Floor Statements

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

So America, the results are in, and now we know it was all nonsense, just nonsense. The claim that this costs zero and reduces the national debt? Nonsense.

This bill, even counting the budget gimmicks, is several hundred billion dollars short today, and the independent Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget says over 10 years it is closer to $3 trillion in national debt.

It won't tax the middle class? Nonsense.

The Joint Committee on Taxation and the liberal Tax Policy Center both confirm that up to one-third of middle-class Americans will see a tax increase starting next year.

This will make the wealthy pay their fair share? More nonsense.

Two out of three millionaires in America will see a huge tax cut in this bill.

And this will reduce inflation? Nonsense.

Even the President's own favorite analyst, Moody's, admits that Americans ought to brace for higher prices for the next decade because of this bill and the infrastructure bill and the COVID stimulus bill.

But there is more than just nonsense in this bill. There are dangerous provisions dealing with the IRS.

Mr. Speaker, at the appropriate time I will offer a motion to recommit the bill to the Budget Committee.

I will also ask to include the text of an amendment in the Record that I would have offered had the rules allowed me to offer instructions with my motion to recommit.

And my amendment is simple. It stops Democrats from unleashing 80,000 new IRS agents on American taxpayers. And more importantly, it blocks the House and the Senate from ever imposing a dangerous bank surveillance scheme targeting America's families, farmers, and small businesses.

The truth is the IRS doesn't need your private information. It has a record of targeting Americans based on their political beliefs. In fact, this year, they discriminated against a nonprofit focused on biblical teachings and continues to fail to stop massive leaks of private taxpayer returns to the media.

Our Democratic colleagues claim bank surveillance is not in there. Yet. The Biden White House is still insisting.

So join with us, accept this motion, and stop it right now, once and for all.

Mr. Speaker, you know, Americans need to know what is in this bill. And under this $4 trillion Biden-Pelosi scheme, let's look at a day in your life.

So you wake up in the morning and pay a ``heat your home tax.'' You shower and get ready and pay a consumer products tax.

You drop your kids off at childcare and pay a ``toddler tax.''

You drive to work paying higher gas prices. You take a break and pay a bigger nicotine tax. At work your company pays a Made in America tax, a ``small business surtax,'' or a tax on your retirement plan.

On the way home, you swing through your pharmacy and pay a ``no generics'' tax. Stop for groceries and pay the ``Bidenflation'' tax on everything you need. And then you get your mail on the way home, and you get a letter from the IRS; you are being audited.

And then you are getting the kids ready for bed, and you realize Democrats are forcing you to send $12,500 of your taxes to the wealthy neighbor to subsidize their luxury Beemer electric vehicle.

Plus, they are getting a massive SALT tax windfall for the wealthy while you get nothing, except 80,000 new IRS agents to make sure ``you pay your fair share.''

So when your head finally hits the pillow, as you lie awake in bed too worried to sleep in a community less safe, in housing more expensive, in a country that lurches from crisis to crisis, ask yourself this question: Under Joe Biden is my life truly built back better?

Americans already know the answer, and that is why this President's polling is at the bottom of the heap and why Americans have lost any confidence in his competence to heal this economy.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Scalise), the chief minority whip of the Republican Conference.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. McCarthy), Republican leader of our Conference.

Madam Speaker, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 357; Yea on Roll Call No. 359; YEA on Roll Call No. 360; YEA on Roll Call No. 361; YEA on Roll Call No. 362; YEA on Roll Call No. 363; YEA on Roll Call No. 364; YEA on Roll Call No. 365; and YEA on Roll Call No. 366.

Madam Speaker, I was unavoidably detained.

Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 342; YEA on Roll Call No. 346; YEA on Roll Call No. 347; and YEA on Roll Call No. 349.

Madam Speaker, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 341.

Madam Speaker, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 338.

Madam Speaker, I was unexpectedly withheld. Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on rollcall No. 330, and NAY on rollcall No. 331.

Madam Speaker, I was unexpectedly witheld. Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 318.

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

Madam Speaker, today's debt ceiling issue is a political and economic crisis of the Democrats' own making. They have known for 2 years this day was coming. They never even bothered to draft a budget for the government, much less pass it, and never lifted a finger to start the bipartisan discussions on how to raise the debt ceiling while addressing America's exploding national debt.

