Debt Ceiling

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Madam President, in less than 72 hours, the suspension on the Federal Government's debt ceiling will expire. That leaves Congress with two options: continue with the reckless, wasteful spending it is accustomed to without any accountability to the American people; or finally face reality, make some tough choices, and chart a path forward that lowers the Federal debt and gets spending under control.

Washington is constantly spending more money and taking on new debt without any plan to ever reduce the debt.

Since 1960, Congress has raised or extended the debt limit more than 70 times. Washington's choice to keep raising or suspending the debt ceiling is like raising the limit on your credit card month after month with no plan to pay it off.

It is reckless, and it is this kind of fiscal irresponsibility that is hurting American families and causing the rising inflation we are seeing.

As you can see here, 87 percent of Americans are worried about inflation--87 percent. Low- and fixed-income families are having to cut on purchases because of rising costs.

Look at these numbers: Gas up 52 percent in 12 months; milk, 11; bacon, 16 percent; eggs, 6 percent; used cars, 45 percent; utilities, 6 percent.

I am hearing from families all across Florida who are worried. Read you a couple stories.

A father of three in Jacksonville, who is temporarily helping to take care of two other kids because their father is out of work, has started working a second job driving Uber just to pay for groceries that are rapidly increasing in price. Now, his Uber job is becoming less and less profitable because the rising price of gas.

Mother of four in Wauchula said she used to be able to go to the grocery store and spend a certain amount of money for an entire month's groceries; now she can't. Two hundred dollars in meat is not--is no longer enough to feed her family of five. She is being forced to choose between gas to get to work and groceries for her family, and is picking up extra jobs just to get by.

I can relate to all this. I grew up in a family that struggled for money. My mom would take in ironing for extra money. She would send me or my older brother to the grocery store with exact change, but she told us: You have got to check the prices. The prices keep going up. And if it does, you have got to figure out how to get the food we need with less--with the money we have.

I have spoken to the owner of a construction company in West Palm Beach who says materials are going up. Twenty-four dollars for a sheet of plywood is now $80 a sheet. Drywall is going up a dollar a board. Prices of hardware, like screws, are going up 10 to 15 percent per month. Delivery prices are going up due to gas and the shortage of truck drivers. His employees are complaining about gas and are afraid what it might mean if the price continues to rise.

A restaurant owner in Tampa told me the cost of meat has gone up from $9 a pound to $18. Gas prices and food prices, coupled with the struggle to find workers, has been very hard on his business.

Another family in Kissimmee told me how hard it is to keep food on the table because everything is so expensive. They are having trouble keeping the car because of the cost of maintenance and gas, but if he doesn't have a car, he wouldn't have a way to get to work to take care of his family.

The price of gas affects nearly everyone, and right now average gas prices are up nearly $1 since last year.

For a family that fills up their tank once a week, if you drive a car, that means Joe Biden raised your expenses $600 a year; if you drive a truck, that means Joe Biden raised your expenses by more than $1,000 a year.

Biden and the Democrats say they care about people, but they have done absolutely nothing to help families struggling to keep up with inflation. Their plan is to spend more, more, more money, not less.

We have nearly $30 trillion in debt, and there are no plans to slow down. Now Biden and the Democrats want to spend another $5.5 trillion on their liberal priorities, with no consideration as to how this might impact families.

Right now, this message that President Biden and the Democrats in Washington are sending to the American people is clear: We don't care about inflation. We don't care about reckless spending that is causing prices to skyrocket.

If they say that is the cost of getting our liberal--their liberal wish list done, so be it.

I think it is a disgusting approach and I am not going to stand for it. I am here to say that enough is enough. It is time to wake up to reality. Eighty-seven percent of Americans are concerned about inflation. We have to take action to get government spending under control, which is why we have introduced the Federal Debt Emergency Control Act.

My bill prevents Washington from mindlessly spending by requiring that two-thirds of the Senate vote to increase the debt before approving any bill with deficit spending.

It would also terminate any unobligated funding from the American Rescue Plan and any previous spending bills--sending it back to the Treasury general fund for deficit reduction.

Finally, it would ensure that any bill reducing the debt by at least 5 percent over 10 years is fast-tracked through the legislative process.

I have also introduced an amendment to the Senate rules to require that all committee reports include inflationary impact statements so Americans can see the true impacts of government spending.

Americans deserve to know how their hard-earned dollars are being spent and how Washington's spending is affecting inflation. This will ensure they do.

I welcome all my fiscally responsible colleagues to join me to say we don't accept status quo. We won't watch in silence as people try to spend us into oblivion. We won't stand by while inflation wreaks havoc on our families and businesses.

We can get spending under control. While I was Governor of Florida, we paid down one-third of our State debt by living within our means, all while cutting taxes and fees about 100 times.

We can do it here, but we have to start acting responsibly today, and the time to do that is now. It is time to stand up for our grandkids, whose future is being mortgaged for out-of-control Washington spending. This isn't political. It is good government, and it is commonsense.

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