Providing for Consideration of H.R. Build Back Better Act; and for Other Purposes
Floor Speech
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Mrs. HINSON. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Missouri for yielding today.
Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to this massive tax- and-spend plan that was only posted late last night.
This entire process has been a sham. It has been full of nothing but partisanship, disrespect for taxpayers and late-night and all-day antics. No wonder my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are in disarray.
Late last night, the 2,100-page bill was finally posted. We certainly have not had adequate time to fully read or digest what is in it, let alone figure out how much it is going to cost my constituents.
Iowans deserve to know how much of their hard-earned paychecks are going to be wasted on frivolous, misguided priorities, like funding for butterflies or desert fish when my constituents are busy trying to put food on their tables, provide for their kids, and keep their family farms operating.
But no, we can't even get the most basic information. We don't have an official cost estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Instead, we have nonsense numbers, totally made-up numbers, handed down from the White House in the middle of the night. That is not how we govern responsibly in this body.
Madam Speaker, I came to Washington, D.C., to be an advocate for taxpayers, to make sure that Iowans' voices are heard and to bring a little bit of that Iowa commonsense to the Capitol. This place clearly needs it.
Working families in Iowa sit around their kitchen tables, they talk about what is important to them, they build a budget that fits within their means and they stick to it.
I know what that is like. Moms across the country know what that is like. It is not easy. We have to make hard choices. And frankly, it is disrespectful and embarrassing that we are even having this debate right now.
How can we spend taxpayers' money without knowing how much we are spending?
In the Speaker's own words, we shouldn't vote without a CBO score. I agree. Americans deserve to know the impact legislation will have on their lives. The best estimates that we have, which don't even include all of the provisions that Speaker Pelosi stuffed in there last night, ring up in the trillions.
We are spending approximately trillions of dollars on nonsense priorities when Iowans are dealing with real challenges, and we can't even give them the respect of waiting for a proper cost estimate. This bill bankrupts the economy, it benefits the wealthy, and it builds bureaucracy. It is a bust. Vote ``no.''
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