[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 22 (Thursday, February 2, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H652-H656]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1245
                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. SCALISE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I rise for the purpose of announcing the 
schedule for next week.
  Mr. Speaker, the House will meet next Monday at noon for morning hour 
and 2 p.m. for legislative business.
  On Tuesday, the House will meet at 10 a.m. for legislative business. 
At 9 p.m. the House and Senate will assemble for a joint session to 
receive President Biden's address on the State of the Union. Members 
should be seated in the House Chamber by 8:25 p.m.
  On Wednesday, the House will meet at 10 a.m. for morning hour and 12 
p.m. for legislative business.
  On Thursday, the House will meet at 9 a.m. for legislative business.
  We will be considering several bills under suspension of the rules 
during the week. The complete list of suspension bills has been posted 
on the Clerk's website.
  Next week, the House is expected to consider a number of bills under 
rules: H.R. 185, to terminate the requirement imposed by the Director 
of CMS for proof of COVID-19 vaccination for foreign travelers and for 
other purposes.
  H.R. 185 rescinds the Biden administration's vaccine requirement on 
travelers who are coming to visit the United States.
  The House is also expected to consider H.J. Res. 26, disapproving the 
District of Columbia's City Council revised Criminal Code Act of 2021. 
H.J. Res. 26 makes it clear that Congress does not approve of the City 
Council's radical decision to reduce penalties for a variety of crimes, 
including many violent crimes.
  Finally, we expect to consider H.J. Res. 24, disapproving the action 
of the District of Columbia's City Council in approving the Local 
Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act of 2022. What this resolution 
would do is reverse the decision by the D.C. Council that would allow 
illegal aliens to vote.
  As we all know, our southern border has been wide open under 
President Biden. Millions of people have come into our country 
illegally, and he continues to keep that border open. We have talked 
about bringing legislation to this floor, which we are working on in 
committee, to secure America's border.
  But, in the meantime, the idea that allowing people that are here 
illegally to vote here, not only undermines one of our most sacred 
rights in the United States, but it also sends the wrong message to 
those who are seeking to come into our country illegally.
  We need President Biden to close the southern border, secure the 
southern border, get back to a legal process of immigration. That is 
what H.J. Res. 24 would do.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Massachusetts (Ms. 
Clark), my friend, the new majority--minority whip of the House.
  Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman, and 
it is my privilege to join my first colloquy to stand here on behalf of 
the Democratic Caucus. It is a pleasure to be with him, and I thank him 
for the small promotion, however brief.
  I really do appreciate the insight into the week ahead, although it 
does seem to have a very local flavor to it. I have to express my 
dismay that, once again, the House Republican majority is putting 
forward an agenda designed to score points, rather than address the 
very real challenges faced by Americans.
  Next week, President Biden will return to this Chamber for the State 
of the Union. Under his leadership, House Democrats have lowered costs; 
we have created great-paying union jobs; and we have made communities 
safer.
  We have spurred a period of renewed opportunity: 10.7 million new 
jobs, the lowest unemployment rate in half a century, and wage growth 
that is outpacing inflation. But that work has seemed to have ground to 
a halt.
  Here is what we have seen from the majority over the last month. The 
first bill of the 118th Congress was a bill that helps billionaires 
dodge their taxes and added $114 billion to the deficit.
  They continued their assault on reproductive freedom and are 
threatening economic disaster in order to cut Social Security and 
Medicare, and filling our schedule with hollow, symbolic stunts.
  The American people are in the GOP's rearview mirror. It is politics 
over people, plain and simple, and our constituents and the American 
people are seeing this.
  A recent national poll found that 73 percent of Americans say House 
Republicans haven't paid enough attention to the country's most 
important problems. The American people don't see themselves in the 
Republican agenda, and I would ask the majority leader, what does he 
say to them?
  Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, what I would first say to the American 
people is, thank you for giving the Republicans the House majority to 
finally stop this mad rush toward socialism that we have seen in the 
last 2 years by the Biden administration: the taxing; the spending; the 
out-of-control policies that have led our country into one of the worst 
economic times we have ever seen. Inflation through the roof to the 
point where families can't even afford to put gasoline in their car. 
Inflation through the roof to the point where families can't even go to 
the grocery store and buy all the things that they would want. That is 
what the American people surely were fed up with.
  The good news is, as I thank them for giving the Republicans the 
majority, which they did in the last election, Republicans have already 
gone to work delivering for those families. We have actually brought--
it is interesting, as the gentlewoman talks about scoring points, we 
have scored a number of points for those American people to the point 
where we have actually had a number of Democrats vote with us.

