Reverse the Curse: Restoring Fiscal Responsibility
Floor Speech
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Mr. ARRINGTON. Madam Speaker, tonight we are going to talk about a subject that gets too little attention in this Chamber and too little debate and consideration among lawmakers. Yet the storm clouds are gathering, and an epic crisis looms large over the future of our great Nation. Our mountainous and unsustainable national debt is the most significant, in my opinion, long-term threat to our economic prosperity as well as our national security. We have sown the wind of fiscal irresponsibility, and our children will reap the whirlwind of economic calamity. We will rob generations of Americans of the freedoms and the opportunities that we have enjoyed and have been so blessed with.
Madam Speaker, we all take an oath, but there is an unwritten covenant between lawmakers today and our Founding Fathers and our future generations of Americans, and that unwritten sacred promise that all American leaders have subscribed to is to leave this Nation better than we found it.
I believe the question is still hanging out there. The jury is still out on whether our Nation's leaders today in this generation are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to take on what I believe is the greatest challenge of the 21st century, and that is this unsustainable, unconscionable, and even immoral fiscal path that we are on. It is a collision course with a disastrous future.
We have to do something. We have all the reforms and policy solutions. But what we don't have and what I have not seen in now 6 years in this Chamber is the collective political will to do something about it. It is very simple.
Madam Speaker, I am honored to be joined by fellow lawmakers who I know share these sentiments. One such man hails from Ohio's Sixth District. He is a dear friend, he is a patriot, and he is a veteran. He has served on the Budget Committee. He is the co-chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus, a task force on addressing our broken budgetary processes and getting our arms around the debt and reining this in.
Madam Speaker, I am so glad he has joined us tonight. I yield to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Johnson).
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Mr. ARRINGTON. Madam Speaker, I thank my dear friend from Ohio and echo his sentiments. We must get our fiscal house in order.
It is shameful. I would say, a case in point, to the cries from our citizens, citizens who say that this body and politicians in both Chambers, in Washington, play by a different set of rules. Do you know what? They are right. There is no further you have to look than at our budget and appropriations process.
We haven't had a budget in the last 4 years under the leadership of our Democrat colleagues, but quite frankly, both parties have been guilty. I think, over the last 50 years, we have only gone through regular order and passed a budget in all 12 appropriations and run the people's House the way our States and local governments and our families run their fiscal affairs.
They don't get to waive pay-fors. They don't get to borrow infinitum.
This place is so broken, and it is going to catch up to us. You don't feel the pain until you feel the pain.
When the dominoes fall, you cannot borrow and spend your way out of that situation and that particular crisis, like we have seen with COVID and others prior to it.
We have a champion for this issue, fiscal responsibility, restoring that in our own Conference as well as the broader United States Congress, a fellow Texan, a man who I am proud to serve with from Texas' 21st District, and a member of the House Judiciary Committee and Veterans' Affairs Committee.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy).
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Mr. ARRINGTON. Madam Speaker, I say a hearty amen to my fellow Texan who has put his money where his mouth is. Certainly, he has put the votes of his constituents where his mouth is and has taken a stand.
It is not fun to be voting against things that have these wonderful titles that are going to do these grandiose things for the country. But the question is, who is going to pay for it?
I don't even call the $30 trillion of debt ``debt.'' I call it what Tom McClintock once mentioned in a budget hearing. It is a deferred tax on our children. It is so easy for us to pass these bills and not consider the incalculable cumulative cost.
But there will be a payday someday. As James Madison said, ``A public debt is a public curse.'' We are not blessing our children. We are not giving them the benefit of the quality of life that we have known as Americans second to no other nation and society in the world and in the history of the world. Yet, to do nothing and to keep this runaway freight train of fiscal irresponsibility running off the cliff is to curse them. Indeed, it is to curse them, as James Madison said.
Another friend and colleague and a new Member of Congress, but not new to public service, is Peter Meijer from Michigan's Third District. He serves on the Committee on Homeland Security and the Committee on Foreign Affairs. We appreciate his deep concerns and convictions on this issue facing our country.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Meijer).
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Mr. ARRINGTON. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Michigan, my friend, for his comments. I am, again, proud to serve with him, and he brings such reason and common sense. He is right to say that it is not a partisan issue and that the debt and those things that have led to this massive $30 trillion, over 120 percent of the size of our entire economy, exceeding World War II with our entire debt--and by the way, in peacetime. He is right.
