Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

The motion was agreed to; accordingly (at 6 o'clock and 47 minutes p.m.), under its previous order, the

House adjourned until Friday, June 9, 2023, at 9 a.m.

Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Speaker, I rise, along with Ranking Member Boyle, to recognize and honor Theresa Gullo on her retirement after 38 years of service to the Congress and the nation at the Congressional Budget Office.

Through her leadership, hard work, and analytical skill, Teri's enormous contributions to CBO have greatly benefitted the Congress and the American people. After starting her career as a CBO intern and then completing her graduate degree, Teri joined the agency in 1985 as an analyst in the Natural and Physical Resources Cost Estimates Unit of the Budget Analysis Division. Ten years later, she was the founding chief of CBO's State and Local Government Cost Estimates Unit, which she built up from scratch and led in the formulation of the principles and procedures that today underlie CBO's analyses of public- and private-sector legislative mandates. She subsequently was promoted to Deputy Assistant Director for Budget Analysis and, in 2015, became the Director of CBO's Budget Analysis Division, a position in which she has supervised the work of one-third of CBO's staff.

In that capacity, Teri has played a key role--often seven days a week--in facilitating CBO's response to the challenges posed by major reconciliation legislation, the coronavirus pandemic, and rapidly evolving legislative developments. She has overseen the careful preparation of thousands of cost estimates for legislation considered by the Congress and the fulfillment of several thousand requests each year for technical information to help committees craft legislation. She has led CBO's development of multiyear projections of federal spending and its annual analyses of the President's budget request and she has coordinated CBO's scorekeeping activities for legislation considered by appropriations and authorizing committees. Teri also has played a crucial role in enhancing Congressional understanding of CBO and its work. She has worked tirelessly to identify the most effective ways for the agency to provide and clearly explain timely analysis to the Congress.

All of those accomplishments point to Teri's deep commitment to providing high-quality, objective, nonpartisan information to support the work of the Congress.

Teri also has used her considerable skills to help many others develop professionally. She has mentored numerous public servants who have become leaders at CBO, in federal and state agencies, and in the private sector. Within CBO she is respected as a manager who is honest, collaborative, compassionate, and curious. Her colleagues understand her willingness to carefully consider diverse viewpoints and opinions, so that even when a decision is different from the one they might have preferred, members of her staff always have felt heard and valued. Teri has demonstrated how to embrace change and to view new challenges as opportunities to accomplish goals in new ways.

Teri's achievements have been recognized by many, including the American Association for Budget and Program Analysis and the National Academy of Public Administration. The people she has guided and mentored throughout her career serve as her lasting legacy to CBO and the broader federal budget community.

We thank Teri for her dedicated and skillful work for the American people and wish her well in retirement.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and celebrate the anniversary of a west Texas treasure. 100 years ago today, Governor Pat Neff signed senate bill 103 that created what would become my proud alma mater: Texas Tech University.

Today, Texas Tech's student population consists of 40,000 of the best and brightest young men and women from around the country and the world.

I love Texas Tech and everything it represents. Our first president Paul Horn said it best: ``Everything that is done on these West Texas Plains ought to be on a big scale. . . . Let our thoughts be big thoughts and broad thoughts. Let our thinking be in worldwide terms.''

Texas Tech has embodied that vision. Its students and alumni have lived up to that calling for an entire century. I am so proud to bear our banner far and wide.

On behalf of Red Raider Nation, as we strive for honor ever more, happy 100th birthday to Texas Tech. Wreck `em, get your guns up, and God bless west Texas.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Wisconsin, my fellow Budget Committee member, for his passion to save this country from a sovereign debt crisis and protect our Nation's next generation from reaping the whirlwind of this reckless spending and unsustainable debt path that we are on.

We must fight for the future of our country. All the things that are talked about in this great Chamber, all the great ideas, and all the threats that are posed to this country of ours and its future will all be undermined and jeopardized because we will have failed to simply steward the taxpayers' resources and our children's future.

I thank the gentleman for his leadership and his passion.

Celebrating the Life of General Bernhard Mittemeyer

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the life of a true American hero and a very dear friend, General Bernhard Mittemeyer, who passed away this January after 92 rich, full, extraordinary years. He was a first-generation immigrant from South America who really lived the American Dream.

