A Call to Champion Fiscal Responsibility

Floor Speech

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Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call on this body to champion fiscal responsibility.

It is no secret that the U.S. is steamrolling its way to fiscal ruin, rapidly barreling toward economic collapse and unfairly burdening future generations, yet few here in Washington seem to notice this fiscal calamity, let alone care enough to fix it. Far too many have not only become numb to our ballooning national debt and out-of-control deficit, but completely addicted to spending money that we simply don't have.

The U.S. national debt climbs higher every second, swelling at such an alarming rate that hitting new trillion-dollar milestones has now become routine. In fact, in June, just 7 months ago, the national debt reached $32 trillion. This figure surged to $33 trillion 3 months later in September, and, just days ago, in just another 3.5 months, our national debt surpassed $34 trillion, amounting to roughly $100,000 for every American, for our constituents.

Racking up more than $2 trillion in national debt in just 7 months' time is not a historic milestone; it is a historic failure. At this rate, we are adding roughly a trillion dollars to our national debt every 90 days--think about that--a trillion dollars every 90 days, setting us up to hit, if not exceed, $37 trillion by the end of the fiscal year. Unsustainable is an understatement.

Every solitary Member should be enraged by this ill-fated trend, but despite all the warning signs, it is business as usual here in Washington, as evidenced by the recently announced agreement on the overall price tag for fiscal year 2024 appropriations.

Make no mistake, the bipartisan spending deal is a total sham. No amount of smoke and mirrors can hide the swamp's irresponsible, wasteful, and reckless spending agenda. While leaders from both parties claimed that the top-line spending level matches the $1.59 trillion statutory cap set last year by the Fiscal Responsibility Act, the true total of programmatic spending is actually more than $68 billion higher at $1.658 trillion.

The statutory FRA cap, which, in my opinion, is already far too high, should have been the ceiling, not the floor, to hide or excuse this excessive spending. That is right: New year, same uniparty.

I vehemently oppose this sham bipartisan spending deal, and I am deeply disappointed that, yet again, at President Biden and Senate Leader Schumer's pleasure, critical leverage and key policy wins were abandoned.

My constituents didn't send me here to greenlight more of the swamp's spending as usual, exacerbate our national debt, or concede in conservative policy battles. They sent me here to change the course of Congress, to change the status quo.

I am fighting to do just that, but, if we are ever going to save our Nation, economy, and future generations from financial failure, we need more Republicans in both Chambers to join the fight. After all, we should be far more afraid of fiscal calamity than fighting the swamp.

Therefore, I urge my colleagues to take our rapidly approaching financial ruin seriously by rejecting this irresponsible deal. Let's champion fiscal responsibility and return fiscal sanity to Washington by cutting spending, not carrying on business as usual while our fiscal House falls into a sinkhole of skyrocketing debt.

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