[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 150 (Monday, September 19, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H7956-H7962]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
AMERICA MUST RESTORE FISCAL SANITY
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 4, 2021, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Smucker) is
recognized for the remainder of the hour as the designee of the
minority leader.
Mr. SMUCKER. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend from Kentucky, who
truly is an expert on fiscal policy and truly understands the situation
that we are in, in our country.
We just simply cannot afford to continue down this path and expect
that there will not be consequences: consequences for us and, if not
for us, certainly for future generations. At the least, we are
mortgaging the future of our kids and our grandkids, and it is
completely irresponsible.
We just came back, all of us, to our districts. I can tell you, I
spent most of the weekend out talking to people across the district,
and they are very
[[Page H7957]]
concerned about the impact of this President's policies and the
policies of this Congress on their daily lives. I have constituents who
are choosing each week whether they can buy groceries or whether they
can buy gas for the car.
I spoke just recently to one constituent who had been out of the
workforce for about 10 years. This individual, by the way, had 13 kids,
which I thought was amazing, but he had been out of the workforce for
13 years and just took a job because he can no longer make ends meet
because of the policies of this President and the rising prices that
have been created by the policies of this administration.
They are angry that the President had a White House party to
celebrate the passage of the so-called Inflation Reduction Act. This
celebration, of course, just recently was broadcast amid a backdrop of
the plummeting stock market and upon the news just that morning of
another month of record-high inflation.
No matter how the President wants to talk about it, no matter how
Democrats want to talk about it, Madam Speaker, he says that inflation
has leveled off, but we are still at 8.5 percent above what prices were
just 12 months ago. That is something we haven't seen in our country
for about 40 years. This was after Democrats and the President were
saying this would be transitory inflation.
You would think if we are in a hole, at some point, we would stop
digging. Instead, the President and congressional Democrats, while they
are patting themselves on the back, continue to spend taxpayer dollars.
Just last night, President Biden was on ``60 Minutes,'' arguing that
he deserves some credit, again, for his fiscal policies while inflation
is at another 40-year high.
The President speaks fiscal responsibility, yet every action that he
takes only balloons our debt and balloons our deficits. It is far past
time for his wasteful inflationary spending agenda to come to an end.
The American people, the constituents in my district, can no longer
afford the policies of this administration.
Tonight, for the next 45, 50 minutes or so, I am proud to welcome
some of my Republican colleagues, including fellow members of the House
Budget Committee and others who share the deep concerns that were just
outlined by Congressman Barr. You will be hearing from others their
concerns about the fiscal state of our Nation and the trajectory that
we are on.
Over the next hour, we are going to take stock of this
administration's reckless budget agenda and some of the drastic
consequences that we are hearing about from our constituents.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr.
Joyce), who is a great member of the Energy and Commerce Committee. We
won't argue tonight about which committee is the best committee. I
serve on the Ways and Means Committee. But John is a dear friend of
mine, a wonderful Member of Congress, and I am very, very proud to
serve with him. I am proud to count him as a friend. He is doing a
fabulous job as a member of that committee and Member of Congress.
I look forward to his insights on how the Biden administration's
policies have resulted in this record-high inflation. I would like to
hear what his constituents are facing in the 13th District of
Pennsylvania, which is directly adjacent to mine. I thank Dr. Joyce for
joining us this evening.
Mr. JOYCE of Pennsylvania. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for
yielding and for holding this important Special Order tonight on an
issue that truly affects all Pennsylvanians and all Americans.
I thank Representative Smucker, my colleague, who is a true leader
and a fiscal conservative, for bringing this discussion to the United
States Congress.
Yesterday afternoon, I conducted a survey in my weekly newsletter,
asking respondents if, during the past year, the rising costs of gas
and groceries had cut into their savings, a relatively simple question.
Eighty-nine percent of the responders said yes.
Unfortunately, this is a sad reality. It is a sad reality in the
American economy that has been decimated by President Biden's failed
tax-and-spend policies that put far-left gimmicks ahead of the needs of
the American people.
