Reverse the Curse: Restoring Fiscal Responsibility

Floor Speech

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Mr. ESTES. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend, Mr. Arrington, for hosting this very important hour on this very important topic. I will concede that Texas is bigger geographically than Kansas and several other States as well.

You know, it is important that we talk about this important issue, and I really appreciate the work that he does, and I appreciate serving with him on the Ways and Means Committee on so many of the important issues that we have to address for our country.

Madam Speaker, tonight, as many Americans put their kids to bed, they are checking their schedules for the next day and doing a quick review of the bank accounts. They are deeply concerned about how they are going to be able to live with the crushing price increases in Joe Biden's America.

We are talking a lot about the debt tonight. We are talking about, you know, how do you afford to make your payments on the issues that you have to address today? But also, how do you have to plan for the future, knowing how that debt is going to weigh down on people, weigh down on Americans, weigh down on them as individuals, but also weigh down on their kids and grandkids?

You know, there is a lot of noise that happens in this bubble we call Washington, D.C., but everyday Americans have the same top concerns about the economy and rising prices.

In fact, it has been a top concern for months now. Even last year during a townhall in October, 98 percent of the respondents said that they had seen an increase in the cost of regular necessities.

Last week, I had an opportunity to speak with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen about why it is taking the administration so long to recognize inflation as a problem. She complained about other challenges the Biden administration faced in January of 2021.

Let's look at what really has happened over the last 18 months. When President Biden took office, he was met with a growing economy that was already recovering from a global pandemic. We were already seeing the debt being addressed and starting to work in that direction.

The COVID vaccine that had been developed from Operation Warp Speed was being distributed around the world, as well as throughout the United States. We were actually starting to see inflation stabilized at a mere 1.4 percent, and filling up your gas tank only cost $2.39, thanks to American energy independence.

Despite all the pandemic-related challenges that Americans have gone through over the past year; consumer sentiment was relatively high at 79. But after a year of total Democrat control in the city, Americans no longer have a positive outlook on the economy.

Our economy shrank in the first quarter. Americans are paying more for everything they buy on a regular basis. Gas has skyrocketed to an average above $5 per gallon, and consumer sentiment has dropped to a record low of 50.2. It is bad news for our country.

Joe Biden and the Democrat policies are taking away the prosperity and the American Dream from families and small businesses across the country.

You know, on Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released a staggering higher-than-expected inflation rate of 8.6 percent, but that is the year-over-year number. It really doesn't show the impact of inflation that has come up during the Biden administration, what a lot of people are calling Bidenflation.

If we go back to January of 2021 when President Biden took office, we can see that month-over-month inflation is actually up a cumulative 11.4 percent. Think about that. If you bought something in January of 2021, it now costs 11.4 percent more than it did.

That is a marketplace average. Some products have been a whole lot higher than that. You see it in gas. You see it in meat, bacon, and milk.

Now, what does that mean for the average American? We are looking at, for the average American household, an additional $635 in monthly costs. As you can see, prices have continued to climb for American families each month, meaning that on average, each household has already paid an additional $5,000 for these failed policies under the Biden administration. Even if inflation stays the same, households will pay an additional $7,620 over the next 12 months.

My Republican colleagues and I understand how devastating this is for Americans. We warned for months that kneecapping American energy production, while flooding the economy with Federal dollars and deficit spending, would create runaway inflation, as it has.

Today, right now, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle could ease the burden on families by encouraging American energy production and stopping their pursuit of Big Government spending sprees. We would have a stronger economy and a stronger America through energy independence, an ability to balance the Federal budget, and a smaller government.

These are the keys that will reverse course on a disastrous economy, and I would encourage my colleagues in the majority to disband this far left, extreme agenda to face the crisis they have created.

As we have talked about tonight, the debt continues to increase, and we need to focus on that. We need to focus on lowering the amount of ``free stuff'' that comes out of the United States Government and focus on what we need to do to help everyday Americans with the things that they go through and things that they have to deal with, their families and their small businesses.

Again, I would like to close in thanking my friend, Jodey Arrington, for hosting this so that we can talk about, you know, the fiscal state of the country and what the problems are that we have to address going forward.

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