[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 99 (Tuesday, June 10, 2025)]
[House]
[Page H2574]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    ADDRESSING OUR EXPLODING DEFICIT

  (Mr. Khanna of California was recognized to address the House for 5 
minutes.)
  Mr. KHANNA. Mr. Speaker, one of the largest challenges our country 
faces is exploding deficits. The Republican budget would add $2.4 
trillion over 10 years to the existing deficits.
  Let me show this chart. On this chart, the yellow line shows the 
existing deficits as they currently are projected. The Republicans 
would take those existing deficits and add, over 10 years, $2.4 
trillion.
  Now, Ray Dalio and Jamie Dimon have said that this is a disaster and 
that the bond markets are afraid.
  Why are the bond markets afraid?
  It is because they know that the Fed would engage in quantitative 
easing, buying up more Treasury bonds, as people outside view the 
Treasuries as more risky. This will lower the value of the dollar, and 
it will make basically all Americans poorer.
  However, people are tired of just hearing one side bash the other 
side about deficits and no one doing anything about it. So, today, we 
are introducing a plan, a real plan, to lower deficits in America.
  This plan would take the deficit down over the next 10 years to below 
3 percent of GDP. The historic leverage over the last 40, 50 years has 
been under 4 percent of GDP.
  As far as the Republican plan, by the way, independent analysis takes 
the deficits to 8.6 percent of GDP. That is the highest it has ever 
been in peacetime. Our plan would take it back down to under 4 percent.
  Mr. Speaker, here you see the Republican deficits, here you see the 
current deficits and here you see our plan which would reduce deficits 
by $12 trillion.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, you say: How are we going to do this deficit 
reduction?
  Where are the spending cuts, and where are the revenue generators?
  It is pretty simple actually. We need to start with the Pentagon and 
modernizing the Pentagon. This is what Elon Musk actually signed up to 
do with SpaceX and initially with DOGE. He wanted to cut the bloated 
defense contractors and the waste out of the Pentagon. We need not 
cost-plus accounting. We need new competition.
  Secondly, we need to go after negotiating with Big Pharma. Medicare 
should be negotiating drug prices.
  Third, we should be stopping Medicare Advantage from ripping off the 
American people. They are upcoding, and they are making people sicker 
than they actually are. We should make competitive procurement for the 
government.
  None of this, by the way, is in the Republican plan. These are the 
big-ticket items that would actually start to reduce the deficit. They 
always say that our side is not for spending cuts. Right here are 
actual spending cuts of what we can be doing to reduce the deficit.
  Also, Musk has called for ending fossil fuel subsidies. Let's have 
some revenue generators. We have to vote to cut spending and generate 
revenue.
  Let's tax billionaires. I never understood the billionaire argument. 
I have more billionaires than anyone in this Chamber. There are five 
trillion-dollar companies in my district: Apple, Google, Invidia, 
Broadcom, and Tesla. I am saying: Let's raise taxes on them.
  I don't understand how this is a hard vote for 434 other Members of 
Congress. We should be making sure that we are taxing our stock 
buybacks. We should be making sure that when we have large inheritances 
that people who are inheriting it actually have to pay capital gains so 
that we, in this country, start to reward hard work again and not just 
speculation.
  This is so we celebrate the people who are doing daily work and 
paying taxes as opposed to just speculators who are avoiding taxes.
  Anyway, this plan would reduce the deficit, reduce debt by $12 
trillion over 10 years, and it would also reduce the interest payments 
on the deficit every year which would add an extra $2 trillion of 
savings.
  Now, I am not saying this plan is perfect, but here is what I think 
every Member of Congress should do: Propose how you are going to reduce 
the deficits, and tell the American people how the math works.
  Every Member of Congress owes that to their constituents.
  Mr. Speaker, if you disagree with me, then have your own plan. Here 
is what I do know: The Republican plan is just going to explode 
deficits, and it is going to hurt the American economy and make us all 
poorer.
  I hope, Mr. Speaker, we can come together in this body to be honest 
with the American people, to actually have a calculator to do math, and 
to propose real plans for deficit reduction.

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