After 28 years in the military, he rose to the rank of general. He served as surgeon general of the Army under President Reagan, and he received a number of awards and recognitions, including the Distinguished Flying Cross, which is the highest peacetime award in the military.

I worked with him at Texas Tech, where he was a physician. He was the dean of the medical school, and he was the president of the Health Sciences Center.

He had an indomitable spirit. He had an infectious optimism. All of those things helped culminate in his leadership efforts to create the super-clinic for treating and servicing our wounded warriors in west Texas, in partnership

with Texas Tech. It has been a phenomenal asset for veterans in the western part of Texas. That is going to be one of many, but, I am sure, for him, it was the most special legacy that he left for the people of west Texas.

Mr. Speaker, it was an honor to know him. I am a better man for having come alongside him in my time at Texas Tech.

I also want to say of his wife, Marie Beth, that we love her and the Mittemeyer family. We are praying for them. We know that the general has gone to the great commander in chief in Heaven, and he is in a great place. He is alive as he has ever been.

We will be with General Mittemeyer once again. I take great hope and joy in that.

Mr. Speaker, I am grateful to the gentleman from Wisconsin for his indulgence.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the centennial anniversary of the Hardin Simmons Cowboy Band from West Texas.

The Cowboy Band has represented Abilene in 42 states and 17 countries. They have been a pivotal staple in countless celebrations and exciting events, including the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, six Presidential Inaugural Parades, 11 Gubernatorial Parades, and Texas' Cotton Bowl Parade.

Regardless of where they play, I'm thankful that these God-fearing, freedom-loving young men and women will always call West Texas home.

Congratulations to Hardin Simmons University and its beloved Cowboy Band for reaching this important milestone. God bless and go West Texas.

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 327, I call up the bill (H.R. 2811) to provide for a responsible increase to the debt ceiling, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material in the Record on the bill, H.R. 2811.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2811, the Limit, Save, Grow Act.

Over the last 2 years, President Biden has financed his radical agenda and vast expansion of the Federal Government with an unprecedented $10 trillion in spending, $6 trillion of which has been added to our national debt, the highest level of deficit spending in the history of America.

This unbridled spending spree has resulted in sustained record inflation, soaring interest rates, an economy in a recessionary tailspin, and a nation on the brink of a catastrophic debt crisis.

Mr. Speaker, the fiscal state of the Nation is bleak; our national debt is unsustainable; and the outlook grows more uncertain every day.

For 100 years, the debt ceiling has served as a check on our accumulating debt and its impact on the financial health of our Nation. No responsible leader can look at the rapid deterioration of our balance sheet and the unsustainability of our deficit spending and stand idly by defending the status quo.

Mr. Speaker, this isn't a Republican problem, and it is not a Democrat problem. It is America's problem, and it is a mathematical reality that requires real leadership from both sides of the aisle before it is too late.

House Republicans' debt ceiling proposal is an important first step to getting our fiscal house in order and a good faith effort to bring the President to the negotiating table.

Our plan will reduce deficit spending, save taxpayers $4.8 trillion, and begin extinguishing the flames of our current cost-of-living crisis.

First, we limit Federal spending by reining in and rightsizing the Federal bureaucracy. Our bill will reduce FY24 discretionary spending levels by 9 percent, $130 billion, returning us to the same spending levels we were operating under just 4 months ago.

Going forward, we will cap the growth of discretionary spending by 1 percent annually over the next 10 years, reducing wasteful Washington spending by over $3 trillion.

Mr. Speaker, put simply, this bill would require Washington to do what every American has been forced to do as a result of Biden's spending-induced inflation: tighten our belts and change our spending habits.

Second, we save taxpayer dollars by reversing some of the Democrats' reckless spending, reclaiming tens of billions in unspent COVID funds, defunding the President's army of 87,000 IRS agents, repealing special interest tax breaks for the largest green energy corporations, and rescinding President Biden's unconstitutional student loan bailout.

Third, this legislation will grow the economy by returning to pro- work, pro-growth, and pro-energy policies that will unleash American prosperity once again. It stops the assault on U.S. energy production and restores American energy dominance. It reins in Biden's unprecedented barrage of regulations. It breaks the cycle of poverty

and government dependence for generations of Americans by restoring commonsense, Clinton-era work requirements for able-bodied adults.

Mr. Speaker, it is time to get America back to work, turn this economy loose, and let the tide of prosperity lift all boats.