During the Biden administration, at a time when small businesses
across our country were begging for workers, we saw legislation that
paid workers to remain at home. We saw the government mandates that had
no basis in science, policies that did not account for natural
immunity, policies that forced highly skilled workers to leave their
jobs, which, unfortunately, again, helped to cripple our supply chains.
During the Biden administration, we saw the so-called infrastructure
bill that spent more money bailing out windmills and solar farms and
did nothing on fixing roads and bridges. We saw the poorly named
Inflation Reduction Act, which the Congressional Budget Office says
will increase our national deficit over the next few years.
This is no time to throw a party celebrating these priorities as
inflation continues to rise. This is no party situation.
Time after time, we have witnessed an administration that cowers to
the radical left and fails to consider that their own runaway spending
has led to these soaring prices at the gas pump and at the grocery
store.
When I was seeing patients as a physician, one of the issues that I
would stress to parents is how important it was for them to provide
milk, whole milk, for their children's growth, whole milk that supplies
the necessary vitamins for bone development, brain development, and
muscle development. In the past year, the cost of milk has soared 17
percent.
{time} 2030
That kind of price hike is unsustainable, and no administration can
take the health and well-being of Americans seriously while
deliberately creating policies that make healthy choices, like whole
milk, more expensive for American families, more expensive for the
parents who need to supply that for their growing children.
The cost of eggs is up nearly 40 percent, and the cost of food
overall has risen more in the past year than at any time since 1979
when Jimmy Carter was President.
To make matters even worse, real wages have gone down, and inflation
has outpaced wage growth for the 17 months that Joe Biden has been in
the White House.
The economic situation the American people find themselves in right
now is unsustainable. In the second quarter of this year, household
wealth in the United States fell by $6.1 trillion--a record drop that
has left families unable to pay for the everyday expenses that they
face.
As I traveled through my district in August--like my colleague, Mr.
Smucker, spoke about--I talked to a mother who told me that she was
making difficult decisions, decisions on whether to buy the necessary
groceries for her family, for her children's lunches or put gasoline in
the family car. No American should be making those decisions.
The record inflation that has put parents and families in this
position is the result of failed policies that have wasted taxpayer
dollars and flooded our economy with too much cash while simultaneously
killing the supply chain and causing shortages throughout the market.
When we look at the liberal partisan legislation passed this past
year, we see laws that choose winners and losers.
So let's take stock.
By handing out tax breaks for purchasing an electric vehicle and by
offering money to companies who put up solar farms that fail to produce
baseload power, the Biden administration has sent a clear signal to
Pennsylvania's energy producers that they are not valued by Washington
liberals.
By canceling the Keystone XL pipeline and putting a halt on new
drilling leases, Joe Biden has made one thing clear: He has no interest
in lowering gas prices. He has no interest in lowering energy prices.
Instead of pivoting to failed technologies like wind and solar that
cannot be stored and that can only be used during peak hours, we need
to return to the energy sources that are under the feet of my
constituents in Pennsylvania: the coal, the natural gas, the oil, the
Marcellus shale that can help
[[Page H7958]]
to return our Nation to a position of energy dominance.
After dismantling nuclear energy, Europe is facing the worst energy
crisis in a generation. By signing pro-Green New Deal legislation,
President Biden seems intent on making the same mistake--the same
mistake right here in the United States.
Digging out of that hole that President Biden and the far-left
Members of Congress created will take some hard work, and it is time
for Congress to stop the runaway spending on failed and untested
programs.
We need to stop giving taxpayer dollars to Green New Deal priorities
that only serve to hurt American families.
Right now, our communities are counting on us. The schools in our
district are counting on us to get inflation under control. The
families in our district are counting on us to get this runaway
inflation back under control.
As President Biden creates crisis after crisis in our economy, one
thing is very clear: We cannot spend our way out of the problems that
the Biden administration has orchestrated.
We need to return to fiscal conservatism and pass legislation that
supports Pennsylvania families, American families, instead of burdening
them with crushing inflation.
Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for holding this Special Order.
Mr. SMUCKER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his words. It
is clear that he is in touch regularly with his constituents and is
hearing some of the same things that I have heard.
The gentleman mentioned the real wage drop about $3,500 per family
due to the policies of this administration. It is as if someone is
taking a month's worth of salary, and families have to do without that
month of salary.
