Our National Debt, Our Spending, and Our Deficit

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, that won't take very long.

I thank my good friend from Colorado, Mr. Buck, for his leadership on this Special Order on this critical issue tonight.

One of the key responsibilities, if not the number one responsibility, of the House of Representatives is to protect the fiscal and economic health of the country and the government, at least our ability to meet our obligations, our ability to fund our priorities, our ability to borrow when necessary--not to the degree that we do today--in times of crisis.

I want to make a couple of key points, if I may. Before the pandemic hit, before the China virus reached our shores, our annual spending was about $4.4 trillion. Spending this year is projected to be about $6.2 trillion, so an increase of $1.8 trillion, or about 40 percent, over 4 years.

The most ambitious of the somewhat serious proposals in this majority Conference to deal with the spending or to cut spending this year in this Congress is to cut about $130 billion. That is the most ambitious of what I would say is serious that is getting any traction in this Congress--in other words, to cut from a projected $1.6 trillion of nonmandatory, discretionary spending to $1.47 trillion.

Think about that $130 billion, which is the ambitious plan. That is the stretch goal. It represents less than 10 percent of the increase in spending from pre-COVID to today over 4 years.

We have grown our spending in the discretionary spending by $1.8 trillion in 4 years, and yet we are only projecting to cut it or even suggesting to cut it by $130 billion.

Said another way, we are on track to have a deficit this year of somewhere between $1.5 trillion and $2 trillion. Revenues are down, spending is up. Again, the most ambitious, the stretch goal of the somewhat serious plans in this Congress is to cut spending by $130 billion. Less than 10 percent of the projected deficit.

If we got through the $1.47, we would retain 90 percent of the projected deficit this year. In addition to it crushing us from a fiscal future standpoint, it is unsustainable. As you know better than I, we are on track to hit some $53 trillion in national debt in 10 years, if we don't have any new emergency exceptional special spending, but just on the current track--unsustainable.

Our friend from Arizona (Mr. Schweikert) talked about the interest on the debt and how that is growing, and it is just unsustainable. Even in the immediacy, the American people are getting crushed today by this spending.

The massive inflation we haven't seen in 40 years, a diminishing purchasing power by some 15-16 percent on average over the last 2 years. In other words, $1,000 2 years ago is worth $850 today. It is even worse in the essentials. Groceries are up much higher. Everybody needs to buy groceries. Utility costs are much higher. Energy costs in terms of gasoline at the pump, which is probably the biggest factor that impacts senior citizens, low-income, fixed-income, middle-income Americans, or anybody else. Housing costs are through the roof.

We have inflation crushing the American people. How have we responded to the inflationary costs?

We are crushing them with the massive increase in interest rates historically utilized to combat a hot economy to try to head off inflation, to cool the economy--that is the theory. I never really agreed with that theory, but that is the theory.

Instead, what we are doing, we caused the inflation, not from a hot economy, but we caused the inflation from the massive spending. What we are doing is this futile attempt to combat inflation by raising interest rates. We went from an average mortgage rate being about 3 percent a year ago to now 7 percent. That extra 4 percent--figure an average mortgage is $300,000 in today's prices. So, 4 percent of $300,000 is $12,000, divide that by monthly. The average mortgage is $1,000 a month more than it was a year ago. That doesn't even account for the higher costs in housing, utility costs, and the grocery costs. All of that is primarily a result of the massive spending that is just crushing the American people. It is crushing their purchasing power. It is crushing their ability for their kids or their grandkids to make a start, buy a home, establish themselves in their young career. It is a result of the disastrous policies by this administration.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Buck for his leadership on this all important issue and keeping the attention where it belongs.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. No tough ones.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, we work for the American people, the GAO works for us, and by extension the American people. So 77,000 buildings approximately, as you mentioned, it costs a couple billion dollars a year to sustain those buildings, the maintenance of those buildings, operate those buildings, maintain them, staff them, whatever it might be.

What about the value of the 77,000 buildings?

Why wouldn't we sell those buildings and realize the revenue to the Treasury?

Not just the $2 billion a year of not having to maintain those buildings. Let's just say that the average value of that building is $100,000. Let's be real conservative, let's say it is a million dollars--77,000. What is that?

That is $77 billion worth of assets if the average building was worth a million dollars. If it is only worth $100,000 on average, that is $7.7 billion. That would be not much more than a rounding error, the way that we spend money in the trillions here. When you take that over time, it ends up to be a few billion here, a few billion there, and before long you are talking about real money.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source