We have to have an honest conversation with ourselves before we have an honest conversation with the American people, and both parties have contributed to this mess. Until we decide to accept that and take ownership of it, we will never lead us to the path of restoring that responsibility, that good footing, and the prospects of having saved this country and our children and grandchildren from the disastrous, calamitous future if we don't. I appreciate his approach to it.
We are reaching out to our colleagues, our Democrat colleagues, to fix some of these broken systems, the perverse incentives that let us get away with this reckless and irresponsible process that we call budget and appropriations. Nowhere else in the world can you do what we do.
But the results are indisputable. You get a broken process, a dysfunctional system like we have, and you are going to get broken outcomes.
Look no further than the debt clock, and look no further than CBO's 10-year forecast: $16 trillion more over the next 10 years of just the public debt. It went from almost a trillion in annual deficits leading up to COVID, and now the average will be $1.6 trillion in annual deficits over the next 10 years, leading up to 2032, where we will have $2.3 trillion in annual deficits. The interest we pay on the debt just to service them, think about this.
We will spend more to service the debt to pay the interest, which you get nothing for. You get no infrastructure. You don't get a farm bill with strengthening of the food supply. You don't get a better or bigger army to put on the field against the threats around the globe.
We will see a tripling of the interest payments that will exceed in 10 years, cumulative, over $8 trillion, but the annual amount will exceed what we spend on national defense. We get nothing for this interest. It is the largest growing mandatory spending item in the budget.
Woe to the country if we don't take a hard look in the mirror and if we don't decide to muster the political courage to take this on for the sake of our kids and for the sake of our country.
Now, one of my closest friends in Congress who claims to come from a State that does more agriculture than the Lone Star State, which already discredits him from the outset, but I don't want to see the numbers because I would be afraid if he were right. I would be afraid to go back to Texas. We are just going to say Texas is bigger in every way, including ag production.
He is a Ways and Means Committee member, and this guy, he is passionate about our debt, our deficits, and getting our fiscal house in order. He is going to be helping lead the charge in the 118th Congress when the people, I pray, give our conference, Republicans, a chance to prove that we are serious on this: Ron Estes from the great State of Kansas.
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Mr. ARRINGTON. Madam Speaker, I couldn't be more proud to serve alongside of Ron Estes. The people of Kansas are well served, letting him be their voice in the people's House.
You mentioned the disastrous economic plan and policies of this administration. It is hard to believe what you didn't mention that this President and our colleagues on the other side of the aisle somehow think that the largest tax-and-spend bill is the solution. More spending. More spending. More flooding the market with Federal moneys. More expansion of welfare without work.
We all want to take care of those folks who are working hard and still struggling. But, for example, the refundable tax credit, child tax credit, where we would be paying thousands of dollars per child, per person, with no requirement to work, to contribute, to have ownership in this society, it is reckless.
And, quite frankly, it is heartless because those policies trap people in poverty. They don't lift them out. They trap them in a life of dependency on the government.
We want Americans to be the very best that God has created them to be and have the best quality of life and a chance for a better life for their families. I thank my friend from Kansas.
I am reminded of some great warnings from our wise Founders. Ben Franklin said, `` . . . when you run into debt; you give another power over your liberty.'' We are talking about robbing our children of their freedom, not just their economic opportunity and future prosperity.
Thomas Jefferson said, ``To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.'' Warning after warning.
One of my favorites, our great father of this country, our first President, Commander in Chief George Washington, in his farewell address--think about it, penning a relatively short set of remarks, not only for those of his time, but for posterity, for future leaders of the greatest country in the world.
He gave three major warnings. He said: Be careful of foreign influence, be careful of the factions that will divide you within our own country, weakening our bonds of unity, as I stand under the ``e pluribus unum'' motto, out of many one, that unifying spirit that made this country exceptional.
But he warned about fiscal irresponsibility, and just to paraphrase, he said: We must avoid the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts, which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden, which we ourselves ought to bear.
I mean, we are ungenerously throwing upon posterity a burden of debt that we are not willing to bear. We are not willing to take the tough votes and pay for this and reduce our debt and deficit spending and give the next generation a chance, a fighting chance to have what we have had in this great country.
I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Cloud), another freedom- fighting Texan who serves the coastal communities in the Lone Star State, Oversight and Reform Committee member and proud Texan, the lone Texan on the Agriculture Committee. I have tremendous respect for him and his love for freedom, his love for the Lord, and his love for the people of this great country, from Texas' 27th District.
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Mr. ARRINGTON. Madam Speaker, wow, I have to really hold back here because I have other colleagues that have important things to say, but when I listen to my friend Michael Cloud, I am inspired because he is a man driven by conviction. I have watched him, and I admire his drive for truth, his seeking out what is best for the country. That is his measuring stick.
