[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 148 (Wednesday, September 13, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H4292-H4295]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          SAVING THE REPUBLIC

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 9, 2023, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. 
Good) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, the Constitution gives the 
responsibility for the Nation's finances to the House of 
Representatives. It is the House's responsibility to pay the Nation's 
debts, to manage the Nation's finances, to protect our ability to 
borrow, when necessary. The Founders warned us about the dangers of 
excessive debt, the dangers of perpetual debt, and yet we find 
ourselves with the highest level of debt to our GDP that we have had 
since World War II.
  The World War II generation came out of a literal battle, a war to 
save the world from imperialist Japan and Nazi Germany, which caused 
significant borrowing to fund that war, to fund that conflict, but that 
generation paid that debt down to a manageable level shortly 
thereafter.
  Here we are today with $32 trillion in debt, nearly $100,000 per 
American citizen. I have said that many times on this floor, in 
committee hearings, in speeches and interviews, $100,000 per American 
citizen.
  One time when I said that on this very floor, it was opposite the 
then Budget Committee chairman from the other side, Mr. Speaker. When 
his time came to speak, he said, stop saying that. We are not asking 
anybody to pay it back. As if it was not real, as if it was monopoly 
money, and if it didn't matter.
  However, the days of spending without consequence are now over. I 
believe the American people are beginning to connect the numbers, the 
stats, the dollars, what they hear about with Federal spending, the 
deficit and the national debt, to their own very lives, because the 
American people are suffering from 40-year high inflation.
  As a matter of fact, the consumer price index showed today that 
prices have risen 17 percent in the 2\1/2\ years since President Biden 
took office. That means $1,000 in 2020 is now worth just $832 today. 
Americans are experiencing record-high inflation, 40-year high 
inflation, but it is even higher than the 17 percent for the 
essentials, for groceries, for gasoline in the tank, for utilities, 
and, yes, for housing costs.

                              {time}  2000

  The average mortgage today payment is $1,218, which is more than 
double what it was when President Biden assumed office. That is a 
direct result of Federal spending causing massive inflation, which was 
then reacted to by the Biden Fed that has raised interest rates to 20-
year highs, further exacerbating it. Of course, we have had our credit 
rating lowered for just the second time in our history.
  Americans are suffering under this debt. Americans' futures are more 
bleak financially because of this debt. It is a terrible threat to our 
children and our grandchildren, and we, as the Republican majority, 
must do something about it.
  We, as the Republican majority, elected by the American people after 
running on a platform of fiscal responsibility, are leading a House of 
Representatives that will have a $2 trillion deficit this year.
  We are here tonight with this Special Order time to talk about our 
spending, to talk about our deficit, to talk about our national debt, 
and to talk about the budget battle that we are in at this very moment, 
the appropriations process to fund our government, and what we will do 
with the faith and the trust the American people placed in us last 
November when they gave us the House majority.
  I am pleased to be joined by a couple of my distinguished colleagues 
tonight. I have with me Congressman Ralph Norman from South Carolina 
and Congressman Clay Higgins from Louisiana.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Norman) to 
share his thoughts on this topic tonight.
  Mr. NORMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Good for calling the Special 
Order.
  Folks, for those listening, we are at a pivotal point in the history 
of America. I have never felt the weight as I do now to save the 
Republic that I grew up in, to save the opportunity to realize your

[[Page H4293]]

