Reverse the Curse: Restoring Fiscal Responsibility

Floor Speech

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Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding.

This is such a huge problem. There are so many different paths we could go down with this discussion. It is so big of a crisis that it is almost impossible to get it all articulated well within one Special Order series.

Madam Speaker, late last month, the CBO released its ``May 2022 Budget and Economic Outlook.'' This is the first time the CBO has produced a baseline that properly incorporates the runaway, destructive inflation that is ripping through our economy today.

According to the CBO report, inflation is not going anywhere anytime soon except up. This is a dramatic change from the insistence of the President, the Treasury Secretary, and my Democrat colleagues that inflation is merely transitory and is nothing to worry about.

They are, in fact, so out of touch that they have begun to change their narrative. They now claim that Americans are financially prepared--get this--financially prepared to weather $5 a gallon gasoline, skyrocketing energy costs, and grocery prices that would have been unthinkable just 18 months ago.

Now, I am not sure what Americans they are talking to, but they are not talking to Americans who live in Appalachia where I live--seniors who live on fixed incomes and others who struggle to make ends meet in this high inflationary period. But inflation is not just a sticker- shock sensation. It will have ripple effects throughout the economy. Debt will continue to rise to 110 percent of GDP over the next decade.

Don't be fooled by President Biden's propaganda claiming victory on debt reduction either. CBO projects that deficits will be $2.4 trillion larger over the next 10 years. The more President Biden continues to pour gasoline on the inflation fire with his failed policies, the more that number is going to keep growing.

Madam Speaker, we must get our fiscal house in order. The American people have to live by a budget, and the American government should live by a budget, too. The United States does not have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem. And the first step in fixing this problem is to fix our broken budget process.

That is why I am proud to be a cosponsor of H.R. 2575, the TRUST Act, to establish special rescue committees to begin developing recommendations and legislation to protect and ensure the longevity of Social Security and Medicare. These are some of the country's main drivers of our debt. They are mandatory spending programs that are absolutely out of control. Doing nothing about it is not an option.

I am also, as was mentioned, the co-lead on a bipartisan debt and deficit working group as a member of the Problem Solvers Caucus, and I am willing to work with anyone, Republican or Democrat, to find real solutions to ensure Medicare and Social Security are around for our children and our grandchildren to benefit from in the years to come.

Madam Speaker, this is a big problem. I look forward to hearing what my colleagues have to say tonight. We need bold ideas to address the fiscal crisis that looms in front of us.

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