  The bills that were called partisan just 2 weeks ago--we brought a 
bill to the floor to say, on energy, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, 
which is supposed to be America's security blanket in case there is 
some major disruption with American energy supply. I am not talking 
about the disruption we have seen from President Biden's attack on 
American energy, which has been so severe that it has made our country 
dependent on foreign nations again, which is unconscionable, when we 
can produce our own energy, cleaner, better than anybody else in the 
world.
  But it said, if you are going to raid, Mr. President, that Strategic 
Petroleum Reserve, you certainly can't do it

[[Page H653]]

to sell it to China. It was called partisan when we filed it. What is 
interesting is a majority of Democrats actually voted for that 
legislation, and it is now over in the Senate.
  I hope it ends up on President Biden's desk. I hope he signs it. But 
if he vetoes it, there was a veto-proof majority that passed that bill.
  We just brought a piece of legislation a few minutes ago on to the 
floor to reject the ills of socialism; not just what we are seeing here 
in the United States socialist movement that has been damaging to our 
economy, but all throughout time, so many examples of socialist 
dictators killing millions and millions of people.
  I am glad to say a majority of Democrats joined with us to vote for 
that bill. It is still a little bit shocking that 86 Democrats were not 
willing to stand up against the ills of socialism and that, I would 
consider, an extreme position, but clearly, there is still work to be 
done.
  The American people, I am sure, will continue to engage their Members 
of Congress on those issues, but we are also going to continue to move 
policies to help families who are struggling; energy policies, 
obviously, and there is more to come on that.
  The Energy and Commerce Committee just got constituted. They are 
working now on a good energy security package. The Natural Resources 
Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee are doing 
the same thing.
  I had mentioned to the gentlewoman earlier, on the border, as we 
would like to see real security from our southern border. I hope 
President Biden, when he is speaking from the podium here in just a few 
days, will address that problem.
  More people have come into our country illegally under President 
Biden's watch than the entire population of the State of New Mexico. 
Where it has caused real damage is more than 100,000 young kids, our 
young kids, have died because of drug overdoses from drugs like 
fentanyl because the drug cartels in Mexico now have operational 
control of America's southern border. That is disgraceful.
  That is all brought on by President Biden's policies. He could end 
those today through executive action; reverse the things that he did 
that created the problem. He won't do that, so I do think it is 
important that this Congress take that action.
  We still wait for the President to do it on his own, but we are not 
going to stand by. We will take our own action and show the country how 
we can get a secure southern border. I hope that would be a bipartisan 
vote when we bring that to the floor.
  The 87,000 IRS agents--I don't know of any Member of Congress--I 
would love to hear from any of them--who have gotten phone calls from 
their constituents saying please double the size of the IRS.
  Now, what they have said is please get Federal employees back to work 
because some people--I have got constituents that have been waiting 2 
years for their tax return and, yet, you have still got about half of 
the Federal workforce that is working remotely, not coming into work.
  I have got veterans who call my office all the time who can't get 
their benefits that they earned. They showed up for work, by the way, 
they showed up and said I am going to go defend the rights of this 
country, and some of them got injured. Some of them are trying to get 
their benefits today and can't because some of those people working, 
getting their full salary at the VA, are not showing up for work.
  People that are waiting for passports to go visit loved ones overseas 
can't get their passports processed because some Federal employees feel 
they should get their full salary but not show up for work.
  So we brought a bill this week to say you should show up for work. It 
seems pretty basic. It is unfortunate that there were less than a 
handful of Democrats that joined with us to do that.
  So we are addressing the needs of those families who are struggling. 
Some of those votes have been bipartisan; some haven't. But we are 
going to continue to address them because they are bipartisan issues 
for America, even if they are not bipartisan in this Chamber and, 
hopefully, that improves over time.

