Republican Study Committee's Blueprint to Save America

Floor Speech

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Mr. MOORE of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Hern for organizing this Special Order tonight and for his leadership on the Republican Study Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I frequently reach out to my constituents and conduct polling, if you will, on what are the issues that matter most to them. And at the top of the list, every single time, is debt and deficit. It is constantly debt and deficit. I know that is on the minds of many Americans, but particularly in Utah, where we are so fiscally smart that we have a balanced budget, and we have a rainy day fund. We are still the most philanthropic State in volunteer time and dollars than anywhere else in the Nation. But we care so deeply about being smart fiscally that what I ultimately take from this, and as I look back on the last 20 or so years of our inability to do this, Americans need confidence that their Congress, that their government can actually do something practical and reasonable. And that is what we have here in front of us, is a plan.

Americans need to know that there is a plan to be able to inject fiscal responsibility again into what they have not seen for too long.

Like everywhere in the Nation, Utah families are burdened with painfully inflated prices at the gas pump, grocery store, and more. The average American household is paying hundreds more than they would for the same goods that they purchased just a year ago.

Despite repeated Republican warnings of excessive Federal spending and what it would do to our economy, Democrats have continued to vote for massive spending bills. As a father to four young boys, I know we must provide for the next generation a more stable economic outlook for their financial success. It is why I ran for Congress.

However, achieving a balanced budget after over 20 years of consistent deficit spending is a very tall task. And when I decided to run for Congress and I made this a key part of my platform, I knew it was going to be a very tall task.

On top of increasing Medicare and Social Security spending, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that over the next 10 years interest costs will total $8.1 trillion. The longer we don't address this issue, the larger the hill we must climb. Even so, leaders from both parties have historically come to the table to build solutions, and we must rise to the occasion.

The Republican Study Committee has worked dutifully to chart our path forward. This plan is outlined in the Blueprint to Save America. This roadmap provides a fiscally sound path to balancing our budget in 7 years, protecting our border, bolstering our Nation's defense, expanding workforce opportunities, making the successful Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent, and so much more.

This budget is--in the words of Congressman Hern--for all Americans. All Americans--not just Republicans--need a balanced budget. This issue matters to Utahns, which is why I convened a debt and deficit task force in my own district to get their input and have spent countless hours as I have worked with my colleagues to know what exactly we can do going forward.

We must be committed to reversing our economic policies that are hurting Americans and get us on the right track.

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