[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 44 (Tuesday, March 12, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H1097-H1098]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                DISCONNECTED STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Arrington) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ARRINGTON. Madam Speaker, last week, the President stood in this 
Chamber and declared the state of the Union is good and that our lives 
are better.
  For the sake of our country, I wish that were so, but, unfortunately, 
we know it couldn't be further from the truth.
  After 3 years of one self-inflicted disaster after another--border, 
crime spree, cost-of-living crisis, a more destabilized and dangerous 
world because of the weakness, the weak posture, the feckless foreign 
policies--we are supposed to believe somehow that life is better in 
America.
  President Biden wasn't able to suspend reality even in a State of the 
Union speech. Why? Because the American people know better. They know

[[Page H1098]]

that under the reckless spending and failed policies of this President, 
their country has become weaker and more vulnerable, both at home and 
abroad.
  Madam Speaker, if you think that the State of the Union speech was 
disconnected from reality and the needs of the American people, read 
his budget. He just introduced it yesterday.

  In the midst of record spending-induced inflation, interest rates, 
and the cost of living that is crushing working families, and a fragile 
and uncertain economic future for the American people, and the slide 
toward socialism, the slide toward a sovereign debt crisis, here is his 
answer:
  Double down on the borrowing and the spending and the taxing.
  In fact, his budget proposes the highest sustained levels of 
spending, borrowing, and taxing in the history of the United States of 
America.
  Adding $16 trillion to the debt over 10 years, $5 trillion from 
hardworking tax-paying Americans to attempt to pay for it, taxes on 
energy and agriculture producers, taxes on working families, taxes on 
our job creators who are competing not just here at home but in the 
international marketplace.
  Then he expands mandatory spending. Understand that we have 75 
percent of our budget on auto-spend. That is the driver of the debt. If 
we don't rein in mandatory spending and grow this economy, we will 
never get out of this dangerous and unsustainable fiscal path that will 
end with irreparable harm to this country, that will end with our 
children being robbed of their freedom and their opportunities.
  It will upend the Republic and our leadership in the world. The whole 
world order will change, and China won't have to fire a single shot. 
Madam Speaker, he expands mandatory spending because he wants more 
climate subsidies and clean energy, green energy tax giveaways to 
corporations. It is more cradle-to-grave welfare without work, trapping 
more people in dependence on government and generations in poverty.
  This is his vision for America.
  One thing that is not in there is any consideration for this current 
fragile economy or our children's future.
  Madam Speaker, I am concerned as the budget chairman of the United 
States House Budget Committee. I am concerned as a family man with 
three children, who are hoping to have the American experience that we 
have had.
  Madam Speaker, the Republicans put forward their budget, their 
blueprint, that would put this Nation on a path to balance. Instead of 
adding the $16 trillion in debt over 10 years, we take that debt away. 
We reduce trillions of dollars in debt, we reduce our debt-to-GDP 
which, by the way, is the highest indebtedness in the history of our 
country, surpassing World War II when we were fighting Imperial Japan 
and Nazi Germany. We are in relative peace and prosperity, and we have 
higher indebtedness than we did in World War II, and it is going to get 
exponentially worse.
  Today, our debt is 25 percent higher than the total economic output 
of the greatest and biggest and most robust economy in the world. It 
will be twice that in 30 years--$120 trillion on top of the $34 
trillion debt that we are in now.
  Now, if you can look at those CBO projections, if you can look at the 
unfunded liabilities 30 years in the future and not shudder to your 
core for the future of your country, then you are not reading from the 
same documents I am reading from.
  Madam Speaker, look at the contrast between Biden's budget and the 
Republican budget. He says, show me your budget, I will show you your 
priorities. Look at his priorities and look at ours. I think you will 
understand that we choose economic freedom and fiscal responsibility 
and a bright future for our children.
  God bless America and go west Texas.

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