  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Massachusetts (Ms. 
Clark).
  Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I am hearing the exact same 
rhetoric, the exact same political posturing that I have heard for the 
last month. It doesn't give the American people any reason to think the 
GOP's priorities are going to focus on them.
  Let's just look at what we were able to do as Democrats, without a 
single Republican vote, in the Inflation Reduction Act: true cost 
savings that went and started to go into effect this past month.
  We delivered a historic victory for seniors. We capped out-of-pocket 
drug costs at $2,000 a year. We limited insulin copays to $35 a month. 
We empowered Medicare to negotiate drug prices, and we punished drug 
companies for predatory price hikes.
  Once again, every single Republican in the House voted against 
lowering seniors' pharmacy bills, lowering these costs for our 
Americans.
  A Republican Member even asked, How are we going to undo that when we 
get into the majority?
  Here we are, the House Republicans' campaign platform took direct aim 
at this historic legislation.
  So we can vote on sham bills. We can look at what the D.C. City 
Council is doing; that is up to the majority to set that agenda.
  Our agenda is going to remain on lowering costs for Americans; that 
the issues they talk around their kitchen tables and worry about are 
the issues we are going to remain focused on.
  Mr. Speaker, I would ask the majority leader, will you commit to 
defending these cost savings, these true victories for our seniors?
  Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, the good news is, we not only have already 
brought some bills to achieve cost savings, we are going to continue to 
bring bills to achieve cost savings. In one example, the gentlewoman 
referred to a piece of legislation that deals with drug prices, and it 
was failed to mention that part of what that bill did was limit about 
40 percent of lifesaving drugs to come to market.
  We are already seeing right now a reduction in R&D and drugs being 
developed to cure new diseases because many of those countries that 
have government-fixed pricing also don't have many of the lifesaving 
drugs that America has because of that very policy.

                              {time}  1300

  I am curious to see which lifesaving drugs they don't want to have on 
the market in America anymore. You can go to Canada, you can go to 
France, and you can see a long list, unfortunately, of drugs that you 
can't get in those countries that you can get in America that save 
lives every day.
  That bill also raised taxes to the tune of over a trillion dollars on 
Americans. It raised spending to the tune of over a trillion dollars in 
America. That has increased inflation.
  The biggest concern I hear from families who want cost savings is to 
stop the mad spending in Washington. It has not only caused them to 
have to pay more for everything they buy, it has literally taken a 
paycheck a year--at least one month's pay a year--out of their pockets 
because of all of the spending we have seen in the last 2 years in 
Washington. Our constituents just want Congress to try to rein in that 
spending.
  In fact, we brought another bill this week. We can talk about D.C., 
we can talk about other places, but all across America, most Americans 
are saying, let's get back to our lives, let's end this COVID 
emergency. We announced last week that we were going to bring a bill 
during this week to end the COVID emergency.
  What was interesting was, after we took the lead, President Biden 
himself actually acknowledged that it does need to end, but he said he 
wants to wait until May to do it. What is interesting about waiting 
until May is it allows the Federal Government to continue spending 
billions and billions of dollars under the guise of COVID that has 
absolutely nothing to do with COVID, like paying people not to work.
  Millions of people today are able-bodied, fully capable of working, 
but because of the waiving of things, like welfare-to-work 
requirements, where people can right now get $25,000, $35,000

