Concern for Our Country
Floor Speech
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Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I am here tonight, concerned about our country, and I am concerned about our willingness as Members of Congress to meet the moment, to stand in the gap, to validate the hope placed in us as the Republican majority, to stand in the gap and to meet the moment to deal with the great crisis, the threats facing our country.
I will begin by mentioning our national debt. The days of spending without consequence are over. We have 40-year-high inflation as a result of unprecedented, excessive, reckless spending. We are on track this year for a $2.5 trillion deficit. We are running a monthly deficit of about $200 billion a month.
We are suffering the consequences with 40-year high inflation and grocery prices where Thanksgiving dinner costs 40 percent more than it did when this President was sworn in 3 years ago. Gas prices are up, utility prices are up, housing prices are up, rent prices are up, and then you have got interest rates.
The American people are suffering further under 20-year high interest rates, interest rates that have been increased by the Fed in a futile attempt to try to combat inflation. Historically, you raise interest rates because you have a hot economy and you are trying to ward off inflation. In this case, the inflation has been caused by the unprecedented levels of spending, and then we have further exacerbated this, this administration, this Federal Reserve under this President, with interest rates that have put home prices out of reach for most Americans.
Now, we have got our credit being downgraded. Two credit rating agencies have downgraded our debt, which will further cause interest rates to go up and payments on our national debt to increase even more.
The snowball effect of $34 trillion in debt, record interest rates, a $200 billion monthly deficit, is taking its toll. With each passing day that we fail to deal with the greatest fiscal crisis in the history of the country, we deepen the pain and the suffering that is put upon the American people not only just today but in the future.
Meanwhile, how do we see Congress responding? Do we see a commitment here in this House to cut our spending, to deal with our discretionary spending, as we call it? Every dollar we spend in this House and in the Chamber next door, every dollar we spend for discretionary spending, everything that we vote on in spending, is borrowed. The total this year of discretionary spending is somewhere around $1.7 trillion. Again, with a $200 billion monthly deficit and $2.5 trillion worth of deficit for the 12-month period, all of the discretionary spending is essentially borrowed.
Are we going to meet the moment? Are we going to rise to the occasion as a Republican majority?
If not now, when?
When will we take this seriously? When will we be willing to do what the American people elected us to do?
If not now, when? If not us, who?
I am pleased to have with me my good friend, the courageous fiscal warrior from Arizona, Mr. Andy Biggs, and I would like to hear his thoughts on this national debt subject.
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Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate his bringing up the supplemental, because I want to give Speaker Johnson credit for what he did with that House supplemental.
The supplemental, the $106 billion package that was proposed by the President and the Senate majority leader of the Democrat-controlled Senate, represents everything that is wrong with Washington.
To the point, we are running a $200 billion deficit, and yet we have a supplemental, which again, as he said, means we don't pay for it. We add it on; we tack it on; we borrow more; let's borrow $106 billion. Virtually everyone in Congress, I think--certainly all Republicans and most Democrats--want to support one of our true allies on the global stage--one of our, I would submit, two or three allies at a minimum-- Israel, through the brutal terrorist attack by Hamas. We want to come to the aid of our friend and our genuine ally Israel and give them the help that they need, but Israel doesn't have $34 trillion in national debt. Israel is not running a $200 billion deficit. Israel is fiscally solvent. We are not. Even for something so worthy as this cause, we have a responsibility to pay for it, if we can, and we can.
Therefore, Speaker Johnson met the moment and said let's pay for it by taking some of the $80 billion that was allocated for the 87,000 IRS hirings in the inflation increase act last summer, let's cut $14 billion from there to pay for the $14 billion for Israel, and it passed on a bipartisan basis in this Chamber. Twelve Democrats voted for it.
Honestly, I thought, you know what? We are plowing new ground in the House. We are separating the Israel aid. We are not doing again that which is represented by what we typically do here in Washington, which is all that is wrong with Washington. We say, we are going to hijack or hold hostage our desire to support Israel. We can't give them that $14 billion unless you also give them the $92 billion that has nothing to do with Israel: $60 billion for Ukraine, as was said, humanitarian support for Hamas, and more money for Mayorkas to process illegals in the country more quickly and more deceptively, another ill-defined, disastrous humanitarian system. We are going to hold hostage $14 billion for Israel with the $92 billion we have got to choke down.
I thought when Speaker Johnson and this Republican majority rose to the occasion with the support of 12 Democrats, who courageously crossed the aisle and did the right thing, that the Senate would have to take it up, that they wouldn't hold up support for Israel on a bipartisan bill just because it was paid for and just because it was going to cut by $14 billion the $80 billion IRS expansion and just because it didn't include the $92 billion that didn't have anything to do with Israel.
I know my colleague joined me in calling upon the Speaker and calling upon our Republican majority to stand with our Speaker. He needs to know we have his back and we stand with him. We have passed Israel support out of this House. We are requiring it to be paid for because that is the responsible thing for our kids and our grandkids and for the American people. We are not going to take up any other supplemental that has support for Israel, and every supplemental must be paid for.