By the way, that comes on the heels of policies under the previous
administration that led to--after decades of stagnation--a $6,000
average household increase in income. Which is more compassionate? The
gentleman is exactly right. We know the impact of these policies. We
must stop. We must implement policies that work for the American
people. That is why I was so frustrated.
By the way, I have a news flash: Naming a bill something doesn't mean
it is so. Just recently, the Biden administration and Democrats in
Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act. Studies now are saying it
will not impact inflation, it will most likely increase inflation.
Let's just dig in on some of the policies that are included. $745
billion in new spending, over half of which is for the Green New Deal
agenda. That includes $3 billion for, ``environmental and climate
justice warriors,'' and $245 billion in Department of Energy loans for
other friends of the left.
As gas prices increased 50 percent over the course of last year,
President Biden's solution was to raise taxes on American oil and gas
producers. So we know that this will continue to affect constituents.
They will continue to pay the higher price of gasoline at the pump.
At this time, President Biden and congressional Democrats thought it
would be a good idea to combat inflation by offering tax credits for
high-end electric vehicles.
Now, interestingly enough, and maybe unsurprisingly, a lot of those
electric vehicle manufacturers that were set to benefit from those new
tax credits, immediately turned around and raised the prices of their
vehicles, essentially wiping out the value of the credit.
Another way they thought that apparently would help inflation was to
raise taxes on the middle class, including $53 billion in new taxes on
Main Street and $10 billion in taxes on those making less than $200,000
a year. Then, adding salt to the wound, the bill spends $80 billion for
the IRS to hire 87,000 new agents.
By the way, any of us in our congressional districts know that the
IRS has a problem? I have talked to constituents in my district, who
are still waiting for refunds from 2019.
So, I get that the IRS may need some additional funding to help to
serve the American people better, but do you know there is 14 times as
much money in this bill spent on increasing audits on everyday
Americans, rather than improving--than the money that is in it for
improving customer service there at the IRS?
There is a CBO analysis. The Congressional Budget Office that we all
rely upon confirmed that those new agents will focus on extracting as
many dollars as possible doing audits on the middle class, and despite
the President's claims, half of those audits will be on those making
less than $400,000 a year.
We could go on about this bill, and if we have a little more time
maybe we will, but I am very pleased to yield to the gentleman from
Georgia (Mr. Carter), who is a fellow member of the Budget Committee,
passionate about fiscal issues here in our country. I always appreciate
his fervor about these issues, and I am pleased to count him as a
friend.
Mr. CARTER of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for
yielding, and I thank him for hosting this because this is extremely
important. I hope people are paying attention to this.
As I say, what we are doing right now is intergenerational theft--$31
trillion in debt. That is intergenerational theft. In fact, Madam
Speaker, by the time I am done speaking tonight just my part, the
Federal debt will have grown by more than $13,000. That is right. I
suspect I will take about 3 minutes, maybe 4, but during that time, the
Federal debt will have grown by $13,000.
We learned last week that August's annual inflation rate was a
staggering 8.3 percent. By ``we,'' of course, I mean everyone except
Joe Biden, who boasted on 60 Minutes last night that inflation has not
spiked. If the worst inflation numbers in 40 years isn't a spike, I
don't know what is.
Unfortunately for Mr. Biden, the numbers don't lie. That 8.3 percent
inflation is costing families well over $4,000 this year alone,
essentially wiping out one month's paycheck. I don't know a single
family that can afford that kind of sacrifice.
Worse, real wages have fallen every single month since President
Biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus passed last year.
But it is not just today's taxpayers that will feel these impacts.
Generations from now, people will still be feeling the sting of Biden's
inflation crisis. Over the next decade, decisions made in Biden's first
2 years will add $4.8 trillion to our Federal deficit--$4.8 trillion.
Decades of lower interest rates have spared the Federal Government
from facing the true costs of borrowing at such high levels, but
today's inflation has forced the Federal Reserve to raise interest
rates. We are quickly approaching a point where the interest alone on
our Federal debt will overwhelm our Federal budget resulting in dire
economic effects.