[[Page H654]]

a year to sit at home and not work, well, you know what that does. We 
want to reverse that policy. If somebody is capable of working, they 
should be working.
  We believe in a social safety net for people. If somebody comes on 
hard times, that is why you have programs there.
  We are in America. If you want to stay at home and not work, that is 
your right. Just don't ask that hardworking taxpayer, the single mom 
who is working two jobs, to pay for you to stay at home.
  The Biden administration policies that pay millions of people to stay 
at home from work undermines Social Security because those are millions 
of people who our seniors are counting on to be in the workforce. These 
people are fully capable of being in the workforce paying into Social 
Security so that those who work their whole lives and earn that benefit 
can have confidence that it will be there for them.
  When you have millions of people being paid by the Federal Government 
to stay home, of course it adds trillions to our deficit, but it also 
takes billions of dollars out of Social Security that we want to put 
back in. We want to shore up Social Security, but President Biden has 
undermined it with these policies that pay people not to work.
  Our bill would end that immediately. Let's get those people back to 
work who are fully capable of working. Let's shore up Social Security 
immediately. We shouldn't have to wait more and more months like 
President Biden said he would want to do. Of course, if we didn't file 
that bill, he probably never would have wanted to end that emergency.
  Hopefully, as we continue to lead, we will see the President follow 
along. We welcome him to join us in saving this country and getting the 
country back on track, so we will continue to bring bills to address 
those many problems our country is facing.
  Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I have to say, I am 
disappointed. It seemed like a simple question: Would you support the 
cap on insulin at $35 a month when one in four Americans with diabetes 
didn't take their medication because they simply couldn't afford it?
  If the gentleman wants to talk about Social Security, though, I 
welcome that discussion. Speaker McCarthy was just at the White House 
yesterday talking with the President, who underlined the urgency of 
responsibly raising the debt ceiling, something that Republicans did 
three times under President Trump.
  However, the majority seems more than ready to hold our economy 
hostage, to risk a global recession, to risk the full faith and credit 
of the United States, to gut those very programs, Social Security and 
Medicare, and to put more money in the pockets of the rich. They are 
using this debt ceiling as a smokescreen.
  Let's get the facts straight. This is not about new spending. This is 
about money we already owe. If we want to go back to a place where 
Donald Trump really excelled, it was in driving up the deficit: $8 
trillion in 4 years under the Trump administration. That is a quarter 
of our entire debt ceiling. Again, when Donald Trump was in office 
spiking our debt ceiling, the debt ceiling was raised three times 
without fanfare.
  Who benefits from that borrowing?
  The rich, the very rich, and the ultrarich.
  If we don't raise this debt ceiling, who do you think is going to 
take over those payments?
  Apparently you think it should be our seniors on Medicare and Social 
Security, families who are looking for affordable housing, our 
veterans, our children, our planet.
  You don't have to take it from me. The majority has made their 
position perfectly clear.
  One Republican Member said the debt ceiling is an obvious leverage 
point.
  Another said the focus of budget cuts has got to be on entitlements.
  The Republican chair of the Budget Committee has called for 
eligibility reforms to Social Security and Medicare.
  The Republican Study Committee has openly proposed raising the 
retirement age to 70, handing Social Security accounts over to Wall 
Street, transitioning Medicare to a voucher system.

