Extending Government Funding and Delivering Emergency Assistance Act
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. MEUSER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Republican leader, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Granger).
Mr. Speaker, today, the national debt is a higher percentage of GDP than it has ever been. Our national debt threatens to burden future generations and limit our prosperity. After spending $5 trillion in the last year--$3.6 trillion of which was bipartisan for COVID relief--it is time to address this very serious issue.
This Democrat majority, however, has rushed headlong toward excessive and unnecessary spending. Working families are already feeling the impact of the $1.9 trillion spending bill that continues to drive record inflation. Now Democrat leadership is moving forward with an outrageous $3.5, maybe $4.5, maybe $5 trillion tax and spending spree, which is not only the single largest bill ever brought before Congress--spending bill, that is--it is also the largest tax bill. It is also the largest anti-domestic energy bill. It is also the largest entitlement bill. And it is also the largest amnesty bill ever.
The only thing that got cut from this was the $1 billion, which was somewhat explained, from the Iron Dome funding for defense of our ally Israel.
Mr. Speaker, the bill would actually limit private-sector growth, which is the source of the revenue--the golden goose, if you will--and would reduce GDP as debt crowds out any benefit spending would have. This comes from a report from the Wharton School of Business.
This is nothing short of Big Government socialism suffocating free market capitalism. While this pill works its way through Congress, Democrats are asking Republicans to sign a blank check for their reckless spending. The Democrats are asking us to suspend the debt ceiling for the remainder of their time in the majority to finance reckless spending while we stand on the sidelines, which we are not going to do.
As the Senate minority leader recently put it, this is like cosigning a loan before a heavy gambler's trip to Las Vegas. Democrats want unlimited borrowing authority to finance their Big Government socialist agenda, leaving the American people to pay for these tax-and-spend, irresponsible policies in more ways than one.
We simply cannot stand for this.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. MEUSER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman.
Mr. Speaker, if this was for past spending that the majority leader suggested, then the debt ceiling cap would be at today's level of debt, which is about $28.6 trillion. We will see a much higher number coming our way.
I will not support signing a blank check, as this majority has advanced the most reckless expansion of government in generations.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. MEUSER. Mr. Speaker, I was unable to attend today's rollcall vote. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 266. MEMBERS RECORDED PURSUANT TO HOUSE RESOLUTION 8, 117TH CONGRESS Burgess (Jackson) Cardenas (Gomez) Carter (TX) (Calvert) Cooper (Clark (MA)) Courtney (Perlmutter) DeSaulnier (Thompson (CA)) Frankel, Lois (Clark (MA)) Fulcher (Johnson (OH)) Gonzalez (OH) (Timmons) Grijalva (Garcia (IL)) Kirkpatrick (Levin (CA)) Krishnamoorthi (Brown) Latta (Walberg) Lawson (FL) (Evans) McEachin (Wexton) McHenry (Budd) Meng (Jeffries) Morelle (Tonko) Napolitano (Correa) Payne (Wasserman Schultz) Rice (SC) (Wilson (SC)) Rush (Underwood) Ryan (Kildee) Stanton (Levin (CA)) Stefanik (Reschenthaler) Strickland (Torres (NY)) Swalwell (Veasey) Wilson (FL) (Hayes)
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source