In an institution full of so much baloney and so many, pardon me, partisan hacks, it is nice to have somebody that just says, I want to do right by the Constitution, my constituents, and my kids. And that is what drives Michael Cloud. I am proud to serve with Representative Cloud. I thank him for joining us for this discussion.
We have another Kansan. I think we have had three Texans and two Kansans, so we are still winning, we are still up one. Tracey Mann is a new Member of Congress but not new to public service. He has led his great State as Lieutenant Governor.
Now, he might boast more wheat and sorghum there in his district, but he will never be able to produce more cotton than Texas 19. I love that he is a champion for our producers, our ag producers, and I love that he is equally concerned about making sure we live within our means, we rein in our spending, and we reduce our national debt and get back to the fiscal footing that we all have confidence will be a gift, not a curse, and that we will, in fact, reverse the curse.
We are going to get a chance in the next term. God willing, I think the people are going to give us the chance to lead. And lead we must, which will require courage, and I know you have it.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Mann), from the First District of Kansas.
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Mr. ARRINGTON. Madam Speaker, I thank Representative Mann for bringing up the stepped-up basis repeal. Republicans didn't get a vote in this largest tax-and-spending bill that was called Build Back Better, that some have not so affectionately referred to as build back broke. Really, it adds, even according to CBO, trillions of dollars in new debt.
Worst of all, the Democrats negotiated some of these provisions out before they passed it out of the House. One of them was the repeal of the stepped-up basis. Then, this President puts it back in the ``Green Book'' and says to the American farmers and ranchers, who put food on the table and give us food security, which is national security--we talk about energy independence; you wait until the pain is felt by the food shortage, a whole other level of concern when it comes to supply chain. Less than 1 percent, a fraction of a percent, we spend as a nation to have ag independence and have a stable ag economy through farm policies and a farm bill. This stepped-up basis, as I told Secretary Yellen, would create the largest fire sale of farm assets in the history of our country.
Farmers are cash poor. If the next generation of farmers inherits a death tax, after paying taxes out the wazoo on every level--income, sales, franchise, you name it, they have paid it. It is an unfair, un- American double tax, and they don't have the cash for it. It amounts to selling off the family farm because the vast majority will be forced to do that to pay more taxes.
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Mr. ARRINGTON. Amen.
Madam Speaker, I thank Representative Mann for his contributions to this important conversation with the American people.
I am proud to have also met and befriended a gentleman from the great State of Utah. The first time we met, I talked about this bipartisan effort to get at the root causes of this broken budget process and reach across the aisle and simply force us, through the right incentives, to be responsible stewards, to get budgets out on time with budget outcomes that would reduce the debt. I remember that Representative Moore lit up at that dinner meeting and said: Sign me up.
Ever since then, he has been on a mission. He has worked with his constituents, put a task force together. He is prepared, as he looks at joining the Ways and Means Committee, which, by the way, when you look at 70 percent of our budget on auto-spend--that is, entitlement, mandatory programs. The vast majority of those, certainly the big drivers of our debt, are under the auspices and the authority and jurisdiction of the Ways and Means Committee. I will heartily welcome him to the team in that regard. I appreciate his passion for this issue.
Again, we will get an opportunity to serve and lead and govern, and we are going to need people like him to not only sound the alarm but assemble the team of people, the coalition of the willing, on both sides of the aisle, to do the right thing by the American people.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Moore), who represents Utah's First District.
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Mr. ARRINGTON. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Moore), beating the drum and sounding the alarm is a big part of it. I think at some point it is hard to calculate and get your mind around the trillions of dollars that are amassing.
We have added $7 trillion in additional debt since COVID alone. And what happens, I believe, is when you do that and there is no consequence, there is no trade-off, we are not hitting them in the pocketbook saying, we need more of your hard-earned dollars to pay for this stuff, and we are not cutting the favorite programs of our fellow Americans, so there is no pain.
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Mr. ARRINGTON. Moral hazard. We are sleepwalking off the cliff. The problem with this crisis is, as I said, when Humpty Dumpty falls and shatters it is going to be difficult to put him and the exceptional nature and the superpower leadership of this great country back together. There is just not a lot of time and heads up and warning before you go over the precipice.
It is incumbent on us, as young fathers and young family men, to be able to take this on head-on with the courage that our Founders had who gave birth to this great country.
Madam Speaker, I hear you rattling the gavel, so God bless America, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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