They have insisted on one-party rule all year, from an unnecessary, wasteful $2 trillion COVID stimulus that didn't stimulate the economy or defeat the virus to a national takeover of State and local elections, bailouts of failing State and local governments, ignoring the humanitarian and security crisis at the southern border, and the disastrous surrender to the Taliban in Afghanistan.

House Democrats have made it clear: We are running the place. Just sit down and shut up.

The bottom line on the debt ceiling today: Democrats alone have set fire to America's house and are now demanding Republicans put it out for them.

I urged Treasury Secretary Yellen, who I respect and who has bipartisan credibility, to do what the congressional Democrats have not: engage with Republicans on a reasonable framework of financial stability for our Nation.

There is precedent. Secretary Mnuchin certainly set that, reaching out repeatedly to Democrat leadership on these issues.

Although it should be noted, given the strident blame game now by Speaker Pelosi on the debt ceiling, I remember February 2018 when she, Leader Hoyer, Whip Clyburn, and 116 other House Democrats voted to default on America's debt, shut down the government, and refuse disaster relief to devastated communities across America.

One of the Democrat leaders even said: ``Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House. The responsibility to govern rests squarely on their shoulders.''

Well, right now, the Democrats control the House, the Senate, and the White House. The responsibility to govern rests squarely on their shoulders.

I agree that Congress should not play political games with the debt ceiling or

ignore the danger of making permanent the temporary COVID relief with spending that will bankrupt our Nation in the future.

Democrats control everything--the House, the Senate, and the Presidency--and they can easily pass the debt ceiling by including it in their $3\1/2\ trillion tax hikes and welfare state expansion, which requires no Republican votes.

But rather than work together, what did Democrats do? As I noted, they rammed through a partisan, nearly $2 trillion so-called stimulus bill. This was unaccountable, partisan Washington spending that only made matters worse, especially rising inflation for working families.

For example, in that bill, Democrats undid a bipartisan agreement to protect taxpayers against the greatest theft of American tax dollars in our lifetime, which by now has lost up to $400 billion to fraud.

They even opened the door to greater fraud by replacing the Republican child tax credit that rewarded work with the cash-for-kids welfare check program with few safeguards.

Stopping fraud and taking care of tax dollars should be a bipartisan goal that would stretch the spending in the Federal Government. Instead, Democrats are demanding this tax and spending binge that will kill 3 million U.S. jobs, drive prices even higher, and impose the largest expansion to the welfare state in our lifetime.

I urge my Democrat colleagues: End the brinkmanship. We can achieve a bipartisan framework. Just look at the Republicans' repeated efforts.

In 2016, the House passed a Ways and Means bill called the Debt Management and Fiscal Responsibility Act, creating a system that would have allowed Congress to make informed decisions about the debt ceiling and consider changes before it became a crisis. Yet, the Obama administration opposed the bill.

Today, Democrats are hardly worried about new burdens as they put the IRS in charge of workers' paid family and medical leave, or hire 80,000 new IRS agents, or impose IRS bank surveillance on the personal and business accounts of Main Street and working families.

And Democrats won't take up a similar bill, the Debt Solution and Accountability Act, offered by Ways and Means Republican Representative Lloyd Smucker from Pennsylvania.

Democrats' alternatives these days to a bipartisan framework range from ridiculous to irresponsible.

One Democrat Congressman has proposed U.S. Treasury mint a trillion- dollar coin--a trillion-dollar coin. Why not a quadrillion-dollar coin?

This farfetched idea sounds about as brilliant as many Democrats' own calls to end the debt limit entirely, as the Speaker has sought.

I think Democrats' best answer to Washington's out-of-control spending is to spend more and to tear out the brakes.

Let's be honest. This is an economic and political crisis of the Democrats' own making. There isn't enough money in America to cover what Democrats want to spend, and Americans know it.

That is why President Biden has gone out of his way to sell his $3.5 trillion bill as not adding to the debt, saying the ``Build Back Better agenda costs zero dollars,'' a claim that ranks right up with: ``If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it.''

Unfortunately for him and for the taxpayers that will have to foot the bill, The Washington Post fact-checker found this claim misleading.

They said that it ``would take dubious gimmicks that will help disguise the true cost of President Biden's agenda.''

Again, considering Democrats have not had a single conversation about spending, stimulus, or the debt with us to date, I think they, by their behavior, have taken responsibility to pass this by themselves.