One percentage, one percentage of higher interest rates would cost
the Federal Government $400 billion every year starting next year. Just
1 percent rise in the interest rate costs the Federal Government $400
billion in extra interest. That is on top of what we are paying
already. That is money we could spend on national defense, healthcare,
and other of the many priorities our Nation faces.
But instead, we are paying interest on our debt. Interest payments
will pass defense spending by the end of the decade. They will pass
Medicare by 2046 and Social Security by the midpoint of the century.
As the Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates to combat
inflation, which will likely happen again this week, this only gets
worse. This, again, is intergenerational theft.
Every year we add more than four times the entire U.S. population to
our national debt. The time to act is now. We are stealing from our
children and our grandchildren and deferring a crisis for them to fix.
We must act.
Each year that goes by without increased deficits digs ours hole
deeper and deeper. It is time to put down the shovel.
One of the first thing I learned when I became a member of the
Georgia State legislature was when you are in a hole, quit digging. We
are in a hole. We are stealing from our children and our grandchildren
and deferring a crisis for them to fix, and we must act.
As a medical professional by training, I am well acquainted with the
Hippocratic oath, which famously says: ``First, do no harm.''
Congress must take a similar approach when it comes to our budget.
[[Page H7959]]
Congress doesn't control interest rates, but we can control how much
money is added to our national debt. Responsible fiscal policy that
balances our budget is the first step to walking away from the fiscal
cliff over which our children's children are already dangling.
President Biden's budget calls for $1 trillion in deficit spending
every year going forward. Again, that is money we do not have and
cannot continue pretending like we do.
Republicans must insist on reining in this spending. That means no
more trillion-dollar packages that pour fuel on the fire of inflation.
That means eliminating our deficit so we can pay off our outsized debt.
That means returning the budget process to regular order.
You know, Washington Democrats recently passed the Inflation
Reduction Act, or as I like to call it, the inflation acceleration act.
Because this bill did not go through regular order, there was a grave
oversight that threatens a $5.5 billion electric vehicle plant that is
set for construction in my district. It has put it in jeopardy. This
highlights just how important it is that bills go through regular
order. If we had had a committee markup on this, we could have caught
it. If we had vetted it--one of my favorite sayings is that none of us
are as smart as all of us. That is why all of us should be involved in
this.
The same logic applies to budgeting. If we don't give our Members the
ability to read, debate, and amend legislation, we end up with policies
and proposals and budgets that hurt the same people they purport to
help.
When we miss budget deadlines, we are breaking the law. In what world
does it make sense for a legislative body to routinely break Federal
law, the laws we wrote and passed?
{time} 2045
Small business owners and families have to make a budget and they
have to stick to it. It is time to restore fiscal discipline in
Washington, D.C. It is time to balance our budget.
Again, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me, and I thank him for
hosting this. This is important. I don't know what it is going to take
to get people's attention short of a catastrophe, but I do know this:
we cannot continue. We cannot continue on the route in which we are
right now. This is intergenerational theft. We cannot leave this to our
children and our grandchildren.
Mr. SMUCKER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia for
his comments. He has identified the problem and has some real solutions
on how we can address this and how we can save the future for our kids
and our grandkids. One of the saddest things about this is that the
idea of the American Dream is that every generation can do better than
their parents and their parents before them, and we have seen that for
centuries here in the United States. That is at risk because of the
fiscal policies that are in place here today.
I look forward to working with my friend, and we hope that the next
Congress will be the Congress when we can begin to put this country on
the right path.
Madam Speaker, I welcome our next speaker tonight, the next
participant is my friend and fellow Pennsylvanian, Fred Keller, from
the 12th District in Pennsylvania.
Mr. Keller plays an important role in oversight of the Biden
administration as a member of the Education and Labor Committee as well
as the Oversight and Reform Committee. I count him as a great friend
and look forward to his thoughts tonight on what we are talking about,
the administration's flawed understanding or lack of understanding of
the impact of inflation on Pennsylvanians. We see it every day. He will
discuss budget principles that can help us right our fiscal ship.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr.
Keller).
