Republican Study Committee Budget
Floor Speech
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Mr. BANKS. Madam Speaker, the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mike Mullen, called our national debt ``the single biggest threat to national security.''
Since then, we have added more than $7 trillion more in red ink. Our national debt today stands at $22 trillion, and it is only getting worse.
The Congressional Budget Office is projecting trillion-dollar deficits in perpetuity. These deficits will leave future generations like my daughter's generation saddled with higher taxes, stagnant growth, and a lower standard of living. This is simply unacceptable.
Thankfully, pro-growth policies implemented by President Trump and congressional Republicans have led to a booming economy with 3.2 percent GDP growth and unemployment below 4 percent.
Our strong economy provides Congress a unique opportunity to tackle this problem, but bold leadership is required to do so.
Unfortunately, it is clear that there will be no such leadership from the Democrats. The Democrats have failed to perform the most basic function of government, which is passing a budget. In fact, they have not even bothered to bring a budget to the floor for a vote. Why, you might ask? Because the radical left is now in control of the Democratic agenda and demanding trillions of dollars in additional spending for programs like the Green New Deal, which aims to eliminate everything from air travel to requiring every single building in the United States to be rebuilt or upgraded, banning farting cows, and will cost upwards of $92 trillion to implement; or, another budget-busting initiative like Medicare-for-all, which would increase government spending by $32 trillion over the next decade.
Think about that for a moment. The Democrats look at $22 trillion in debt, trillion-dollar deficits, and think that we aren't spending enough already of our taxpayer dollars.
Thankfully, the Republican Study Committee is here to do something about it, and we have taken the challenge head-on.
As chairman of the Republican Study Committee's Budget and Spending Task Force, I am very proud to have worked with a task force of eight of my colleagues, as well as the rest of our 141-member strong Republican Study Committee, to produce the ``Preserving American Freedom'' budget resolution.
This budget reduces government debt by cutting $12.6 trillion in wasteful spending over the next 10 years.
It ensures permanent solvency for Medicare and Social Security so that these programs will exist for the seniors who rely on them today, as well as for future generations.
It repeals ObamaCare and gives unprecedented control to the States to design healthcare programs that fit the unique needs of their citizens.
It reforms welfare to move more people into employment with a sense of purpose and self-reliance.
Finally, it matches President Trump's commitment to national security by fully funding the border wall and making the necessary investments in our military to ensure the safety of the American people from foreign threats.
The ``Preserving American Freedom'' budget is the only serious proposal from Congress to address Washington's addiction to spending and a bloated and growing national debt. I am very proud to have led the RSC's effort to tackle this generational challenge and ensure a brighter future for all Americans.
Madam Speaker, tonight, we are going to hear from some of my colleagues about this very important budget proposal and what we can do to address fiscal responsibility so desperately needed in Washington, D.C.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Cloud).
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Mr. BANKS. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Mitchell), my good friend and fellow classmate of the last congressional class, a great conservative leader in the Congress.
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Mr. BANKS. Madam Speaker, what I hear from Hoosiers all over my district is that they sent their Representatives here to bring back fiscal sanity, to balance our budget. That is what hardworking Hoosier families do every day.
It is what they have come to find in their State legislature in my great home State of Indiana as well. Indiana has a balanced budget amendment. We have legislators who go to the State house and pass fiscally responsible budgets every 2 years.
It was a pleasure of mine for 6 years to serve with the next speaker, somebody who is a true American hero and one of the great conservative leaders of this freshman class in the new Congress.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Baird).
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Mr. BANKS. Madam Speaker, the State of Indiana has so much to be proud of. Indiana provides a road map for the rest of the Nation when it comes to fiscal responsibility.
There are few leaders in the House of Representatives who do as much for the conservative cause and promote fiscal responsibility as Representative Hice from the great State of Georgia.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Hice).
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Mr. BANKS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his comments tonight.
Madam Speaker, as I said before, there are 140 members of the Republican Study Committee. Many of those 140 members are new freshman Members who were elected just beginning of this Congress, who are conservative Members who stepped up to the plate to preach fiscal responsibility, to keep the commitments that they made on the campaign trail. One of those new Members is my colleague and friend, Representative Hern from Oklahoma.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Kevin Hern).
Mr. KEVIN HERN of Oklahoma. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Madam Speaker, I stand with my colleagues today to stress the importance of fiscal health in our country.
There is a very real problem here. If we don't address it, we are condemning our children to doom.