It is irresponsible to keep raising the debt limit, keep on spending without any framework, or any discussion about this explosion of America's debt.

We need to grow the economy, constrain our spending, work together, both parties together, to get our financial house back in order for our children and grandchildren.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I include in the Record this fact-check from The Washington Post about this claim we just heard, that 83 percent of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act went to the top 1 percent. They gave that false statement ``3 Pinocchios,'' calling it a ``zombie claim'' and ``galling.'' PolitiFact agreed, calling it ``misleading.''

[From the Washington Post]

The Pinocchio Six: Myths, Lies & Debunked Claims About Taxes

1. False: Biden: ``All of [GOP Tax Cuts] went to folks at

the top and corporations that pay no taxes.''

The Washington Post fact check gave this ``4 Pinocchios,''

saying this is ``simply wrong'' and ``clearly false.''

Three of every four dollars in the 2017 tax cuts went to

individuals, cutting taxes for the lowest-income Americans by

10% while cutting taxes for the top 1% by less than one-half

of 1%.

In the 2017 GOP tax reform, corporations effectively paid

for 85% of their tax cuts thanks to eliminating special tax

provisions and broadening the U.S. tax base.

2. Myth: ``The wealthy don't pay their `fair share.' ''

America has long had one of the most progressive tax codes

among developed nations, with higher-income people paying

higher tax rates, say the Organization for Economic

Cooperation & Development (OECD).

The top 1% pay 40% of all income taxes, and the top 10%

pays 70% of all income taxes, according to the Tax

Foundation.

After the GOP Tax Cuts, the rich pay a larger, not smaller,

share of income taxes.

3. False: ``83% of Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) tax cuts

went to top 1%.''

The Washington Post gave this false statement ``3

Pinocchios,'' calling it a ``zombie claim'' and ``galling.''

Politifact agreed, calling it ``misleading.''

4. False: ``Corporate tax receipts declined by 40% after

GOP Tax Cuts.''

Like government revenue that reached record levels in the

two years after GOP tax reform, corporate tax receipts are

higher and growing after TCJA, despite Democrats' claims.

Corporate tax revenues this year are $285 billion, 22%

higher than the Obama-Biden Admin's last year.

The Congressional Budget Office projects corporate tax

revenues under TCJA will increase to $379 billion in 2023--a

record high.

Biden's own budget scorers project U.S. corporate tax

revenues under TCJA will reach 1.63% of GDP by 2025, higher

than the 1.55% average in the decade before the GOP tax cuts.

5 Myth: ``55 profitable U.S. corporations paid no taxes

last year.''

This is an unverifiable claim by a far-left group (ITEP)

using flawed methodology. It is not based on actual tax

data--taxpayer data is private and most 2020 tax corporate

returns have yet to be filed.

This group confuses the difference between taxable income

and financial statement reports.

Similar reports that U.S. multinational corporations only

pay very low tax rates on their earnings overseas are flawed

either by double-counting, faulty methodology, or cherry-

picked data.

6. Myth: ``The Death Tax only impacts two of every 1,000

taxpayers who die.''

Relatively few estates pay the Death Tax, but many more

file estate tax returns, and millions of farms and other

family businesses are forced to waste precious time and money

to avoid a mistake that will result in a confiscatory tax

bill from the IRS.

The Death Tax crushes investment in workers & expanded

operations, harms growth & opportunity.

The Death Tax ranks as a devastatingly inefficient tax

since it raises a very small amount of revenue while placing

a very large burden on farms and other family businesses. In

fact, the Cato Institute says the Death Tax ``is anti-saving

and anti-investment,'' encourages ``wealthy folks to consume

their wealth before death,'' and does nothing for U.S. long-

term growth.

A growing number of women- and minority-owned businesses

are finding themselves subject to the Death Tax as they try

to build wealth for the first time and pass it on to the next

generation.

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Nunes).

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from West Virginia (Mrs. Miller).

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Smith), the ranking Republican of the Budget Committee.

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Estes).

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Smucker).

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from west Texas (Mr. Arrington).

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Smith), who is the ranking member of the tax policy subcommittee.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds, and I can't help but remember that, in February 2018, my colleague from Houston, Texas, voted to default on America's debt, to shut down the government, and to withhold disaster funding for Hurricane Harvey in our region.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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

What a bunch of nonsense that we just heard. I respect the majority leader. I love his talk about courage and principle and language and all of that.