  All the while, when they actually are taking action, we are back to 
the rich, the very rich, and the super rich.
  First bill passed, adding to the deficit so that billionaires and the 
very wealthy can avoid paying the taxes that we ask our teachers, our 
firefighters, our nurses, to pay.
  What is waiting on the agenda is a proposal to do away with the IRS. 
Let's do away with income tax and go to a system of a 30 percent sales 
tax?
  This would be devastating to families at home who are trying to put 
food on their table, a roof over their head, and have a basic quality 
of life.
  I ask the majority leader: Do you agree with your colleagues or will 
you join Democrats and keep our seniors and everyday Americans off the 
chopping block?
  Mr. SCALISE. I earlier pointed out, I reject what President Biden did 
to undermine Social Security. In their discussions about the debt 
ceiling yesterday, Speaker McCarthy discussed with President Biden what 
Republicans are hoping to do. Frankly, I think most Americans have been 
hungry for us here in Washington to have the same adult conversation 
that they have been having at their kitchen tables for years as to how 
we can actually get spending under control in Washington.
  We have talked about the problems of paying people not to work. It 
not only adds to our deficit and debt; it also undermines Social 
Security. Let's get people back to work who are fully able-bodied.
  Let's talk about the Nation's credit card. The debt ceiling is a 
symptom of Washington's spending problem. According to Treasury, we are 
approaching in June the end of extraordinary measures where the Nation 
would exceed its debt limit. What that means for a family is: Families 
have credit cards. The credit card has a limit, a maximum amount you 
can spend. Many families would not like to spend up to that limit. Some 
like to pay their credit card off fully at the end of the month. Many 
don't have that luxury, so they watch what the maximum is so they know, 
okay, if I have got $300 before I hit it, I am not going to spend 300 
bucks, because then the card will be declined.
  Well, if you max out the card, which Biden has done in his last 2 
years, $6 trillion minimum--those are the conservative estimates; some 
estimates go as high as $10 trillion that President Biden has racked up 
on the Nation's credit card. The $31.3 trillion maximum on the Nation's 
credit card has been hit by President Biden and the Democrat majority's 
spending the last 2 years.
  Interestingly, when they were doing that spending, they didn't 
account for raising the cap on spending when they were spending the 
money. They pushed that off on us, so now we have to confront this 
problem that they created.
  The conversation really should be focused on how we stop this from 
happening, how we stop maxing out the Nation's credit card. If a family 
maxed out their credit card, of course they would pay the minimum 
payment; of course they would pay the must-dos.
  Again, Speaker McCarthy has made it very clear, we are fully 
committed to Social Security and those promises that have been made.
  Why is it that the first thing President Biden threatens is Social 
Security?
  A dollar is coming into the Federal Government; $1.29 is going out. 
That is the spending problem. If you really want to break it down in 
raw numbers, for every dollar the Federal Government takes in, it 
spends $1.29. Very few families sustain themselves on that kind of 
trajectory.
  What we are saying is why don't we try to figure out, Republicans and 
Democrats--by the way, this shouldn't be a partisan exercise. Both 
sides should want to say if a dollar is coming in, how do we make sure 
that only a dollar goes out? That is not where we are today. Let's have 
that conversation. It is a responsible conversation to have.
  In the meantime, let's make sure we are paying our debts and talking 
about how we can make reforms so we don't keep maxing out the Nation's 
credit card. That is what this debt ceiling discussion is about.
  If we just give the President a blank check, which he asked for--he 
is not going to get it; nobody should just get a blank check, give me 
more money so they can just go spend more money--that is not 
responsible.

[[Page H655]]

  Let's figure out how we can stop the Federal Government from 
continuing to max out the Nation's credit card. There is no better time 
to have that discussion than after President Biden has maxed out the 
Nation's credit card.
  We will have that conversation, and I think we can get to an 
agreement where both sides come together and say this is a problem we 
need to tackle together. Previous Presidents have done that, Republican 
and Democrat, working with Congresses of the other party. I think we 
can have that conversation.

  Again, I think most of America has been saying it is about time 
Washington finally starts having that conversation because families 
have been having that conversation at their kitchen tables for decades 
and generations.
  Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I thank the majority leader, 
but I have to disagree.
  I think the majority is well aware that there is a big difference 
between our responsibilities around the debt ceiling and spending 
discussions. What we have seen being brought together, by all the 
quotes from Republicans, laying out that this is their leverage point, 
to cut spending for the basics for the American people. Those are your 
words, not the words of Democrats or President Biden.
  I would completely disagree with this idea that maintaining our full 
faith and credit for things that we have already agreed on is a blank 
check. That is not something that benefits President Biden. That is 
basic fiscal responsibility.
  What we have here is a case of hostage-taking, the willingness to 
risk global economic destruction, to put the full faith and credit of 
the United States in jeopardy, to be able to reduce investments we have 
made in the American people.
  What is it you would like to reduce?
  There is nothing we hear. When we point out the majority's own words, 
that it is entitlements we are coming after, now we are saying that is 
not our goal.
  But let's look at what happened under our last Republican 
administration. Donald Trump tacked nearly $8 trillion onto our 
deficit. If that had not occurred, we would not even be at our debt 
ceiling right now; that would be coming in several years. And $8 
trillion on that deficit is a quarter of everything we owe.
  When that was occurring, when the spending was going to the very 
wealthiest of Americans, when my colleagues were last in the majority 
and Donald Trump would sign their bills, there was no mention of the 
debt ceiling.
  But now that we need to protect our seniors, those who are hungry in 
our communities, those who are still struggling to find health 
insurance, those who are needing to access security in their 
communities, to find affordable housing, the investments that we are 
making in fighting climate change, building resiliency, and protecting 
our planet, when those things that don't affect the very wealthy and 
privileged, those are the things we are willing to put on the chopping 
block and use the full faith and credit of the United States as 
leverage?