Mr. KELLER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania,
my friend and colleague. Our history goes back a little farther than
before we knew each other, and that is to Lancaster County. I worked
for a business headquartered in Lancaster County that taught me a lot
of things. It taught me how to budget, it taught me how to look out for
the future and plan, and it taught me how to listen. I think that is
the thing that we do best when we are representing the people who sent
us here to do their work.
During President Biden's interview with 60 Minutes, that marked the
first on-air, sit-down interview between the President and an American
journalist in 7 months. It is abundantly clear why his handlers have
been keeping him away from the cameras. He is completely out of touch
with the American people. He can tell us stories about when he was in
Scranton. That was back in the seventies. I was 8 years old when he
came to Washington, D.C. So he can tell us stories from before I was 8
years old.
But he has been here for 50 years. He ought to remember that the last
time we had this kind of inflation, President Reagan was leading our
great Nation out of the disaster of the Carter years. It looks like
President Biden has failed to learn from that history because those who
fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it. Unfortunately,
the President is forcing all of us to repeat that history of runaway
inflation.
During his interview, President Biden pushed back when pressed about
inflation soaring to record highs arguing that the month-to-month
inflation rate has remained steady at 8.3 percent compared to 1 year
ago. I guess we are supposed to say thank you. But thank you doesn't
put gas in the car, thank you doesn't put food on the table, and thank
you doesn't make sure that families can save for their children's
education.
Keep in mind, Madam Speaker, this is the same President who told the
American people inflation was transitory. So I don't know if he means
it is going to come back worse than it is now or what he is thinking.
But now he is spiking the football and taking credit for persistent
inflation not getting worse. That is interesting. It is not getting
worse. It is almost like somebody who lights one house on fire and then
takes credit for the house next door not catching on fire.
I just can't understand it. The President can try and spin the
narrative on inflation all he wants. But last night Americans watched
the President speak, and they got a glimpse into the future of our
country if Washington Democrats remain in control.
The reality is that inflation is at a record high. American families
are making tough decisions about their budgets, decisions that
President Biden hasn't had to make since 1973 when he started
collecting his check from the taxpayers. But the people for whom he
works are having to make those decisions.
Hardworking Americans deserve real answers on how their government
plans to reduce inflation, not just maintain historically high levels
of it. Washington Democrats can't give the American people straight
answers because it is their policies that have put us in economic
turmoil.
Republicans have a plan, and my colleagues so very well laid it out
here before me: regular order and making sure that every person's
Representative and every State senator has input on the legislation.
The Republican Study Committee produced a budget that would balance
in 7 years. Think about that: a balanced budget. That is what all the
families have to do who are living through these disastrous policies of
President Biden and the Democrats that have caused them to lose 1
month's income.
Think about that, Madam Speaker, 8.3 percent inflation. It is not a
hard equation. I can write it on a chalkboard for the President. One
divided by 12 is 8.3. So you have 1 year, there are 12 months in the
year, that is 8.3. It is not a hard equation, although they don't have
a problem spending money.
President Reagan used to say that you can't accuse them of spending
like a drunken sailor because at least the sailor is spending his own
money.
What they are spending is not their money. They are spending our
children's money. They are robbing the future from our children. Talk
about taxation without representation, regular order needs to be
restored.
When we talk about the plan we have for balancing the budget, we are
talking about elimination of waste and to stop leaving a financial
disaster for the next generation. Those are the issues that really
matter to the American people whom we all come here to represent, the
hardworking men and women who have worked their entire
[[Page H7960]]
life and those who get up and go to work every day to earn a living to
support their family.
I am committed to fighting for what they believe is important, not
what the Democrats and the President inside the Beltway think is
important. His policies are creating an issue with people being able to
take care of their family and realizing the American Dream.
Madam Speaker, when you look at the energy policy, when you look at
the massive spending, and when you look at the President standing in
Independence Hall telling us that half the American people aren't good,
that is not how you lead a nation. That is not how you be responsive.
Quite frankly, how we be responsible is we listen, and we include the
people in the solutions and in the discussions, and we work to make
sure that America is strong and safe and that our children have a
bright future. That is our job, and I am committed to making sure that
I help all my colleagues here in Congress achieve that goal.
Mr. SMUCKER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his wonderful
comments.