God-given talent, and to realize the goals and aspirations that each 
individual has.
  Folks, I feel like it is under threat, and I know it is under threat 
since I was first elected in Congress in 2017.
  We can all talk about what we are going to do and what we want to do. 
Folks, we are at a pivotal time. We have to do what it takes to save 
this Republic.
  As Congressman Good said, basically, the debt is rampant. What is 
happening to this country at every level is, in one word, evil. I can't 
think of any other word to describe what we are going through in 
America that is evil that threatens the democracy that we have known 
for 240 years.
  Now, what do I mean by what is evil about what is going on? What is 
different now than years ago? Let me ask each one of you watching: When 
have you ever seen a country that basically has no borders? When have 
you ever seen a country that is letting everybody from every country 
in--no checks, no balances, come in and enjoy the fruits of this great 
Republic? When have you ever seen the lawlessness that is taking place 
in America? When have you ever seen the criminals being basically 
protected over the victims that they have victimized? When have you 
seen that? When have you seen Americans scared to use their voice and 
to express their outrage?
  As Congressman Good has mentioned, when have you ever seen, and I 
think the last date I heard was 2008, when there has been a steady 
decline in the take-home pay of Americans.
  When have you ever seen our school system under attack? When have you 
ever seen young children who are being surgically--I am trying to think 
of the word to use.
  Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Maimed
  Mr. NORMAN. Surgically destroyed, as you see today, for the sake of a 
dollar by a medical professional.
  When have you ever seen a sitting leader of the free world, a sitting 
President, give $9 billion to a country that will blow us up every day 
of the week? When have you seen that?
  I don't think we have. Folks, I have gone over just a few things that 
are different than it was yesterday. It is: Wake up, America. Wake up 
to what we are facing.
  I was just having a conversation with Congressman Higgins on what we 
face now. We are up here. We got here Tuesday, yesterday. We will leave 
tomorrow. We do not have a budget. We do not have a top line on the 12 
appropriations bills. What do we have? You tell me. I am a sitting 
Member of Congress. I don't know.
  All I do know is I am not willing to spend this country into oblivion 
and continue to support what has been going on by this administration.
  I am simply not willing to do it. I am not willing to give more money 
to an executive office that is promoting lawlessness in this country.
  South Carolina has 5.2 million people. We have exceeded that on the 
illegals that are coming into this country. They are going to different 
cities all over this country, and I guess the ones that are at the 
forefront are in New York City. When I heard Eric Adams talk about the 
crisis they are in, where was he when he declared New York City a 
sanctuary city? Where was he when he said, how are we going to pay for 
this? Where was he when he told the school districts that have been 
overrun by illegals that are taking the place of people who have been 
in America who have paid taxes and who have contributed to our economic 
system? Where was he? Now, he is complaining he wants a bailout.
  That is all to say it is our time to shine. It is dependent on each 
one of us to answer the call.
  Now, how do we do that? Well, we insist on fiscal sanity. Economic 
security is national security, and we have to insist now to have 
regular order, which is what we thought we had when we voted for the 
Speaker in January, regular order, having the 12 appropriations bills 
on a conservative, downward spending trend, and a budget like every 
American business and every American family has. What do we have now? 
Nothing.
  Now, what is up to us? It is up to us now to do whatever it takes to 
make sure we have a fiscally sound budget, to make sure each of the 12 
appropriations is less than the pre-COVID levels, to have a border that 
is secure that is enforceable, and to have the wokeness out of the 
military that is destroying the readiness of our great military people 
all across this country.

  My message to each of you tonight: Get active in your communities. 
Get active in telling your Congressmen that if it means shutting the 
government down before you get it right, shut it down. Shut it down 
until you get it right.
  It is easy to spend other people's money, but we want to give it 
back. That is one thing about the Freedom Caucus and other Members that 
are with me tonight, Congressman Good and Congressman Higgins, we want 
to give you money back.
  We are not going to add to the continual debt that is bankrupting our 
system. The cancer in this country cannot be cured by an aspirin.
  What I am asking each one of you today is to take ownership in your 
communities. Take ownership from the local level, from the city 
council, school council, Statehouse, and up. Take ownership in it. Let 
your voice be heard.
  Do you know what is at stake? One word: Freedom. Freedom is at stake. 
Let's answer the call, as we have always done. The onus is on us.
  God bless each and every one of you. I thank Congressman Good for 
allowing me a few minutes.
  Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, as the gentleman from South 
Carolina (Mr. Norman) has said, debt is the opposite of freedom.
  There is a biblical principle to that. It says the debtor, the 
borrower, is a slave to the lender. Again, the Founders warned us about 
the consequence of excessive debt.
  I was reminded, as Mr. Norman was speaking, that I feel like I am 
living through the movie of how to destroy a country produced by 
President Biden.
  If you were going to set out to destroy a country intentionally 2\1/
2\ years ago, what would you do different than the things that Mr. 
Norman has outlined today, whether it is our border invasion, 
purposefully, willfully facilitated by this administration, or whether 
it is our national debt with predominant responsibility to the 
Democratic Party, but also contributed to by Republicans? We have the 
opportunity to do something about that now in this Congress.
  Mr. Speaker, I recognize my friend from Louisiana (Mr. Higgins) to 
express his thoughts accordingly.
  Mr. HIGGINS of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague 
Congressman Good, and I appreciate the words of wisdom of my colleague 
Ralph Norman.
  Mr. Speaker, let me begin with an uplifting statement. God is still 
on the throne, and we, his humble children, have a responsibility to be 
worthy of his love and grace and the anointing of what it is to be an 
American citizen.
  Every generation of Americans has risen to face the challenge and 
threat that our Nation has endured now 240 years.
  In our generation, one of the most insidious threats that we face is 
the degree of debt that we have allowed, in my generation, our Nation 
to assume. We now face a $33 trillion debt. That is $33,000 billion.
  Mr. Speaker, if this body were to balance the budget--which is our 
goal, by the way. It is why we are here tonight addressing this Chamber 
and the Nation that we love, standing shoulder to shoulder with each 
other so that our words are forever inscribed on the historical record 
of our country, that some stood to fight for the future of our 
Republic, to restore fiscal sanity to this body.
  Were this body to produce a balanced budget and we were to run a $1 
billion surplus, Mr. Speaker, it would require 33,000 years to address 
a $33 trillion debt with a $1 billion surplus, and 1 billion is 1,000 
million.
  Every American has imagined, well, what would I do if I had a million 
dollars? I would pay off my house, settle my debts, take care of my 
family, build mother-in-law a house. I would set aside some money for 
my children and my grandchildren. I would bring generational growth to 
my family if I won the lottery and had a million dollars.
  In this town, we throw around trillions like it is nothing. Every 
dollar that we spend in deficit every year is put upon our 
grandchildren. Is this reflective of anointed value that our

