[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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