One of the things that is most frustrating about this is not only, as
the gentleman just mentioned, the administration doesn't seem to
understand the impact of their policies that have led to these rising
prices and the pain that he is causing for people in our districts.
Mr. KELLER. Excuse me. If I may jump back in.
I don't think he could do this by accident. Even to get things this
bad, I don't know that you can do it by accident, quite frankly. It is
an assault on American energy, and it is an assault on American jobs. I
just wonder what is going to happen when somebody has an electric
vehicle, they get home from a long day's work, they are told they can't
charge their vehicle, and their child needs to be rushed to the doctor
or the hospital.
When my son was 3 years old, he had an accident. We got him to the
hospital, and they life flighted him to the trauma center. If we had
run out of gas, he would have died.
So do you know what, Madam Speaker, I think maybe they need to think
about Americans and Americans' priorities which is their family and
what it means to have the American Dream. I have benefited from living
the American Dream. A kid as poor as I was would have been labeled
disadvantaged or at risk, but we didn't let our government label us or
anyone else. We worked hard, and we realized the American Dream. I just
want that to be alive and well for future generations.
So I will stop pontificating. I really appreciate the opportunity to
be here this evening.
Mr. SMUCKER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for being here.
We talked about what they have referred to as the Inflation Reduction
Act. I think a better title for it is the Expensive Attempt to Distract
Voters Act. We know the bill will not cut the deficit, and we know CBO
has said that the bill will have a tiny effect on inflation. Penn
Wharton Institute in my State estimates that the bill would increase
inflation this year and next.
So how can you call a bill Inflation Reduction Act if it doesn't
actually decrease inflation?
Then shortly after that, in fact, just 8 days later, you would think
at some point, Madam Speaker, the President would stop the spending
spree and that at some point there would be a connection made with all
of the spending, the rising deficits and debt, and the rising prices.
But what did the President do just 8 days later?
He unilaterally--we think unconstitutionally--but unilaterally spent
more than half a trillion dollars on blanket student loan forgiveness,
much of which went to high-income earners. Madam Speaker, $500 billion,
that is half a trillion dollars. One constituent in my district went
out and talked to some workers in a foundry, and you should have heard
what they said about this bill, Madam Speaker.
One of them said: Why should I or why should a plumber need to pay
the tuition and the debt for a medical student, maybe a graduate
medical student?
They are angry that they are being asked. They are working hard every
day trying to deal with the rising prices, trying to make ends meet,
going back to work out of retirement, and then the President comes
along and says: We are going to ask you to pay for the 16 percent of
Americans who have student debt.
It makes absolutely no sense to them and makes no sense when you are
trying to implement fiscal policies that will tackle the rising prices
and help the American people.
Madam Speaker, I welcome my next friend and colleague who is a fellow
member of the House Budget Committee, Mr. Jay Obernolte of California.
Mr. Obernolte also serves on the Natural Resources and Science, Space,
and Technology Committees.
We spent some time earlier this year down at the border, which is
another catastrophe I don't think we are going to be talking about
tonight, but he has been a wonderful Member of Congress.
It has been great getting to know my friend, and I appreciate his
being here this evening.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr.
Obernolte).
Mr. OBERNOLTE. Madam Speaker, I thank the Member for yielding.
Madam Speaker, I stand deeply concerned today about the state of our
economy. Last week, the Department of Labor released the latest
statistics for inflation in the United States. It shows that inflation
continues to occur here at a rate above 8 percent, a 40-year high.
Even more alarmingly, the Department of Labor says that core
inflation has increased in August over the month of July and that real
wages have declined 3.4 percent on an annualized basis.
What that means is that my constituents cannot buy the same quantity
of the things that they need this year as they could last year, even if
they got a raise for the labor that they produced.
Madam Speaker, every single day I hear of constituents who are
desperate because of the results of this inflation. Imagine my
embarrassment when I have to tell them that inflation was caused by
actions of their own Federal Government. Economists already answered
why we are experiencing this inflation. It is a combination of several
things.
{time} 2100
As our economy emerges from the pandemic, there has been an increased
demand for goods and services, and a constrained supply chain which
restricts our ability to respond to that increased demand. An economist
will say that will make prices go up.