We have put forward a plan worthy of the people we serve. Now, we must put aside political small-mindedness and rise to meet the enormous challenge facing our great Nation.

If we fail to meet this moment, then we risk being the first generation in history to leave our children a weaker America with fewer opportunities and a lower standard of living.

Let me be clear. We will pay our creditors, and we will protect the good faith and credit of the United States, but we will not give this President or any politician a blank check to bankrupt our country.

Mr. Speaker, this is where the reckless spending stops. This is where we speak up for our children. This is where we fight together to save our country.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support H.R. 2811, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, the last time we had a significant fiscal reform it came through debt ceiling negotiations that were led by no other than President Joe Biden in 2011.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Lawler), my good friend.

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 20 seconds to the gentleman from New York.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

When President Biden negotiated the fiscal reforms in the debt ceiling in 2011, he said he was pleased and thankful to do it. He called it a normal process. He said that you have got to compromise, didn't like the my-way-or-the-highway approach, and said it was a great honor. I hope he shares those sentiments today and soon.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (Mr. Meuser).

Mr. Speaker, the Republican tax cuts gave us unprecedented growth and prosperity. It lifted 6 million people out of poverty and created the lowest poverty rate in the history of our great Nation. President Biden's budget recently has the highest levels of sustained spending, borrowing, and taxes in the history of the country.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx), my dear friend and a champion of fiscal responsibility.

Mr. Speaker, my colleagues act like there are no alternatives for funding cuts and savings, like there is no waste, woke, and bloat in the Federal Government.

The President himself has issued 800 executive orders totaling $1.5 trillion. One of those items is the student loan bailout that benefits two out of three highest income earners in our country. It is costing taxpayers $700 billion.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 90 seconds to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Good), my dear friend and colleague on the Budget Committee.

Mr. Speaker, you are going to hear about a number of vulnerable people, communities that get Federal funding, but you will not hear, I bet, anything about the most vulnerable group of people in this country, and that is the next generation of Americans who will inherit $31 trillion in debt, the highest levels of indebtedness in our Nation's history.

Where are they in this debate? That is the big question. Who is speaking up for them? That is a big question. I know my colleague will.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Oklahoma (Mrs. Bice).

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from Oklahoma.

Mr. Speaker, you will hear many of the tired, old, false choices like hungry children, struggling families.

I would remind you and the people of our great country who are experiencing sustained levels of 40-year inflation, who are struggling to put food on the table, that that has come as a result of reckless spending here in Washington.

There are a lot of programs: Global Equity Fund, electric buses and ferries, $80 billion for IRS agents, $27 billion for climate slush fund--I could go on and on. You will not hear any of that from my friends on the other side of the aisle.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Edwards), my colleague on the Budget Committee.

Mr. Speaker, again, with all due respect to my colleague from Texas, Democrats will act as if these are the choices, but they are false choices because they could choose to defund the moneys that came from Democrat earmarks to companies that create dirt bike culture or maybe--with all due respect to the First Lady--the Michelle Obama Trail in Georgia.

There is a list of things. You will not hear them today in this debate or any concern, in my opinion, for our children's future as it relates to the debt.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Grothman), my colleague on the Budget Committee.

Mr. Speaker, more ``Apocalypse Now'' from my colleagues who give electric vehicle tax breaks to people who make $150,000. That is not a priority when you are $31 trillion in debt. Government subsidized healthcare for people making over $300,000 is not a priority when you have a 10-year tripling of our interest, doubling of our annual deficits, and a bleak outlook for our children.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Indiana (Mrs. Spartz), my good friend and somebody that is very concerned about this issue.

Mr. Speaker, with all due respect to my friend and colleague, we are trapping millions of people in poverty and dependence on the government because we are not incentivizing people to move up and out of welfare so they can realize their greatest God-given potential. It is not compassionate to not expect the best out of our fellow Americans.

President Biden, when he voted to support commonsense welfare-to-work reforms said this: We need to replace the culture of welfare with the culture of work. We need to replace the culture of dependency with the culture of self-sufficiency. I agree with the Joe Biden that said that then. I hope he will come to his senses, come to the table, and do what he did in 2011: include responsible fiscal reforms as we lift the debt ceiling and pay our bills.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Nunn).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I agree with my colleague. A budget is a vision and a statement of values. We have received the President's budget. We are conducting oversight. We will be presenting our full 10-year budget resolution. I can tell you; it will be starkly different than the President's and the Democratic Party's vision for America's future.