My colleagues across the aisle like to use the 12 years left hyperbole to talk about the necessity to act on climate change, but they ignore the fiscal cliff we are standing on, a much more imminent threat to the well-being of our country and our people.
Instead of addressing the debt crisis, the Democrat majority chose not to draft a budget at all this year. That tells us all we need to know about their priorities.
Speaker Pelosi herself said: Show me your budget, and I will show you your values.
So, without a budget, what are the majority's values?
The RSC budget addresses our deficits and aims to balance by 2025. This budget refocuses spending on our core constitutional responsibilities and limits the growth of government.
Forty-nine out of the 50 United States are required to have a balanced budget, but the Federal Government does not have that requirement. A budget that balances is the first and most important step towards financial well-being for our country.
I spent more than 30 years as a business owner before coming to Congress. In the business world, a company will fail if they continually spend more money than they bring in. You just can't do it.
That is a foreign concept to many of my colleagues here. In fact, several people in this building believe that the best way to address our debt is to ignore its existence entirely. That is just simply ridiculous. Problems don't just disappear. They don't disappear for you or me. You have to take corrective action, and this budget does just that.
The former Secretary of Defense, General James Mattis, testified that our national debt is the greatest threat to our democracy. It is rather chilling that we borrow money from other nations to fund things like our military, who then must protect us from the very nations that we borrow money from.
We can only defend ourselves on borrowed money for so long. What happens when we run out of other people's money?
I find it interesting that Democrats only seem to care about our debt after we start putting taxpayer dollars back in people's pockets. No one is talking about the fact that Democrat proposals coming from Congress will, alone, cost over $100 trillion in new spending. Why aren't we holding hearings about that?
This budget is the only budget put forward in the House so far. It deserves our attention and our consideration because we are the only ones trying to right the ship.
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Mr. BANKS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his comments.
As the gentleman from Oklahoma said, the Republican Study Committee budget is the only budget proposal on the table. It is the only proposal that balances the budget, that begins to rein in wasteful government spending and begins to pay down a disastrous $22 trillion national debt.
There are few Members in this Congress whom I have served with who have preached fiscal responsibility as much as my friend and my colleague from Georgia (Mr. Allen).
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Allen).
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Mr. BANKS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia, a great friend and a great conservative in the House of Representatives, for being here tonight.
Madam Speaker, when the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, Mike Johnson from Louisiana, asked me to take on this task as chairman of the Budget and Spending Task Force, I was very proud to do so, not just because I have enormous respect for Chairman Johnson as a conservative leader in this Congress, but because of the stature and reputation of the Republican Study Committee.
At one point, our Vice President, from my home State, Mike Pence, one of the greatest conservative leaders in this Nation, was chairman of the Republican Study Committee. And so, too, was another man whom I respect just as much, one of the greatest leaders in our Nation, the Republican whip, Mr. Steve Scalise, from Louisiana, chair of the Republican Study Committee, too. The reputation of RSC is important because it is the conservative vehicle in the Congress to advance conservative principles. No one does that more on a daily basis than my friend from Louisiana (Mr. Scalise).
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Scalise).
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Mr. BANKS. Madam Speaker, this Republican Study Committee budget proposal was a gigantic effort: over 300 member proposals from the 141 members of the Republican Study Committee who offered ideas and proposals to include in this budget proposal.
Over the past several weeks, we met on a weekly basis, almost a dozen times, to put together this budget proposal, assembling a task force of eight conservative members, who gathered on a weekly basis to comb through the Federal budget to talk about ways that we could put forth something that conservatives, not just in Congress but throughout the country, could be very proud of.
I am really proud that, on our task force, we had Members who came from different States, different perspectives, who had different ideas. That made the effort stronger and, in the end, it allowed us to produce a stronger budget proposal. One of those members, I am very proud to say, is my friend, the representative from Florida, my colleague, Representative Yoho.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Yoho).
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Mr. BANKS. Madam Speaker, we need to confront this fiscal challenge now, as it is no longer a far-off concern.
Currently, we are set to run trillion-dollar deficits in perpetuity. The Social Security trust fund will be bankrupt by 2035. The Medicare trust fund will be bankrupt by 2026. Without bold and immediate action, this growing debt will condemn America to a future that is less prosperous and less free.
My colleagues and I from the Republican Study Committee are determined to make sure that this never materializes. The Republican Study Committee preserving the American freedom budget would not only prevent that bleak future, it would ensure even greater prosperity for all Americans for years and generations to come.
I could not be prouder to lead this effort on behalf of the Republican Study Committee and its 141 conservative members.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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