[[Page H4294]]

Lord has bestowed upon us as American citizens?
  As we stand beneath the glory, Mr. Speaker, of one flag, we are 
ultimately one people. The challenge of this generation and this body 
and this majority party, this Republican Party, an honor that I wield 
not upon my lapel but within my heart of what it is to be a 
conservative constitutionalist Republican American citizen, I stand in 
the body that is responsible to correct course that our Nation has 
taken up.
  Mr. Speaker, it was 1980 before America had accumulated $1 trillion 
of debt. Since then, we have added $32 trillion of debt.
  It took 200 years to accumulate $1 trillion of debt, and now we have 
$33 trillion. It is unsustainable, so we are demanding a correction of 
course because our Nation is headed precipitously to a fiscal cliff 
beyond which we may never recover as a Nation.

                              {time}  2015

  We love our country enough that we are willing to stand and fight for 
the future of our Republic. If it makes some of my colleagues 
uncomfortable, oh, well.
  If you are willing to participate in the change of spending 
trajectory that this generation is required to produce, then stand with 
us. If not, if you don't quite have the courage, at least get out of 
our way. If you oppose us, prepare for a fight.
  We love our country enough to stand in this Chamber and make some 
noise about the debt that we have accumulated and the deficit spending 
that we continue to add.
  Perhaps my colleague, Congressman Good, has a comment to share with 
the Speaker regarding the difference between our national debt and our 
annual deficit and how quickly we are adding to our debt at a rate that 
has never been seen in our history.
  Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Mr. Higgins, we are going to spend some $20,000 
per citizen this year. There are 330 million Americans. In a Republican 
majority Congress, we are going to spend nearly $7 trillion, about 
$20,000 per citizen. We will borrow $6,000 of that $20,000. This year 
alone, we will borrow $6,000 per citizen; not per taxpayer, not per 
household, but per citizen.
  Of the $20,000 per citizen that we will spend this year, only $3,000 
per citizen will be for the primary responsibility of the Federal 
Government, the safety and security of the Nation, to defend the 
Nation. We will spend $20,000 per citizen, we will borrow $6,000 of 
that, and only $3,000 will be for protecting the Nation from foreign 
invasion, keeping the Nation safe and secure.
  To Congressman Higgins' point, with the explosion of debt from $1 
trillion in 1980 to now nearly $33 trillion today, the interest on the 
debt, what we are paying to service the debt is about $1 trillion a 
year. With interest rates rising, that cost is only going to go higher 
in addition to the spending disaster that we are experiencing.
  What are we prepared to do? It doesn't matter what you believe in, it 
doesn't matter what you say you stand for if you are not willing to 
have the courage of your convictions to take risks to fight for that 
for which you claim to believe. It is no coincidence that one thing the 
gentlemen with me tonight, Mr. Norman of South Carolina and Mr. Higgins 
of Louisiana, and I share in common is that we are members of the House 
Freedom Caucus. I believe the American people are counting on us and 
putting their hope in us that maybe we will be the ones who will make 
this stand and not betray them and not let them down.
  I go back to January. What January's Speaker battle was ultimately 
about was that we, as a renewed Republican majority, would not do what 
we have always done and therefore fail, as we have failed to deliver 
for the American people, particularly when it comes to fighting to cut 
our spending.
  Yes, Democrats are better at spending than Republicans are, but 
Republicans have contributed, as well with a failure to follow through 
on the things that we run on.
  We had commitments made in January that we were going to cut our 
spending at least back to pre-COVID levels for nondefense discretionary 
spending; pre-COVID levels, which was the highest level of spending in 
the history of the country at that point, the most reckless, bloated, 
and excessive spending in the history of the country at that point.
  We voted together as a Republican Conference to that effect in April. 
We voted together for pre-COVID-level spending in April with the Limit, 
Save, Grow Act. However, that was discarded with the debt ceiling 
agreement where the Republican House came together with the Democrat 
majority of the House and the Senate and the White House for a debt 
ceiling agreement that is unlimited until January of 2025, as much 
money as Congress can gleefully come together and spend between now and 
January of 2025, where most projections say we will be $35 to $36 
trillion in debt by that time.
  We were told when we were negotiating the debt ceiling bill and when 
the debt ceiling bill came forward--which we did not vote for, my 
colleagues and I--well, we will fight during the appropriations 