This budget will not ask for $100 billion more in discretionary spending while American families are struggling to buy groceries and put gas in their cars. It is just so out of touch.

We need the kind of leadership that will lean in and say we are going to be an example and that we are going to look for the waste, which is not hard to find in this town. We are going to right the ship and restore fiscal responsibility.

The President, also, as part of his value statement adds trillions of dollars--$65 trillion--in taxes over the 10-year horizon, which is the most that any President has ever proposed in the history of our country. He proposes spending to the tune of a quarter of our entire economy, which is the largest economy in the world. That is larger than any year of spending since we invaded Normandy. That is what our President is doing and putting forth as the Democratic Party's vision for this future in the midst of this economy that is struggling. Families are struggling. This debt crisis looms large on the horizon.

Where is the leadership?

I respect my colleagues. I appreciate their friendship, but this is the moment that we have to step up and put our fellow countrymen first and walk in their shoes and not get caught up in trying to protect with a death grip the blank check that we have seen and the endless money that is being printed and borrowed. It will end poorly.

We have this window of mercy to act, and we have got to act together ultimately for this to be sustainable because this is the first step. It will require many more steps. We didn't get here overnight. We won't get out of it overnight. We have to take the first step together. I implore my friends and my colleagues to come with us and do what has been done so many times.

That is the thing, Mr. Speaker. Eight of the last most meaningful, most significant fiscal reforms in this Congress came as a result and at the same time we were negotiating a debt ceiling. It is not wild, and it is not reckless. It is responsible to do that. You can raise the debt ceiling. You can pay your bills. You can protect the future for your children.

That is leadership, and that is what this country needs in this hour.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, let me say how blessed I feel to serve alongside my ranking member. I appreciate his thoughtful comments, and we are going to do a lot of great things together.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Carter), my fellow Budget Committee member.

Mr. Speaker, leadership isn't easy, and boy, does our Nation need it right now. I know of such a leader. His name is Steve Scalise. He is our majority leader and a champion for freedom and fiscal responsibility.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Scalise).

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time for closing.

Mr. Speaker, I thank again my ranking member, my friend, and my partner in public service.

My Democrat colleagues say, let's raise the debt ceiling today, and we will deal with the debt tomorrow. Tomorrow never comes. It never comes. We are prepared, I guess, to bury our children under the mountain of debt

that we have amassed because of a government we think the people want and need.

How irresponsible, how reckless, how weak, how cowardly that we won't step up and do the right thing. I can't believe that the Democrat party has strayed so far left that ensuring that able-bodied people who are receiving public assistance work is an extreme MAGA idea and that it is radical for people to rein in spending to just last year's levels of spending.

I have heard a lot of fear-mongering, false choices, and phantom funding cuts, all in an attempt to accept the status quo.

Here's what the status quo has given us: skyrocketing prices, shrinking paychecks, soaring interest rates, a labor shortage, a culture of dependency, an overall weaker economy, and a more vulnerable Nation.

Mr. Speaker, all of us have contributed to this, I will admit. I have conceded that. But we have a moment in time. The hour has come. We have to work together to restore fiscal sanity in this place before it is too late.

The consequences of our failure to act, Mr. Speaker, could not be more grave. I will say it again. We have got to pay our debts. We have got to protect the good faith and credit of the United States. We cannot give an unlimited line of credit to any party, any politician, and allow our country to be bankrupted and to rob our children of the blessings of liberty in this land of opportunity. We shouldn't accept that. We should work together to be responsible, be leaders, leaders worthy of this great Nation.

Let's vote together in support of H.R. 2811.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, I was unable to be present for one of today's votes. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 188.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from North Carolina for yielding.

Socialism, like the Devil, does not appear with horns and a pitchfork. He masquerades as an angel of light with promises of human flourishing, all failed, all broken.

Socialism isn't empty words. It isn't a speech. It is a series of actions that rob people of their freedom and concentrate power in the hands of a few in their central government.

I heard my colleague say: Socialism is controlling the means of production. We are not doing that.

Except there is a whole-of-government assault for all the world to see on an industry, American energy, and it is being replaced with this Green New Deal--hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies, tax credits, grants.

If that is not control of the means of production, I don't know what is.