The other thing that has occurred is that this Federal Government has
dumped almost $5 trillion of excess government spending into our
economy over the last 18 months--$5 trillion. To give you an idea of
how big that number is in context, normally our Federal Government only
spends about $5 trillion in a given year. So we are increasing
government spending by a rate of almost double that of the normal rate.
Madam Speaker, when that occurs, you put even more pressure on goods
and services, and that causes prices to increase further.
Earlier this year, the San Francisco branch of the Federal Reserve
Bank wondered why inflation was so much worse here in the United States
than that experienced by other countries, particularly in Europe. They
did a study and several months ago they released the results of this
study, and their findings were stark. They said that deficit government
spending is at the root cause of why inflation is so much worse here in
the United States than it is in other countries.
Madam Speaker, when the actions of government result in people paying
more--that is called a tax. Inflation in the United States represents
an unseen tax paid by every single American family. Unfortunately, this
is a tax that is borne disproportionately by those who can least afford
to pay it--the impoverished and the working poor in this country.
I have an even deeper concern this evening, Madam Speaker. Several
weeks ago the Congressional Budget Office released their long-term
fiscal forecast in which they analyze the finances of the United States
over the next 30 years. They do this every year, and Congress, frankly,
never pays attention. Madam Speaker, Congress and
[[Page H7961]]
the American people need to start paying attention to what the CBO has
to say.
The CBO says that our current national debt stands at over $30
trillion. If you do the math, that is over $90,000 for every single
American man, woman, and child--over $90,000 each--and that is today.
The CBO says that right now our Federal Government runs a deficit of
about 30 percent of all Federal spending. That represents about 4
percent of our gross domestic product. At the end of the forecast
period, the CBO says that our deficit will nearly triple to 11 percent
of our GDP.
At that time, just paying interest on the national debt will eclipse
all of our Federal spending on Social Security. It will eclipse all of
our Federal spending on Medicare. In fact, it will become the single
largest expenditure of Federal Government, requiring over half of all
Federal tax revenue to pay--over half. That is under the current fiscal
conditions.
Ironically, the Federal Reserve Bank is being forced to raise
interest rates as a result of the inflation that this Federal
Government has caused. Every time the Fed takes the action that they
are likely to take this week in raising the discount rate by three-
quarters of a point, it increases the cost of our interest payments on
our national debt by $180 billion a year, which makes the problem even
worse.
In fact, the CBO says that if the Federal Reserve is forced to raise
interest rates by 3 percentage points--and we know that they have
already gotten to about halfway there--that by the end of their
forecast period, just paying interest on the national debt will consume
over 100 percent of Federal tax revenues.
In other words, Madam Speaker, we won't even have enough money to pay
the interest on the debt that we have rung up. That is unacceptable.
This should be something that everyone in this Chamber is talking about
because what the CBO says is that sometime in the next 30 years there
will come a day of reckoning. The sooner it comes, the less painful it
will be. It will be painful no matter what we do, but if we wait it
will be extremely painful.
Madam Speaker, we must get our fiscal house in order. The only way to
solve this problem is to reduce our habit of deficit spending. Now, I
know my colleagues on the other side of the aisle like to say this is
an easily solved problem. The problem is that we don't tax Americans
enough. Well, the CBO had an answer to that, too.
They said that over the next 30 years, in their forecast period,
average Federal tax revenues will be over 18 percent. That is a
substantial increase over the current Federal tax revenue over the last
50 years. In other words, Madam Speaker, what we have is not a revenue
problem, we have a spending problem. The only way we can get this
problem under control is to reduce our Federal spending and control our
deficit.
Madam Speaker, almost every year in this Chamber multiple bills are
introduced attempting to impose a balanced budget requirement--
sometimes within our House rules, sometimes within our Federal
Constitution. I, myself, introduced a balance budget amendment last
year in this Chamber.
We try to do it in a responsible way that won't disrupt the economy.
We do it over a 5-year phase-in period. We allow for periods of fiscal
emergency to be declared in which the President, with the concurrence
of Congress, can override the requirement that the Federal budget be
balanced in times of warfare and times of economic crisis.
Madam Speaker, we must pay attention to this problem. We must balance
our Federal budget. If we do not, not only us but our children will pay
the terrible consequence.