process. That is when we will fight to cut our spending. As a matter of 
fact, we were told when we were negotiating H.R. 1, the energy bill, we 
will fight during the appropriations process to cut our spending.
  We were told when we were fighting for the H.R. 2 Secure the Border 
Act that we would begin to cut spending during appropriations. Even 
during the NDAA negotiations, we were told that we would use the 
appropriations process to cut our spending. We were told we would pass 
12 appropriations bills out of this House, implementing Republican 
priorities at pre-COVID levels for nondefense discretionary spending.
  Now we are at a crisis point where will we deliver for the American 
people. We are only talking about $115 billion in spending cuts to 
reach that pre-COVID level, $115 billion when we are running a monthly 
deficit, to Mr. Higgins' point, of $150 billion a month.
  What we need to do is come together as a Republican majority, pass 
our 12 bills that implement our policy priorities, our legislative 
priorities, do our job here in the House, cut our spending to pre-COVID 
levels that we committed to doing in January and in April, send it to 
the Senate and demand that they pass those House bills that the 
American people elected us to pass. Then if the Senate wants to shut 
down the government, let them shut it down.
  Mr. Higgins, when I am in my district--we both came from our 
districts over these last few weeks--the American people didn't express 
concerns to me that the government might shut down.
  The American people expressed concern to me about our national debt. 
They expressed concern to me about our spending. They expressed concern 
about rising crime. They expressed concern about the border invasion. 
They expressed concern about the weaponization of the Federal 
Government against them, a two-tiered justice system. They expressed 
concern about the faith and confidence in our election system.
  The way for us to address those issues is by passing our bills, 
implementing our policies, and cutting our spending.
  I yield to Mr. Higgins for any final thoughts he might have.
  Mr. HIGGINS of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, our Nation can still succeed, 
reflective of the will of the people that we have sworn to serve. What 
we require in order to deliver is not an imagined, unreachable goal or 
an unreasonable demand. What we require of our Republican colleagues is 
that they embrace the core principles upon which the Republican Party 
has been built. Just stand upon the core principles that they claim to 
possess and help us save our country from bankruptcy.
  We have the power of the purse. May I say with respect to my 
colleagues in the Senate, the Founders knew what they were doing when 
they created a bicameral Congress. If they wanted a unicameral 
Congress, they would have had one. That was stated last night at our 
Freedom Caucus meeting, words of wisdom spoken.
  We are the House of Representatives. We are the voice of we, the 
people. We control the Nation's wealth or squander it. We have reached 
a point that is untenable to continue.
  We ask our brothers and sisters, the most conservative rank of our 
conference, the Freedom Caucus, all of whom we respect, we ask the 
Speaker, whom we elected, to stand with the conservative voice that is 
itself reflective of the voice of the people we have sworn to serve, 
let us change the trajectory of spending across our 12 appropriations 
bills which are filled with

[[Page H4295]]

conservative policy that is transformative for our Nation if we can 
pass those bills. Let us join and stand as one and pass those bills 
reflective of our agreement at 2022 spending levels, and in some cases 
pre-COVID 2019 spending levels.
  None of us here, Mr. Speaker, would stand and say that the Federal 
Government was too small in 2019 or didn't spend enough money in 2022. 
All we ask is a reasonable adjustment to the trajectory of spending. 
This is why we are speaking to you tonight, Mr. Speaker, and we ask 
that our voices be heard respectfully by our colleagues. Let us save 
our Republic.
  Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, may we meet the moment, may we be 
that transformational Congress that cuts spending and does not let the 
American people down.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to Mr. Norman the final minute that we have for 
his final thoughts.
  Mr. NORMAN. Mr. Speaker, where we are right now is we have a great 
opportunity to save this Republic. In the words of Winston Churchill, 
who at the depths of the lows of Great Britain, said: ``It is not 
enough that we do our best; sometimes we must do what is required.''
  We have got to do what is required. That is going to require courage, 
that is going to require stamina, and that is going to require the one 
word that we all live under, this one flag, we are one people, 
representing freedom. God bless everyone.
  Mr. HIGGINS of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Norman and 
Congressman Good.
  Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my 
time.

                          ____________________