Universal healthcare: We don't want healthcare in the hands of doctors and patients. We want it in the hands of bureaucrats. We want government to control healthcare. Masquerading as an angel of light is this concentration of power.

Socialism is the road to serfdom, and history is littered with the failed experiment in central planning. Those countries that have taken that ruinous road have ruined, destroyed, their country and left their people in despair.

Our Founding Fathers believed fundamentally this: If we limit the Federal Government's role in our lives, we will unleash the greatest potential of free people created in the image of God. They were right.

There has never been a greater force for all of humanity than freedom. Nothing uplifts the human condition, unlocks the human potential, unleashes the human spirit like freedom.

Freedom has given every generation of Americans the greatest opportunities, the highest standard of living, the best quality of life anywhere on the planet and in the history of the world.

In the prescient words of Ronald Reagan, ``Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. . . . It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.'' God have mercy on our country.

If you boil it down, Mr. Speaker, I believe our singular mission in this Chamber, in our Nation's Capitol, is to fight for our country by preserving and protecting freedom for the next generation of Americans.

If, like my colleagues say, this is just theater, that decrying socialism and extolling the virtues and value of freedom is theater, God give us more Shakespeares. God bless America.

Mr. Speaker, to my colleague across the aisle, they need to get back to work. Only in Washington, D.C., and only with this President are we operating with COVID as a national emergency.

The only national emergency coming out of Washington is the economic disaster from the failed economic policies and the reckless spending of my colleagues.

It has created an inflationary firestorm, and people can't sustain it. Soaring interest rates, an economy teetering on recession, and $5 trillion of debt that have us dangerously close to the precipice of a debt crisis is an emergency.

Our constituents across America have to go back to work. They have to take their kids to school. Somebody has to teach them. Somebody has to save a patient or serve a customer. They don't live in this fantasy world of Washington.

My colleagues, unfortunately, have used the public health emergency in large part not to protect the public from COVID but to promote the big spending, Big Government bailout agenda.

What I am talking about is this, in the name of COVID, bailing out student loans that cost taxpayers a trillion dollars, bailing out schools that don't open their doors to their students. Bailout after bailout, that is what this is about.

While Democrats are jamming us with all these bailouts in the name of COVID, taxpayers can't get their Social Security benefits and their tax returns or their passports. You heard the stories.

Here is my question. It is a simple one. How can the people's government serve the people if the people in the government don't come to work? That is the question from my constituents in west Texas. Here is the answer. It can't. It doesn't.

If hardworking Americans don't have the luxury of not coming to work and teleworking for the rest of their lives, then the Biden administration and our government employees should do the same. Get back to work. Do your job. Serve the customer because that is what you signed up to do.

We are here to hold them accountable, with all due respect.

Mr. Chair, Texas is on the front lines of Biden's unilateral assault on American energy, which has totally devastated our economic recovery efforts and undermined our national security.

Rather than acknowledge the consequences of his disastrous energy policies and change course, Biden has simply doubled down by dipping into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which is not meant for political disasters but for national emergencies.

Since March of last year, the President sold more than 40 percent of our strategic stockpile, bringing the SPR to the lowest levels in four decades.

Even more irresponsibly, this administration has no plan for when and how they will replenish our oil reserves, putting America in a precarious position of weakness.

This legislation sends a strong message, Mr. Chair, to this administration that they can no longer put their boot on the neck of American energy production and then bail themselves out by raiding our rainy-day fund, our rainy day reserves.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate one of west Texas' best, Ron Butler, on his induction into the 2023 Texas Bankers Hall of Fame. On April 27, Ron will be recognized for his outstanding leadership and service in the banking community.

After graduating from Texas Tech University, Mr. Butler went on to join the First Financial Bank family, where he remained for 30 years, and now serves as vice president and chief administrative officer.

Ron is a dedicated family man. He is passionate about serving his community there in Abilene and is not an avid but a rabid Red Raider fan.

I know his wife, Lorilei, and his two children, Trey and Sydney, are very proud of him, and so am I.

God Bless, guns up, and go west Texas.

Mr. Speaker, I want to say what an honor it has been to serve alongside the great Louie Gohmert. I have watched him on television, as we say, for many years, fighting the fight for our freedom, for the Constitution, and for the values that make America so exceptional and so great.

