will be taking dollars from programs that 
help people across the country and will be taking dollars out of our 
economy.
  Increasing national debt is also a threat to our national security. 
Mr. Speaker, I also wrote an op-ed in May that was published in The 
Washington Times.
  I include in the Record the article.

               [From the Washington Times, May 17, 2022]

 When the Balloon Pops: Inflating Our Debt and Undermining Our Security

                        (By Rep. Lloyd Smucker)


                                OPINION:

       Twelve years ago, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Adm. Michael 
     Mullen famously warned, ``the most significant threat to our 
     national security is our debt.'' At the time, the nation's 
     federal debt was roughly $13.5 trillion. Congress and our 
     government have completely ignored Mr. Mullen's warning; our 
     national debt has now surpassed $30 trillion and is growing 
     exponentially.
       China now owns $1.1 trillion of that debt, the second-
     highest total among foreign sovereign governments, a clear 
     threat to our national security. If current trends continue, 
     that number will increase to $1.7 trillion over the next 
     decade.
       Mr. Mullen recognized the tangible risks rising deficits 
     have on our nation. Every dollar spent servicing our debt, 
     meaning dollars spent paying the interest on the debt already 
     accrued, are dollars not spent on funding national 
     priorities. Currently, the Congressional Budget Office 
     estimates that we will pay an average of $543 billion per 
     year on just the interest for our nation's $30 trillion-plus 
     in national debt.
       President Biden's Fiscal Year 2023 Budget only worsens the 
     problem. Under the president's proposed spending plan, 
     interest payments would jump to an average of $756 billion 
     per year, meaning $2 trillion more in total interest payments 
     over the next 10 years than currently projected.
       Our country would be paying over $1 trillion in interest 
     payments to service the debt by 2031. To put that in 
     perspective, by 2031, we would pay 1.5 times our current 
     Medicare outlays and 1.4 times our current defense budget on 
     interest payments. As Undersecretary of Defense Comptroller 
     Michael McCord agreed during our discussion at the House 
     Budget Committee, the increasing burden of mandatory interest 
     payments threatens to crowd out discretionary spending 
     priorities, such as our defense budget.
       Mr. Mullen warned us that our debt would soon reach a point 
     where we spent more paying off interest than funding our 
     military, risking our national security. Under the 
     president's budget, that warning will be proved true in 2029. 
     Given that China owns an increasing amount of our debt, those 
     interest payments will directly fund the interests of an 
     economic, and perhaps military, adversary.
       Unfortunately, rampant, irresponsible federal spending has 
     compounding consequences on our economy.
       Mr. Biden and House Democrats are wreaking havoc on our 
     economy and fueling inflation. Spurred by the $1.9 trillion 
     American Rescue Plan Act, the inflationary impacts of which 
     were forecasted and have been confirmed, our government ran a 
     $2.8 trillion deficit in 2021. The results of this massive 
     spending influx by the federal government have been immediate 
     and drastic: The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the

[[Page H5544]]

     consumer price index for all items rose 8.3 percent over the 
     past year, near the highest level in over 40 years.
       Inflation not only harms our economy in the immediate 
     future but also has long-term impacts on the cost of 
     servicing our debt. In March, in an attempt to tamp down Mr. 
     Biden's inflation, the Federal Reserve Board raised benchmark 
     interest rates by 0.25 percentage points. On May 4, the Fed 
     raised interest rates an additional 0.50 percentage points, 
     the largest single increase since 2000. These rate hikes will 
     have a ripple effect across our economy, including on 
     servicing our national debt. As inflation persists this year, 
     the Fed is expected to continue to raise rates at least 5 
     more times this year, with rates expected to surpass 1.9 
     percent.
       The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a 
     nonpartisan nonprofit research organization, reports, ``If 
     interest rates are 50 basis points (0.50 percentage points) 
     higher than projected, average annual interest costs would 
     increase by $94 billion per year.'' Even higher interest rate 
     hikes will have even more devastating impacts. If interest 
     rates were to exceed CBO's projections by 2 percentage points 
     each year, similar to the Fed's expected actions for this 
     year, our nation could spend an additional $3.7 trillion 
     servicing our debt over the next decade.
       This does not even factor in expected spending increases 
     under Mr. Biden's budget--this is just the impact of what has 
     already been spent. My Republican colleagues on the House 
     Budget Committee have prepared an analysis titled ``The 
     Consequences of Higher Interest Rates to the Federal 
     Budget,'' which provides an even grimmer outlook on the long-
     term impacts of rate hikes on our nation's fiscal strength.
       The Biden administration's spending increases the debt from 
     the outset, and the Fed's response to control inflation by 
     raising rates balloons the cost of our debt even more. Our 
     national security will falter. America will be forced to fund 
     China's rise. Generations yet to be born will be paying the 
     price for Mr. Biden's inflation. It is long past time for 
     Congress to step up and rein in this out-of-control spending 
     and inflation.

