President Biden's Budget

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROSE. Madam Speaker, on Monday, President Biden released a budget proposal calling for the highest sustained level of government spending in American history.

Unfortunately, despite record-high inflation caused by his administration's reckless and out-of-control spending, President Biden's budget request fails to fight inflation and leaves our military woefully unprepared if enacted as is. Instead, it uses budget tricks and misguided projections, combined with already-expiring spending programs, to forecast an unrealistic decrease in the deficit, all while raising taxes.

In fact, the White House assumed inflation would only be 2.3 percent for this year when, in reality, the actual inflation rate is running at 7.9 percent. Furthermore, they used an extremely low interest rate forecast, even though the Federal Reserve recently raised interest rates and signaled more rate increases would be on the way. Worst of all, they take credit for the temporary spending programs used to combat the pandemic that are already set to expire and are calling it a spending cut.

The only explanation for such drastic errors and misguided messaging is that the Biden administration intentionally wanted to mislead the American people and save face for a failed first year of one-party Democratic control. It is absurd that President Biden thinks he can pull the wool over the American people's eyes and fool them into thinking he has taken the issues of inflation, the debt, and the deficit seriously.

But we know that is not the case because President Biden and Congressional Democrats spent trillions of tax dollars during the first year of complete Democratic control to enact their ultra-leftwing agenda and satisfy their so-called progressive base, resulting in an increase in inflation every month President Biden has been in office.

Even after a year of record spending on unnecessary social programs and burdensome environmental regulations that terminate American jobs and make us reliant on foreign energy, the President did not learn his lesson. His budget proposal spends billions of dollars on Green New Deal initiatives while doing everything possible to eliminate the American oil and gas industry.

The worst part of President Biden's bloated budget is what it means for America's Armed Services. If we want the future of our military to be as strong as our current military then, at the very least, it would need to be funded at the same level of inflation. Instead, military spending only increases by 4 percent, well below the current level of 7.9 percent and future projections.

Amid an active land war in Europe, President Biden's budget would shrink the Active-Duty Army to just 473,000 troops. That would leave the service at its smallest size since 1940.

Before releasing his budget, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told the President that inflation would make it difficult to buy the ships that the Navy needs to continue to develop new weapons and to pay our troops at a fair wage. Apparently, the President didn't listen.

How can we expect to compete with China and other adversaries if we are decreasing the size and strength of our military and are unable to fund the research for new weapons? We simply cannot.

It has become apparent that President Biden's White House has adopted a uniform policy when combating inflation. If you close your eyes, cover your ears, plug your nose, and bite your tongue, inflation ceases to exist. We know that is not the case.

Madam Speaker, I have repeatedly called on the President to unleash America's energy independence, reign in government spending, eliminate the burdensome taxes and regulations on job-creating industries and families, and return to the policies that put America first.

Thankfully, Congress will decide what to spend for the sake of our constituents, for our children, and those that follow after them. Let's hope we can come together and pass a budget that puts the brakes on inflation and prevents our country from driving off a fiscal cliff.

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