I know I am about to be gaveled, and I am running out of time, so let me say this: This man has the kind of grit and the kind of fight that this country and this country's leaders are going to need if we are going to restore freedom and return power to the people and resurrect the great United States of America.

If we could just bottle a little bit of Louie Gohmert and force-feed it to the Members of this body, I believe we could get our great country back.

God bless Louie Gohmert. God bless his family and all his future endeavors, and God bless America.

Madam Speaker, on November 14, the proudest Dimmitt Bobcat, biggest Texas Tech fan, and the legendary west Texas leader Kent R. Hance turns 80 years old.

I wish my dear friend and former boss the happiest of birthdays and thank him for his tremendous and matchless service, leadership, and love for the people, values, and spirit of west Texas.

He strengthened the Lone Star State as a Texas Senator. He helped Reagan pass the tax cuts of 1986 as a U.S. Congressman. He unleashed energy independence in Texas as chairman of the energy commission. As the Texas Tech chancellor, we saw unprecedented growth in endowment, enrollment, and research.

God blessed west Texas, and He broke the mold with Kent R. Hance.

Kent, my brother, happy birthday. God bless you. Guns up.

Mr. Speaker, I and my colleagues are going to spend the next hour raising to the attention of every American the large and looming crisis that hangs over the heads of our fellow Americans, but especially the next generation of Americans on account of our ever- growing, massive, almost incalculable national debt at $31 trillion and counting; with a projection of $16 trillion over the next decade. By the way, half of that will be interest payments on the debt, without a single dollar or dime going to something productive, to help a soldier or a sailor or a senior with a safety net program. It will be servicing the debt of this country.

I believe this is the long-term greatest threat to America. As Admiral Mullen stated when asked by the defense community what the greatest national security threat was, he replied: The national debt is the greatest national security threat.

Why?

Because a debt crisis in any form will undermine our ability to provide for the common defense and have a military and weapons systems that will be sufficient for the ever-evolving and growing threats, especially the great power threats like China.

It will undermine economic security and prosperity, and this land of opportunity, this American promise for our children and grandchildren. I don't believe there is a more important issue.

In his Farewell Address, George Washington, our first President and one of the Founding Fathers, the Father of America, mentioned foreign influence, factions that divide us and weaken the bonds of American unity, and American oneness, but then he mentioned, `` . . . avoiding likewise 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 . . . `'

Translation: You may have to borrow money when you are in a world war, but just like the last time we were over 100 percent debt-to-GDP, our Nation was willing to make the cuts to expenses and bring down the debt when we were in peacetime.

We are now at 128 percent over the size of debt relative to our economy in World War II. We are carrying the largest debt in the history of the United States, and we are not at war. The horizon and the trajectory, not only over 10 years, but if you look at 30 years, it is over $120 trillion in additional debt. It is mind-boggling. It is unconscionable. And I think it is immoral to hand a country--in such shambles fiscally and so bankrupt--to the next generation, and just literally wipe out their future and the blessings of liberty and opportunity that every generation of Americans have inherited to date.

George Washington says we should avoid these things. We should bend the expense curve. We should bring down debt, and not ungenerously throw that debt upon posterity, the burden, he says, `` . . . which we ourselves ought to bear.''

I see that every day in Congress. Instead of us bearing the burden by paying for the government that we believe the American people want--I am not so sure they want this government, this ever-expanding government--but when we are giving that government to them, we ought to pay for it and not defer the taxes on the next generation.

That is not the American way. That has not been the American tradition of our lawmakers. We are in a real bad spot and it is going to take courage. It is going to take courage from everybody, regardless of party, to find a way not only to start paying for things through expense cuts, and in the case

of my Democrat colleagues, raising revenue.

We are way beyond just being able to offset and even grow the economy and get out of this debt hole. We are going to have to take extraordinary action. It is going to require extraordinary courage. Quite frankly, I haven't seen that on either side.

But I think we have a tremendous opportunity in the future as Republicans look to take over in the House as the majority party and then get to demonstrate to the American people leadership on this issue.

We have seen $5 trillion in new spending over the last 2 years under this administration--$5 trillion. And I hope and pray that my party will live up to the confidence and trust that the American people will put into us to steward this great Nation of ours and lead and take on the great challenge of the 21st century, which is the national debt.

Mr. Speaker, I have more to say but my dear friends my colleagues are here from all over the country to speak on this matter.

