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Floor Speech
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Mr. MARSHALL. Mr. President, as you know, most every January, hard- working families across this country gather together at their kitchen tables, and they work on a budget. Then, once a month, they try to balance their checkbooks, making a budget, balancing the checkbooks. Congress seems to be incapable of doing either of these. That is why, today, this country faces a national debt of over $36 trillion--$36 trillion. I believe that debt is the greatest threat we have to our long-term national security and to the future of America in so many ways.
First, we need to look at how we got here. How did we get to $36 trillion in national debt? I think many of us feel it has been driven by Federal waste, by fraud, and gross mismanagement.
Now, last year's Federal deficit--I want you to think about this. We are talking about the deficit now. We have a national debt of $36 trillion. We have a deficit each year. So in this last fiscal year, the Federal Government took in $5 trillion, but we spent $7 trillion. Let me say it again. We took in $5 trillion, but we managed to spend $7 trillion. That is pretty simple math for a deficit of some $2 trillion.
This last year, we eclipsed a new benchmark. The Federal Government spent more on interest payments--on interest alone--on the debt than it did on funding the national defense or Medicare. Let me say it again. We spent more on making an interest payment than we did on national defense or Medicare. No matter what your priorities are--whether it is schools, roads, and bridges, or maybe you think we need more military-- when we are spending $1 trillion a year as a nation on interest, lots of things are going to go unaccomplished.
The American people have clearly spoken as 77 million people elected Donald J. Trump to be the President and, with them, his priorities in that we deal with the bureaucratic inefficiencies, the overregulation, and a government that prioritizes beltway politics over the heartland, all without any transparency or accountability.
So what am I talking about?
The Pentagon can't account for $824 billion. Improper Federal payments in 2023 were $236 billion. The pandemic relief lost to fraud and abuse was $200 billion. Right there together, just those three items alone, add up to $1.2 trillion of waste, fraud, and mismanagement.
We take a peek again at 2023 and the Biden-Harris administration's open border policies. Think about the costs of taking on these 10 million--maybe more--illegal immigrants. It is at least $150 billion.
Our Department of Education spent over $1 billion in promoting DEI initiatives in schools. Let me say it again--$1 billion in promoting the DEI initiatives in schools, but our kids can't read and write and do math.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Government adds $6 billion of debt daily. So we are at $6 billion. By the time you wake up in the morning, go to bed, and wake up the next day, we have added another $6 billion of debt. The total debt now, as I said earlier, is over $36 trillion. Again, we are making an interest payment of $1 trillion each year.
So this is where DOGE comes in. What can DOGE do here? I am proud to be one of the founding members. I appreciate Senator Ernst's leadership on this. I am committed to addressing this crisis and to reforming the Federal Government to operate with the efficiency and accountability that Americans deserve.
To address this spending crisis, we need a plan, and we need accountability. We have some simple reforms that we can make on day one that slash the spending and disrupt the unaccounted-for blank check spending that we are seeing out of this Federal Government. So here are just a few examples, and I have been sharing these with people who are coming into this new administration.
If this were a business, the first thing I would do when I would have seen that we had spent $2 trillion more than we had taken in--the first thing I would do is I would freeze Federal employees. I would not hire any more Federal employees.
Next, I would require all Federal employees to return to their offices to work. You know, maybe only 1 out of 10, maybe 2 out of 10 Federal employees in DC are actually back in the office working.
Next, I would decentralize the Federal Government. There are many functions of the Federal Government that could be better and less costly if we would move them out of this environment.
Next, I would implement term limits for political appointees as well as long-term employees.
I think there are opportunities for Agency consolidations. We can modernize the IT system. We are spending 80 percent of $100 billion annually on an outdated IT system here in the Federal Government. The opportunities that we would save financially with regulatory reform are infinite. We could roll back energy mandates, EPA limits, methane emission rules. We could expand Federal land leasing for oil and gas production.
Next, I would talk about cutting subsidy waste--getting rid of some of the tax credits. For instance, taxpayer-funded electric vehicle subsidies could be done away with. Why in the world are we giving tax credits to foreign entities? So we have foreign countries, foreign entities that are benefiting from some of these tax credits as well.
Our grant oversight is just pitiful in the spending of money. With the NGO research grants, we don't know who is spending it and where it is going. Then we are funding billions of dollars on gain-of-function research and teaching China how to develop weapons against Americans. The biodefense program for the NIAID is spending over $2 billion annually, again, to help communist China develop bioweapons against Americans. We need more research accountability.
There are opportunities for education reform. Then, with the taxation and IRS reform, we could rescind the $80 billion for IRS funding under the IRA act as well. Certainly, simplifying tax laws would be a great opportunity as well.
Those are just a few. That is just a handful of the ideas that we have passed on to DOGE and to President Trump's team, and we look forward to working with them. I think it is enough said. Enough is enough. It is time for Federal Agencies and unelected bureaucrats to remember that we the people sign their checks and that DOGE is absolutely committed to restoring accountability and putting the Federal Government back on the path to serving the American people. These solutions will give beltway bureaucrats fits--it will give them heartburn--but these reforms will finally put the Federal Government on notice and on a path to start working like a business.
I will close with this. DOGE can help us identify and prioritize waste. So DOGE is going to help us identify and prioritize the waste, the fraud, and the mismanagement, but it is up to Congress to put their gloves on, roll up their sleeves, and get the work done.
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