But what he didn't tell you was that in February of 2018, Speaker Pelosi, he, Whip Clyburn, 119 House Democrats, voted to shut down this government, to default on America's debt, and deny hurricane assistance to communities not just in Texas, but across the country. He played politics with America's debt. So did many Democrats that day.

While they lecture us about irresponsibility, here is what we do know. This is a dangerous, irresponsible charade. Democrats are desperate to blame the GOP for this when, in fact, they created this economic crisis.

For 2 years, our Democrat colleagues have known this day was coming and never even passed a budget. They didn't even try to pass a budget to deal with this. They never sat down with Republicans. They have rammed everything through this House this year.

Now, even though they have all of the votes they need, they are just playing political games, willing to shut down this government, willing to deny disaster aid, willing to harm our economy and working families so they don't have to raise this debt ceiling.

The truth is, they don't want to. They can. They don't want to. They are manufacturing this crisis. They have all the votes they need. They are willing to bring this economy to the brink. They have got all the votes they need. All they have to do is include it in reconciliation. They just don't want to. They just don't want to.

We could fact-check so much of what we heard today. We could spend the next 2 hours on this, and we could talk about all of the tax breaks for the billionaires and the wealthy in the new spending bill that is being brought to the floor. Trust me, this isn't just about past debts. This is about a green light to spend America deeper and deeper and deeper into debt.

To quote our Democrat leaders in 2018: ``Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House. The responsibility to govern rests squarely on their shoulders.''

Democrats control the House, the Senate, and the White House. This responsibility rests on their shoulders.

I will tell you, Madam Speaker, at the end of this debate, I intend to offer a motion to commit the bill to the Committee on Ways and Means and include a provision that would prohibit the IRS from implementing a bank surveillance scheme.

The reason I am doing this is because Democrats are leading a campaign to impose bank surveillance on your personal bank account and your business bank account. They are targeting families and farmers and America's small businesses.

They want to give the IRS unfettered access to individual and business bank accounts. It is an outrageous intrusion into the private lives of all Americans. And they want to do that because they think they can raise money to lift the SALT cap, to give tax breaks to millionaires, to create tax havens for billionaires against the very tax hikes that they are proposing. Penthouse occupants are cheering. The building janitor gets nothing.

This is why they don't want to take responsibility for lifting the debt ceiling, because they have huge plans to really harm middle-class Americans while giving huge tax breaks to their friends.

When Democrats want to sit down with Republicans and have a serious conversation about how we raise the debt ceiling, how we address the financial stability of this country, let me tell you, I am in, a lot of us are in. I am hopeful someday we can get to that because that is what our country deserves. I will oppose this debt ceiling.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to include the text of my amendment in the Record immediately prior to the vote on the motion to commit.

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

Madam Speaker, I have a motion to commit at the desk.

Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Madam Speaker, I was unexpectedly witheld. Had I been present, I would have voted NAY on Roll Call No. 273, NAY on Roll Call No. 282, and NAY on Roll Call No. 287.

Madam Speaker, today I rise to honor the distinguished career and public service of Mr. Mac Woodward.

As a sixth generation resident of Huntsville, Mr. Woodward has long valued making an active difference in his community. In 1970, Mac received his Bachelor of Arts in History from Sam Houston State University, soon followed with his Master of Arts in History from the University of Houston's Institute for Public History.

Mac's passion for history brought him to work at the Sam Houston Memorial Museum as a historical interpreter in 1994. Impressively, Mac was named the museum's curator of collections just one year later. Mac also performed museum-related activities with the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum, Institute of Texan Cultures, Texas Highways, and the Department of Interior National Historic Landmark Report. With decades of experience, Mac was named Director of the Sam Houston Memorial Museum at Sam Houston State University on January 1, 2012. Mr. Woodward exhibited a passion for educating the public on the life and history of Sam Houston. As a result of his effort, an historic bust of Sam Houston was displayed in the United States Capitol in the Ways and Means Committee Room from 2016 to 2019.

During his time as a Council member, Mac was the Mayor Pro Tempore and Chairman of the Finance Committee. He then went on to serve four terms on the Huntsville City Council before successfully being elected Mayor in 2011. During his 12-year tenure as both a city councilman and the mayor of Huntsville, Mac Woodward demonstrated servant leadership throughout his tenure in office. In 2015, Woodward was voted Citizen of the Year and in 2016, he was named The Huntsville Item's Public Servant of the Year. These awards reflect the high esteem with which Mac is held by the Huntsville community.