The first one is my dear friend from the First District of Kansas, a man who is no stranger to public service. He served his great State as Lieutenant Governor and is now serving in the United States Congress.

Mr. Speaker, he asked me to remind folks that he represents the great State of Kansas, and his alma mater, Kansas State, which upset the Oklahoma University Sooners. They beat them three out of the last four times so that is pretty darn impressive. With that track record, please lend him your ears, my fellow Americans.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Mann).

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Kansas.

I think it is important to be honest with the American people even if the truth hurts.

When I am asked who caused this disastrous level of debt, this deep hole that we have dug for our children and grandchildren, I say that while the Democrats have certainly done a whole lot of spending beyond our ability to pay and beyond what I think is the appropriate scope and scale of the Federal Government, which I think should be targeted and limited and focused on its mission, provide a common defense, and secure the liberties of us and our posterity, I am quick to remind them that Republicans have their fair share of blame.

And while I am celebrating the thought, the opportunity for Republicans to be in the majority and to fulfill this commitment to America, which includes curbing wasteful spending and ensuring that this government is accountable to we the people, let's be honest. I was here in the 115th Congress as a freshman, and I saw the contributions that my party contributed to this. I saw us blow past the spending caps that we voted for to constrain spending. I witnessed us put aside pay- for provisions to offset these programs that we think are so important and necessary for taxpayers.

I even was part of the Budget Committee that in the second year wasn't able to pass the budget out of the committee, let alone this Chamber.

So when we talk about the Democrats failing for the last 2 years to even pass a budget out of committee--which I am happy to say because it is the truth, and it is quite shameful for any party to not have a budget, let alone live by it, like every American--we, as Republicans, have made our contributions to this. And we ought to own it. We ought to feel the burn in our conscience until we actually unite as a party and reach across the aisle where we can to address, what I would call, a curse on the next generation of Americans.

Ben Franklin--God bless him--said, `` . . . when you run in debt; you give to another person power over your liberty.'' He said the second vice in public service is lying, the first is running up a debt.

I have got a good friend who I have come to respect tremendously, not only for his service in the United States Congress but his service to our country as a foreign service officer. He is wicked smart, and a great patriot. Peter Meijer hails from the Third District of Michigan, from the Great Lake State.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Meijer), to make some comments on this important issue.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Michigan for his heartfelt comments and his deep concern for our country and our Nation's future under this gigantic weight of $30-plus trillion in debt and this dark cloud and the clouds that gather.

Mr. Speaker, I have another dear friend and colleague who is very passionate about this issue. Certainly a patriot, served his country, served the Lone Star in the House and Senate, and decided he would venture out here in Washington, D.C., to be another voice for the freedom-loving, God-fearing people of Texas.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Fallon), who I am honored and proud to serve alongside of.

Mr. Speaker, I couldn't have said it better myself, and I thank the gentleman from Texas.

We need to harness that passion, and we need to unify not only our conference to lead by example but the entire United States Congress to take this on.

We do have existential threats, like our adversary China. We have a number of threats, and we have to address them responsibly and with urgency. But I don't see a bigger, long-term threat that could just knock the shine plum off the shining city on the hill than this boulder that is rolling downhill, this snowball that is going to impact every aspect from national security to our economy to domestic tranquility-- the whole shooting match, as we say in Texas--if we don't step up and have the courage to lead and to deliver for our children.

Speaking of children, I have a friend and colleague on the Ways and Means Committee who has raised a family and is expecting to have his children inherit this American promise, this exceptional Nation, and the future opportunities it affords our fellow countrymen. He ran a business, a family-owned construction company. He has served at the local and county level. He has served in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Senate, and I believe he was the leader of the senate's budget and finance committee, so this guy knows what he is talking about.

I imagine when he was leading the charge for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the senate they balanced their budgets, they paid their debts, and they lived fiscally responsibly within their means because that is what leaders do with other people's money.

I am proud to hand over the mike to Lloyd Smucker for his comments, and I thank him for his service.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Smucker).

Lloyd Smucker is my brother. We came in together and served our first term in the 115th Congress. I know he is committed to this. I am proud and confident in his leadership on the Budget Committee.