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Mr. GOOD of Virginia. That you were responsible in helping to craft that bill--you and our friend Chip Roy.
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Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Just in Portland?
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Mr. GOOD of Virginia. I want to go back to what you were talking about in the supplemental, actually on the spending, as well as on the FISA reforms.
This is a town of power and persuasion of leverage. I'm not sure we effectively know how to use leverage when we have it. We are a town that does things--a body that only does things when we have to, when there is a deadline and when there is the pressure.
You talked about relieving the pressure on the FISA reforms because of the approaching deadline, the expiration of the current authorization. Why would we be so fearful of that expiration to the extent that we are unwilling to force upon the Senate the reforms that we are trying to pass out of the Judiciary Committee? The Judiciary Committee voted 35-2 on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis that would pass this body if we put it on the floor today.
The Senate apparently isn't so worried about the expiration that we think they will take up our bill and pass it. There we would relieve the pressure to reform FISA so it doesn't expire.
You can apply that to the debt situation. We did another continuing resolution where we extended the Biden, Pelosi, and Schumer policies and spending levels into mid-January and early February with the promise that we work on passing our remaining five bills.
I am sorry to say and disappointed to acknowledge, we have not had any demonstrated effort to bring those remaining five bills to the floor. We don't have the commitment to the top line total programmatic spending levels. Our commitment to cut spending, no matter how modest, to cut spending from a year ago. This is something Congress hasn't done--you know your history better than I do--in how many years, where they cut the spending year over year.
We relieve the pressure. And then instead of trying to work during the time that we have to pass these spending bills, we are not doing it as we approach January 19. I expect this body is going to go home next week and not report for nearly a month to work on the spending bills that, in theory, we are supposed to pass before January 19's expiration, this continuing resolution.
Where is our unified commitment?
We talk a lot about unity here. Unity requires a unified mission, a unified purpose, and a unified vision to accomplish what?
We could point to so many existential crises created by our friends on the other side, the Democratic majority when they had control, the Senate majority, and the White House. I think you might agree, the two most pressing are the two we mentioned tonight: the border and the spending.
What, in the words of one of my favorite movies, ``The Untouchables,'' Sean Connery saying, ``What are you prepared to do?''
What are we prepared to do to force a lawless administration to secure the border?
What are we prepared to do to deal with the unprecedented level of spending that is literally crushing us, creating the greatest fiscal crisis the country has every faced?
What are we prepared to do as a Republican majority to come together in a unified manner?
Why would we continue to fund our fiscal demise?
Why would we continue to fund an open border?
You know the border issue better than anybody. Some 8 million plus were helped across this border by this administration and this President's policies. Helped across.
There would be irreparable harm done if we secured the border today. There are some 2 million known got-aways. These are the ones who don't want all the free stuff and don't surrender to Border Patrol under the policies of this administration for free travel, free housing, free social services, free education, free--just about everything--benefits that the American people don't get as citizens.
These are the ones who don't surrender for that because they have criminal backgrounds and terrorist ties. We find 100 a year, the dumb terrorists who Border Patrol apprehends. There are 100 a year with terrorist ties. How many are among the 2 million?
If we sealed the border today, only time will tell on what scale the American people will suffer catastrophic harm because of this President's policies--far beyond what we have seen across the ocean with our friends in Israel. What are we prepared to do?
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Mr. GOOD of Virginia. I thought you might.
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Mr. GOOD of Virginia. You cannot overstate the harm being done and the damage to our country by this border invasion. It is a border invasion. As we have had hearings on this issue in the Budget Committee or in the Education and the Workforce Committee, my friends across the aisle don't like that I call it a border invasion.
Mind you, they don't care about the border invasion. They just don't like me to call it a border invasion. This is on purpose. This is intentional. Every resource and every effort directed to the border over these past 3 years from this administration has been with the intent to get as many illegals, as quickly as possible and as successfully as possible, into the country.
To your point, why would we continue to fund and give billions of dollars a month--hundreds of billions of dollars a month to a lawless administration that is perpetrating this kind of harm on the country?
I would submit that never in the history of the country has our own President done more to intentionally harm the United States than what is happening with this border.
I will say it again. Never in the history of the country has our own President done more to intentionally harm the United States than what this President has done with the border. Give me an example of something that comes close.
The American people are counting on us. They gave us the majority a year ago because we ran on fiscal responsibility. We have not met that responsibility. We ran on securing the border, yet we continue to maintain the spending levels and policies with continuing resolutions and extensions that don't deliver for the American people.
They are trusting us, and they are putting their faith in us to stand in the gap to be that one barrier to the policies under which they are suffering and that are destroying the America that we know and love.
I am proud to serve with the gentleman from Arizona and many of my colleagues here in Congress who are ready to do what needs to be done, to make the tough choices, to cast the tough votes, and to honor the trust and faith that the American people placed in us.
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