Reverse the Curse

Floor Speech

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Mr. MANN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman, my good friend from West Texas, Red Raider, for yielding me time. I would say if K-State can beat OU 3 of the last 4 years, certainly we can make massive progress on this debt that we have racked up. Nothing is impossible.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss the excessive government funding at a time when inflation is skyrocketing, the supply chain is still struggling to recover, and farmers are going out of business.

I look forward to the month of August every year because it gives me an extended period of time back home to visit with folks in my district and hear about their needs. This year, however, on August 12, Speaker Pelosi called the House back into session to vote on a $700 billion tax-and-spend plan chock full of Green New Deal priorities. This so- called Inflation Reduction Act will do nothing to slow down inflation; it will only make it worse.

The bill contains countless reckless spending provisions such as: $80 billion to hire 87,000 IRS agents, increasing audits on the middle class and small businesses; spending more than $250 billion on Green New Deal spending and a brand new $27 billion climate slush fund at the EPA; $12 billion in new taxes on oil and gas producers, expanding the senseless war on producers of fossil fuels; $128 billion spent to expand Obamacare subsidies.

As if this weren't enough, President Biden announced a plan just a few weeks ago to forgive student loans for up to $20,000 per borrower without the approval of this Congress. Regardless of party, that is appalling.

This plan is obviously just campaigning utilizing taxpayer dollars. It is ill-timed, shortsighted, and irresponsible. In light of the astronomically high inflation that our country is facing, the plan to cancel student loans will cost taxpayers more than $300 billion, transferring the debt burden of borrowers to low- and middle-class taxpayers. The Biden plan unfairly punishes Americans who have already paid their student loans or never attended college.

Government spending is set to expire tomorrow, September 30, and Congress will consider a stop-gap spending bill tomorrow morning to keep this government operating again. Included in the bill is $1 billion of spending to subsidize the home utility costs of low-income Americans, when Biden's war on fossil fuels caused the utility costs to skyrocket in the first place.

There are better ways to solve most problems than simply throwing money at them, but that is all this administration seems to know how to do.

Oddly enough, the one place where House Democrats and this administration don't want to spend more money is on police. The brave men and women who protect us all. It is truly unbelievable.

The picture here, overall, is one of wasteful spending, political pandering that endangers Americans, carelessness, and shortsightedness. This administration needs to wake up to the real problems facing America and start offering practical solutions to pay down our debt before it is too late.

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