                              {time}  1315

  That is a disservice to the American people and it is the reason we 
are seeing polls like I previously cited.
  The American people see they are not a part of the Republican agenda. 
This is about stunts and it is about building the economy that works 
only for the very wealthy in this country.
  Mr. Speaker, I would ask that the Republican majority leader look 
beyond the constituencies of the very wealthy. I hope that you will 
find in your agenda, in the coming weeks, room for our seniors, room 
for our families, room for joining us in putting people over politics 
and making sure that we are working; continuing the work that we 
started in rebuilding our infrastructure and making an investment in 
jobs.
  We have created over a million jobs in the infrastructure bill every 
single year for the next 10 years. Those projects are going to be 
rolling out across this country. We have seen it already with the 
President's trip to Cincinnati to make sure that we are not only 
rebuilding our roads and bridges and investing in the American people, 
but expanding broadband, creating great paying jobs, and creating 
opportunity to help the American people.
  Sham bills using our full faith and credit, using the debt ceiling to 
continue to rig the system for the very wealthiest Americans, that is 
not what we are about. I hope that we are going to begin to see an 
agenda from the GOP that has a glimmer of the American family reflected 
in it.
  Mr. SCALISE. Madam Speaker, I appreciate you bringing up a number of 
constituencies that we need to fight to help.
  Let's start with the people that have been struggling the most. The 
lower- and middle-income families, they have been struggling the most 
in the last 2 years. They thrived like never before during those Trump 
years that are being decried by the left.
  Why did we see such growth from lower- and middle-income families 
into the middle class and into higher income categories?
  Because we actually cut taxes so that we could be competitive as a 
Nation again and create millions of jobs. We actually created millions 
of jobs by cutting taxes and making our country competitive, and not 
keeping money in Washington, but actually freeing up power so that 
people could control their own destiny again. Those people did take 
control of their own destiny.
  Again, we were losing our middle class during the Obama years. We 
were seeing great American companies leave America. You can get the 
list of them. It is a long list, unfortunately. Let's reverse that. 
Let's fight for those forgotten men and women.
  The millionaires and billionaires have their attorneys and their 
accountants and all the folks on the left who took care of those 
millionaires and billionaires. How about we start fighting for those 
people who were left behind--because they were being left behind. We 
said, let's make a tax code that is competitive for them.
  If you go back and look--and the good news is there is real data now. 
You don't have to wonder about it. You can throw away the talking 
points about the rich that are always thrown out there.
  The income groups that benefited the most from those tax cuts were 
the lower- and middle-income groups, and millions of people became part 
of the middle class who were left behind. Those are the facts. The data 
is out there.
  Some people are angry about that because they still want to live in 
this false universe where they just decry tax cuts because that takes 
power away from Washington. I think that is what scares the left so 
much, is when they see people being empowered again to be free to 
control their own destiny. Not bureaucrats and autocrats in Washington 
taking their money and then telling them what they can get back. 
Telling them how high they can go.
  How about you break the ceilings and just let people go out and 
succeed and give them the tools to do it. If you want to go out and 
work and succeed and achieve the American Dream, it is there for 
everybody. We restored that again.
  By the way, some of those tax cuts expire. I hope the gentlewoman and 
their side will join with us in continuing to keep that tax structure 
in place so those middle-income folks can continue to grow and thrive, 
but also for our seniors.
  This is where the President, I think, is looking for ideas on how we 
can start living within our means again. As I will refresh, as the 
gentlewoman talked about, spending that has already been done and 
leverage and full faith and credit to the United States, none of that 
would even be a discussion point today, if--as the Democrats, when they 
had the House, Senate, and White House for 2 years, and spent over $6 
trillion of money we don't have--they also would have addressed the 
debt ceiling at that time, we wouldn't be standing in this spot.
  We literally took the majority weeks ago and the Nation has already 
hit its debt ceiling because of the spending; not by President Trump, 
he actually addressed the debt ceiling as we were putting policies in 
place that grew our economy and created a middle class again. That was 
already done.
  Over the last 2 years, over $6 trillion in spending, but no time 
seemed to be