  Mr. SMUCKER. The article lays out how increased inflation ultimately 
undermines our national security.
  China, perhaps our greatest adversary of the next decade, now owns 
$1.1 trillion of the national debt. That is the second highest total 
among foreign sovereign governments, and increased dependence on China 
is a clear threat to our national security.
  If the current trends continue, China's portion of our national debt 
will increase to $1.7 trillion over the next decade. Interest payments 
as they rise will mean more income for China and will directly fuel 
China's growth making them a stronger economic and military adversary.
  Twelve years ago, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Michael 
Mullen famously warned: ``The most significant threat to our national 
security is our debt.'' That was 12 years ago. The most significant 
threat to our national security is our national debt.
  At that time, by the way, the Nation's Federal debt was roughly $13.5 
trillion. Now it is at $30 trillion and growing.
  What could be even worse is if our lenders lose faith in the ability 
of the United States to pay back and make good on those loans. If they 
essentially lose faith in the credit of the United States, that would 
be what we call a sovereign debt crisis which would have a major 
economic impact in the United States affecting every single American.
  By the way, that is not merely a hypothetical. We have seen major 
nations face sovereign debt crises. In 2009 Greece's budget deficits 
totaled 12.7 percent of its GDP. By 2012, Greece's debt-to-GDP ratio 
was 160 percent. Under CRFB's analysis our debt held by the public will 
reach 126 percent of GDP by 2032 with the anticipated increased 
interest rates. If we don't change this trajectory, this will put us 
well on the way to a fiscal calamity like Greece has experienced not 
long ago, just a few years ago.
  So it is long past time for the U.S. to get our fiscal house in order 
and abandon the reckless budgetary policies that sank the Greek economy 
at that time.
  Let's talk just briefly about energy, Mr. Speaker, another big factor 
in the rising prices that we are seeing. This chart sort of blows me 
away. Average prices of gas in my hometown right now exceed $5 a 
gallon. Think about that, Mr. Speaker. Just a year and a half ago, 2 
years ago, no one would have imagined that we would be spending $5 per 
gallon. You see the same kind of increases in home fuel, Mr. Speaker, 
heating costs, and so on. And the President blames oil and gas markets 
for that high inflation rate, and he focuses on the role of Russia in 
driving those.
  But do you know what is amazing, Mr. Speaker?
  Under President Trump when President Biden took office, our Nation 
was energy independent and becoming a net exporter of oil in 2019. Some 
of the very first actions that President Biden took were to halt 
drilling on Federal lands and to stop the Keystone pipeline. Even as 
prices went up, the administration doubled down on limiting the supply 
of our drilling. No new permits were approved. So it is a classic 
economic formula. They dramatically increased demand and reduced supply 
which led to the prices that we are seeing now.
  The President just put out his new budget. He says that now--really 
the first time I think since he has been in office--it is important to 
reduce deficits. I welcome that. I think it is important that we reduce 
deficits. We have to reduce the debt long term. He claims credit for 
reducing the Federal deficit by $1.7 trillion this year due to the 
expiration of spending in the American Rescue Plan which, by the way, 
is all deficit spending. He says that this reduction demonstrates a 
newfound commitment to fiscal discipline.
  Now, let's just look at that for a little bit.
  If I eat 10,000 calories today--which is way more than I need--and 
tomorrow I eat 5,000, well, that won't make me a model. It doesn't mean 
that I am on any kind of a diet.
  Look at this plan. This is the President's budget straight from his 
budget documents. I get it. There was an anomaly during COVID. It was a 
challenge for all of us, and the deficit went way up during COVID. But 
look at the deficit before COVID which is the second bar on the left 
side.
  And then coming out of COVID what happens?
  Do you see--if you take out the two COVID years which was an 
exception, an anomaly, do you see deficits declining at all?
  No. In fact, they are going up every single year.
  That is not fiscal responsibility. In fact, I call it swamp math, to 
say that we are reducing deficits when this is exactly what it looks 
like in their budget plan. It is swamp math.
  Mr. Speaker, if you set one foot outside the beltway, I can tell you 
that every single American who looks at this does not believe that we 
are reducing deficits in any way.

                              {time}  2030

  I don't mean that as a knock on the administration. Well, I guess I 
do mean it as a knock on the administration.
  But what I really mean to say is that we have to get serious about 
implementing policies that will drive growth and that will result in 
lower deficits over time, or we will be going down that path of fiscal 
calamity.
  Besides this, the other thing that the President is calling for, 
still calling for, is what he calls the Build Back Better plan. This is 
outlined in his budget.
  Now, I call it build back bankrupt because it continues to put us on 
a path of a potential sovereign debt crisis. It certainly continues to 
build debt for our kids, our grandkids, and future generations.
  The build back bankrupt plan imposes new taxes, 36 new taxes, on 
Americans and dramatically increases spending beyond what you see here. 
This is what they want to do, while they are claiming to do this, which 
they are saying is reducing deficits. It makes no sense whatsoever.
  One of the other things I want to mention--I am running out of time 
here.
  It has just been recently that we have had this economy working on 
all cylinders, and we could be doing that again. This economy could be 
in a far different position if we implemented policies similar to what 
were done under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act under the previous 
administration.
  Just before COVID hit, we were seeing the impact. Almost every 
measure you could possibly take showed that the economy was working for 
the American people. By the way, middle-income American, the average 
household income increased by $6,000 per year. That is a real impact. 
People were feeling it, compared to a $3,500 drop in real wages during 
this administration.

[[Page H5545]]

  The TCJA boosted workers' paychecks. Income and wealth inequality 
fell. Real wages for the bottom 10 percent, by the way, grew nearly 
twice as fast as the top 10 percent. Real wealth of the bottom 50 
percent of households rose three times faster than that of the top 1 
percent.
  Despite the challenges that we face now, I think hope is not lost. I 
am optimistic that if we implement the right policies, America can once 
again work for the American people. We need to be committed to that. We 
need to have a discussion about what policies will work.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.

                          ____________________