Mr. SMUCKER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his wonderful
comments outlining the problem that we are faced with here. It sounds
like we are up here criticizing the administration--and certainly we
are--but it is far beyond that. I think to address a problem, whether
it seems like an abstract problem or something that will happen in the
future--to address the problem we must first understand it and
recognize that the problem exists. The policies of this administration
do not seem to understand that there is a real crisis up ahead if we
don't take steps now to change the trajectory.
Madam Speaker, I have a chart here beside me--and a few of the other
speakers have mentioned this tonight--the amount of spending that this
administration has incurred above the $4 to $5 trillion that we spend
in the Federal Government every year--this is an outline of the major
policies, starting with the American Rescue Plan and on and on. Student
debt is the most recent. $4.8 trillion in less than 2 years in office--
$4.8 trillion.
It seems like the response of this administration to every problem is
just to throw money at it, and it is money we don't have. The response
is to print money and to take money to spend the money of our future
generations. He did this with the American Rescue Plan--$1.9 trillion.
At that time, Democrat economist Larry Summers said that was the
worst macroeconomic policy and a mistake that would end in double-digit
inflation. He ended up being exactly right on that.
His response to helping veterans recovering from burn pits, which was
once a strong bipartisan policy that I was proud to support--but his
response was to throw $667 billion in new mandatory spending at the
problem, ignoring bipartisan alternatives that were responsibly paid
for and doubling the fiscal impact of the VA in the process--$4.8
trillion in less than 2 years in office.
So why are we talking about this tonight? Why are some--more and
more--a growing number of Members in Congress concerned about this? Is
there any hope? I would say that despite the current fiscal challenges
that we face, hope is not lost. We can ensure that America's best days
still lie ahead. I am optimistic that we can do that in Congress.
{time} 2110
Is there any hope? I would say that, despite the current fiscal
challenges that we face, hope is not lost. We can ensure that America's
best days still lie ahead. I am optimistic that we can do that in
Congress.
Wouldn't that be great if we look back 20 years from now and were
able to say that that was the Congress that began to change America and
that saved the future of America? We can do it if we decide that is
what we will do.
We simply cannot afford the continued spending policies of this
administration. We can't afford to continue on this destructive,
wasteful path. We can't afford to delay and to kick the can down the
road.
We need to begin to seriously recommit to fiscal responsibility by
meaningfully reducing spending and reducing deficits while investing in
policies that ensure growth. We need to reject any increases to
mandatory spending.
Several other speakers mentioned this tonight, but we have budget
rules in Congress that have simply been ignored for decades. We need to
enforce our own budget rules that this body set for itself and set for
the Federal Government and not simply look the other way as we
routinely pass bills increasing spending, increasing mandatory
spending, by billions of dollars.
There is a measure of our total debt that I think is worth looking
at. Compare it to our total economic output as a Nation or the gross
domestic product. Currently, we are at about 130 percent. Our debt is
130 percent of GDP.
That is projected to increase, as far as we can project at this
point, about a trillion--we are 30 trillion now--increase over a
trillion per year under the policies of this administration and
previous administrations. That debt will eclipse 185 percent of GDP by
2052 on the current path.
We know how it ends. Every country in history that has spent more
money than it had, that has overtaxed and overspent, has failed. It
doesn't end well.
While we may think this is a problem far in the future that future
generations can take care of, at some point, we will see the
devastating impact if we don't change the trajectory.
If we don't reverse course, we risk the full faith and credit of the
United States, which would put us under threat of a sovereign debt
crisis and economic fallout that we have seen elsewhere in nations
across the world.
It will take discipline. It will take reducing our spending. It will
take investing in progrowth policies similar to those that we
implemented just a few
[[Page H7962]]
years ago that created the booming economy that we had at that time.
I appreciate the comments of a number of my colleagues here. I
appreciate the interest in this crisis. It truly is a crisis.
I look forward to working with my colleagues to put forward a
sustainable, forward-thinking budget next Congress that reduces Federal
spending, implements those progrowth policies, and puts our country
back to a sustainable fiscal future.
We can do it, and we must do it for future generations.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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