[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 22 (Thursday, February 2, 2023)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E91]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               INTRODUCTION OF THE SUSTAINABLE BUDGET ACT

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                              HON. ED CASE

                               of hawaii

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, February 2, 2023

  Mr. CASE. Mr. Speaker, can anyone with any halfway working knowledge 
of government finances seriously dispute that our federal fiscal house 
is dangerously out of order?
  Our national debt is approaching $32 trillion, doubling in just the 
last decade alone, and up some $3 trillion in just the 2 years since I 
last introduced my Sustainable Budget Act in February 2021. More 
directly, our debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP), or the measure of 
our economy's ability to sustain national debt, now stands at 120 
percent, doubling since 2000. The fastest-growing part of our federal 
budget continues to be interest payments on our debt, increasingly 
outpacing and crowding out critical defense and non-defense spending 
alike.
  In a Congress where we often repeat the platitude that our budget 
reflects our values, it is disturbing that the main common value 
reflected is fiscal unsustainability ranging to irresponsibility. We 
need look no further than a mirror for the root cause: our collective 
inability to face the music of fiscal responsibility and 
sustainability.
  We clearly need help with our collective inability to confront this 
reality. My Sustainable Budget Act, again co-introduced yesterday with 
Congressman Steve Womack, is at least a start toward a solution. It 
would follow the models of Simpson-Bowlesand other such independent, 
bipartisan commissions charged with focusing on our deficits and debt 
and recommending a sustainable path for an up-or-down vote by Congress.
  Our bill is similar to other proposals, including the TRUST Act that 
I have reintroduced with Congressmen Scott Peters and Mike Gallagher to 
save our foundational entitlement programs from similar 
unsustainability. Together, they offer a far better way to tackle our 
debt crisis than denial, anger, avoidance, diversion and rhetoric. I 
urge their prompt consideration and passage.

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