Mr. Woodward has also served on the Advisory Boards of both the City of Huntsville's Parks and Recreation and Oakwood Cemetery. In addition, Mac has always remained actively involved serving as a board member for foundations and organizations, project manager for several historic preservation efforts, and committee member for countless public events.

I am proud to join Mr. Woodward's family and friends to honor Mac's distinguished career and thank him for his leadership and dedication to public service.

Madam Speaker, today I rise to honor the career of my friend and a trusted former advisor, Mrs. Linda Nelson, Chairman of The Woodlands Area Chamber of Commerce.

A native of New Jersey, Linda moved to the Houston, Texas area in 1980. She completed her undergraduate degree in Business at West Virginia Wesleyan College and went on to receive her Master's in Business Administration at Texas Women's University. In 1997, Linda moved to The Woodlands and began serving as a part-time volunteer coordinator at Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Medical Center. Today, Linda serves as the Business Development and Regional Marketing Director for Memorial Hermann The Woodlands. She and her husband, Gordon, have been married for over 39 years and have three adult children living in the Houston and Austin areas.

Linda is not only a principled business leader, but she is an enthusiastic community leader as well. Her commitment to serving and leading in her community is evident through her involvement with Leadership Montgomery County (LMC), The Conroe/Lake Conroe Chamber of Commerce, and the Economic Development Partnership. Nelson also spent time serving The Woodlands community as precinct chair. When she's not working for the committees she serves on or Memorial Hermann, Nelson can be found playing racquetball, golfing, fishing, or spending time with her family.

Linda has received many awards recognizing her for her dedicated community service, including: Hometown Hero Award, The Woodlands Area Chamber Citizen of the Year, LMC Distinguished Alumnus Award, IRONMAN Captain of the Year, The Woodlands Area Chamber Chairman's Award and the Montgomery County Women's Council on Organizations' Woman of Distinction. Linda is a role model and mentor to other women in her community. She continuously pulls up a seat to the table for the next generation of professional women, empowers them to give back to their communities and challenges them to grow in leadership in their workplaces.

After over two decades of selfless service to our community, I am pleased to join Linda's family and friends in thanking and congratulating her for her servant leadership through her time as Chairman of The Woodlands Area Chamber of Commerce.

Madam Speaker, I rise along with my colleagues, Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, the Dean of the Texas Delegation, Congresswoman Kay Granger, the co-Dean of the Texas Republican delegation, and other members from Texas--the greatest delegation--for the swearing in of our newest Member of Congress, Jake Ellzey.

Jake is a native Texan from Amarillo who left Texas to attend the United States Naval Academy.

He was commissioned in the Navy upon graduation and then earned the coveted gold wings as a Naval aviator.

Jake served in the Navy for the next 20 years with honor, distinction, and valor.

He served in numerous deployments and in 6 combat tours--five in the skies over Iraq and Afghanistan and a tour in ground combat in the mountains of Afghanistan, where he directed critical and timely air support for members of Seal Team Six engaged in combat there.

He has been decorated with two Bronze stars for his service in combat.

After retiring from the Navy, Jake returned to Texas but remained committed to public service.

He was appointed by Governor Perry as a Commissioner on the Texas Veterans Commission for six years and was then elected to the Texas House of Representatives.

Jake also returned to the skies as a commercial airline pilot flying out of Dallas/Forth Worth and raising his son and daughter with his wife Shelby in Ellis County, Texas.

Texans have a great deal of respect and admiration for those who volunteer to go in harm's way in service to their country.

Jake is the sixth military veteran Texas voters have sent to Congress just this year.

He brings a wealth of experience in national security, military affairs, veterans affairs, business, and aviation with him to Congress.

This day, no doubt, marks the beginning of yet another rewarding chapter in a distinguished career of service.

On behalf of the Texas delegation, I'm thrilled to welcome Jake Ellzey, his wife Shelby, and his son and daughter to the United States Congress.

Madam Speaker, had I been present, I would have voted on Roll Call No. 245.

Madam Speaker, I was unexpectedly withheld.

Had I been present, I would have voted NAY on Roll Call No. 211, and NAY on Roll Call No. 217.