Fiscal Crisis Facing America

Floor Speech

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Mr. BARR. Madam Speaker, I rise today in solidarity with the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Smucker), my good friend, to raise an important issue that my constituents, my friend from Pennsylvania and his constituents, and, frankly, constituents all over this country care about, and that is the state of the fiscal crisis facing our country right now.

This is really not a Republican issue or a Democrat issue. All hardworking American taxpayers of all political persuasions should be concerned about the state of the fiscal mess that we face in our country: a $31 trillion national debt that is literally burying our children and our grandchildren in a mountain of debt. This is mortgaging our future, and we need to get our fiscal house in order.

The American taxpayer works hard for their income, and they deserve a government that lives within its means. That is why I am proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with my colleague Mr. Smucker, who will later highlight this issue of fiscal recklessness and the need to tighten our belts and to live within our means so that we do not continue to put this burden on our children and our grandchildren. We need to stop the spending spree and live within our means.

Just to highlight how serious this problem is, Madam Speaker, it is not a lack of tax revenue. The issue is not that we don't tax the American people enough from Washington, D.C. The issue is that we are overspending.

In fact, this year, the Federal Government has raised more revenue from taxes than in any period in history, and it is actually over a trillion dollars when you consider inflation, a trillion dollars more in tax revenue in inflation-adjusted terms.

The problem with our debt and deficit is not that we are taxing the American people too little. The problem is that we are living beyond our means, spending well beyond our means, and it is not only threatening the future fiscal solvency of our country. This overspending, this addiction to deficit spending, has delivered a historic 40-year high inflation crisis. It has created excess demand. When combined with the constraints that this administration has put on energy production, it is a classic supply-demand mismatch, overspending creating excess demand, combined with constraining energy, a war on domestic energy production constraining the supply. That supply-demand mismatch has pushed up prices.

What is the result of that, Madam Speaker? It means the Federal Reserve must engage in a precipitous quantitative tightening process. It must raise interest rates fast. It must engage in tightening monetary policy. What does that mean? Higher interest rates. And higher interest rates mean higher debt service costs. We have to pay higher interest on the national debt, which compounds the problem.

The solution, Madam Speaker, for the fiscal policy policymakers, those of us in the Congress and the White House and the executive branch, is to start living within our means. Then and only then can we get our inflation crisis under control and the Federal Reserve can start lowering interest rates once again.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for his leadership in advocating for fiscal sanity in Washington and the restoration of fiscal responsibility. We need to exercise fiscal discipline and get this ship turned around.

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

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