[[Page H656]]

available to address the debt ceiling. So here we are. We are willing 
to have a discussion about how to get control over spending. There are 
really good ideas. In fact, many of these ideas will strengthen Social 
Security for our seniors.
  I talked a little bit earlier about getting people that are being 
paid not to work back into the workforce. That will strengthen Social 
Security. How about we restore some of the work requirements that used 
to be there?
  This goes back to Bill Clinton, a Democrat, who signed those work 
requirements. It helped get more people into the workforce. It helped 
give them a chance to achieve the American Dream, but it also 
strengthened Social Security. When the government is paying people not 
to work, they are not paying into Social Security. That undermines the 
program. We should be wanting to strengthen it.

  By the way, there is also a long list, and we are going to be getting 
these lists out. I hope Democrats will go down this menu, and say, 
okay, we agree paying people tens, if not hundreds, of billions of 
dollars to get tax credits who don't even have Social Security numbers, 
who don't even live in America. If a tax credit is there, it is there 
for people who pay taxes, not for people who manipulate the system 
because, for whatever reason, this administration won't even verify a 
Social Security number. Just doing that verification would save tens, 
if not hundreds, of billions of dollars--we are talking about real 
money.
  Those things could all help. These aren't cuts to things, these are 
savings for fraud; real fraud, waste, and abuse that equals hundreds of 
billions of dollars. We have been outlining these things. I haven't 
found any takers yet, but I am not going to give up. I think eventually 
we will get a lot of takers on the other side who will recognize this 
is something we all need to come together and do because there is no 
reason that the families who are working hard should be paying for 
somebody else to cheat the system. There are many, many examples.
  We will continue to highlight them. We will actually bring bills to 
address those exact problems. All of that should be a part of this 
discussion so we don't keep maxing out the Nation's credit card.
  Again, nobody just says, here, if their kid maxed out the card, they 
are not just going to give them a new card and say, go max out the next 
one. They are going to sit down and have an adult conversation about 
how you don't put the country in this situation again.
  Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, let's go over the basic 
facts here just briefly once again. What the House GOP did fight for in 
2017 was a $2 trillion in tax giveaways for our largest corporations 
and for the wealthy because that is who they work for; the rich, the 
very rich, and the super rich.
  Under the Trump administration, we had record job loss of 3 million 
jobs.
  Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close.
  Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I would say on that, you can go look at the 
tax cuts. After those taxes were cut, the Federal Government took in 
more money than it has ever done in the history of the country because 
more people were working, and lower- and middle-income people were 
making higher wages, lifting those at the bottom into the middle class, 
which was evaporating under the Obama years.
  The data is very clear on that. Those tax cuts actually brought more 
money into the Federal Treasury. If anybody wants to dispute it, I 
challenge them to go to President Biden's Treasury website and find the 
numbers because they are there.
  Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, the numbers are there, $8 
trillion in deficit under the Trump administration; a direct 
correlation to a tax policy that only benefits the very wealthy.
  I thank the gentleman for joining me today and look forward to many 
more conversations to come. In the meantime, our caucus is thrilled to 
welcome the President back to this Chamber on Tuesday for his State of 
the Union Address.
  We hope the majority will draw some inspiration and work with us in 
service of the people who sent us here. Let's put people over politics; 
put them back on the table here in Congress.
  Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. I 
enjoyed our first of many of these colloquies. As we look toward 
hearing from the President, which we welcome together into this 
Chamber, I look forward to working with the President to address these 
problems our country is facing so we can get the country back on track 
and focus on the challenges ahead. There will be many more 
conversations we will have.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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