I just, again, share the sentiment of my colleagues and the sense of urgency--the sense of urgency. This crisis, this debt-related crisis, is very different from any other crisis we have experienced, in that, for example, with the pandemic and COVID, and the government's response to COVID which was sometimes the problem itself, but altogether, we were able to borrow and print enough money to bail out of it. But when the dominoes fall on a debt crisis, it doesn't matter how much China will lend us. It doesn't matter how much the Federal Reserve prints. They can print to their heart's desire. It won't fix it, and we will weaken this country, its global dominance, its global leadership, and the values that America represents to the entire world.

So I am grateful to Mr. Smucker.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to another colleague on the Committee on Ways and Means and from the Keystone State, another proud citizen of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. This guy has run a business. I think I have heard him say, and I will paraphrase, if he ran his business like the knuckleheads in Congress run this country, he would have been bankrupt before he could ever make payroll, let alone make a living.

This is a man who is known for his Knute Rockne locker-room speeches like they did there in Notre Dame. Let me tell you, Mr. Speaker, he can fire you up, and he has a fire in his belly. I guarantee you, Mr. Speaker, when we get the majority--and I don't want to be presumptuous, I should say, God willing, if the people give us the majority--I know that this man is going to be riding herd on our conference and the entire Congress to do the right thing. He has four children and 10 grandchildren. That is what we call skin in the game.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Kelly), who is my dear friend.

Mr. Speaker, I am grateful to Mr. Kelly and proud to call him a friend and colleague. I am going to shake his hand as he leaves.

Listen, this is what it is going to require. It is going to require that level of push and punch and clawing and scratching, yelling if necessary, kicking a chair over in the Chamber, and saying the House is on fire. It is going to burn down before our children ever taste the sweetness of the blessed life in this country.

I believe we are going to do it. I believe in this country, and I believe that the American people, especially over the last couple of years of this spending frenzy, are waking up to this.

One of the sinister elements of a debt crisis is you don't feel the pain until you feel the pain. But once you feel the pain, it is too late. The world cannot afford to have America in any position besides the pole position for the sake of stability, freedom, and the fundamental rights of every human.

Nobody knows that freedom is nothing without security more than a Navy fighter pilot who hails from the 25th District of California. He is an Iraq war veteran and was a State assemblyman. He flipped a seat that was Democrat for years, probably over 20 years, not because he was a great Republican but because he is a great man, and he is a great leader. He loves this country, and he just wants a safer, stronger, freer Nation for his two boys.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Garcia), my friend.

Mr. Speaker, that was well said by my friend, Representative Garcia. I thank him for his service to the country in the Navy and in the United States Congress.

Mr. Speaker, I am inspired tonight. I am inspired by my colleagues who are ready to fight by taking on the tough issues, making the tough decisions, and exercising the courage that every leader in this country has that ever did anything meaningful for this great Nation, and for their posterity. We are ready for this.

I know one man has got a lot of fight in him; he is a warrior from Wisconsin. He is a man that is no stranger to the budget, to the budget process, and to the broken and dysfunctional dynamics and elements of the budget process in this place.

Mr. Speaker, I am thankful for Glenn Grothman from the great State of Wisconsin representing the Sixth District.

Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Grothman).

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Wisconsin and I am grateful for his courage. He speaks truth. He is not up here to win friends and influence people; he is up here to make sure the outcomes of our decisions are in the best interests of our country. And certainly bending the curve on spending, reining in our debt, and restoring fiscal responsibility is at the top of his list.

America is counting on him, and I am, too--as a senior Member of this body when we get the majority--to remind every single Republican and our colleagues on the other side of the aisle what is at stake. If we don't, what is at stake? I thank Mr. Grothman.

Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have remaining?

Mr. Speaker, we timed it perfectly. I will just wind down and then I will wind up the next speaker and dear friend and fellow Texan.

James Madison, I think, summarized it in his statement: A public debt is a public curse, and in a Republican form of government, the worst of its kind.

That cloud hanging over the heads of our children, that snowball coming down the mountain, that is the 21st century challenge. That is the bankrupting of our children's future by spending our country into oblivion.

It is our great challenge and we enter it with sober minds and with prayerful hearts that God would give us the courage to take on the forces in our own party and in this building and outside this building, and anything that stands in our way until we reverse the curse, and we can look into our children's eyes and we can tell them we have handed them this country better than we found it, like every generation of great leaders for this country.

Mr. Speaker, now I get to sit and listen to a great fighter for freedom, my fellow Texan (Mr. Roy).

God bless America.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.