Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Mr. JAMES. Mr. Speaker, America's fiscal trajectory is unsustainable. The threat of a potential U.S. Government debt default plays into China's longstanding grand strategy for expanding its global role and diminishing our influence. It is a matter of national security to get this under control.

When small businesses and families in my district and all across the country experience financial problems, they tighten their belts. They change their spending habits, and they expect Washington to do the same.

Instead, President Joe Biden stood in this very Chamber, gaslighted, fearmongered, and claimed Republicans want to sunset Social Security and Medicare while there are attacks on Republicans all over the country on this very same lie.

Why? To frighten seniors and hope the stampede would block Republicans from reining in his destructive, runaway spending. That is why I introduced the Protecting Social Security and Medicare Act the very next day.

I spoke with leadership in the following weeks about taking these very important critical programs off the negotiation table, and that is exactly what leadership did.

As we debate today, seniors can rest assured that the promises Republicans made to them will not be broken in this debate.

I am also voting for this bill because it does not include cuts to the Pentagon's budget, particularly to Selfridge Air National Guard Base, a pillar of my district, a crown jewel of the State of Michigan, and critical to our national defense against northern aggressors like China, Russia, and North Korea who may threaten us from abroad.

It is reasonable to disagree with any specific debt ceiling approach, and I am looking forward to continuing with the debate.

If President Biden continues to refuse to come to the table and negotiate in good faith, we will achieve historic default, putting our country's national security and families like mine and yours at economic risk in the future.

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