Math Issues

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Utah for his remarks and all of the good stuff we have started off with as Republicans in this Congress and his remarks about athletics.

I was a walk-on in college. I hope all of us might be able to work together to figure out how to deal with this bit of a mess that the NIL is creating with respect to college athletics.

I watched significant fallout and wondered what it meant for good programs and coaches, like Tony Bennett at the University of Virginia and others, who have been raising red flags about what is happening with respect to the NIL. We can also figure out how to cut spending.

Mr. Speaker, I am not here to talk about the NIL. I will save that for another day, notwithstanding the national championships coming up around the country which the University of Texas should be playing in. Unfortunately, they are not.

Republicans were given the opportunity to have control of the United States House of Representatives, the United States Senate, and the White House. Come Monday, President Trump will be sworn in as the 47th President of the United States, and it can't come a moment too soon.

For everybody watching what is happening to our country, what this current administration is doing to our border, to our national security, to our spending, to the state of our culture, to the rule of law in the streets, the use of lawfare, the abuse of power, this can't come fast enough for most Americans.

The question before us right now as Republicans is whether or not we are going to deliver. Last time I checked, the American people did not send us to Washington and they did not give us the majority in the United States House of Representatives, the people's House, to rack up more deficits.

With all due respect to my Republican colleagues, we are currently on track to do just that. We are projected to have a $2 trillion-deficit next year. As we speak, interest rates are going up, our debt is getting refinanced at higher interest rates, and we have more debt that we are going to have to finance at higher rates. That means interest is going up. We have a job to do right now to cut spending, cut deficits, and save our country for our children.

I would wager that if I looked at the campaign materials or the speeches of every single Republican in the House of Representatives and the Senate, they all ran on cutting spending and balancing budgets.

The question before this body is going to be: Will they do it?

I need to clear the record because my name has been invoked, and that of a number of my friends, for standing for things that are not true. My name has been invoked by people in this room, by colleagues about what I believe and don't believe.

Let me set the record straight right here, right now. Yes, I believe that we should make permanent the Trump tax cuts from 2017. I think that would be good for our economy. I think that would be good for the American people. I think that would help create more economic growth, and I think that economic growth would yield revenue to the Treasury.

I believe in what people call dynamic scoring; some people in this town say that I do not. What I do not believe in is making up numbers. What I do not believe in is magic fairy dust that says the budget will magically balance if you cut taxes and never cut spending because that is simply not true.

If I come to the floor and this Chamber is full and I ask any one of my colleagues to stand up and look the camera in the eye and tell their people back home on C-SPAN or on the news that, for example, child tax credits pay for themselves or changing certain rates pay for themselves, not one of them will stand up.

I promise you that we are going to be facing votes on this floor this year to extend the tax cuts that include, for example, child tax credits and other tax policies that in no way, shape, or form, economically speaking, pay for themselves.

We are going to be told to do that on faith, that the growth in the economy will magically produce revenue and cause deficits to go down. Nothing in our history would tell you that is true.

How do you think we got to $36 trillion in debt? It was by refusing to do basic math.

We are told we are not going to touch any kind of reforms in healthcare or Medicare to drive down the price of healthcare so that we can save Medicare from its clear insolvency, and Social Security from its clear insolvency. It is going to go bankrupt in, what, 8 years. So we are not going to talk about those things.

What we are going to talk about, we are told, is to extend the tax cuts and then sit around and try to figure out how to cut other mandatory spending without regard to whether or not that will be deficit reducing.

I think it is really important for the American people to understand this: There are games being played in Washington right now to put pressure on people to box them in, to box Members of this body in.

Right now, conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus are often maligned on the pages of publications as being the rightwing guys because oddly enough we believe in freedom, balanced budgets, and securing the border. Yes, we are the crazy ones. The House Freedom Caucus has proposed, put forward, a plan to raise the debt ceiling over $4 trillion over 2 years; fund the border at $86 billion, the request by the incoming administration and border czar Tom Homan; fund defense modernization at $200 billion plus-up, a separate fund through reconciliation, so we can modernize our defense and do what we need to do to beat China.

What we are asking for for that is to reverse some of Biden's policies, which are all things that the President campaigned on. Reversing the EV mandate is $117 billion. Medicaid work requirements and SNAP work requirements are $120 billion. Undo the student loan bailouts, which are an unfair shift of money from the working population to those who took on student loans, that is 100 to $270 billion of savings.

Again, I want to be very clear because here is what you are going to hear in the coming weeks: The House Freedom Caucus refuses to do a debt ceiling so reasonable Republicans are going to have to go cut a deal with Democrats to increase the debt ceiling, increase appropriations over our current spending levels, including defense and nondefense, and, oh, by the way, give a crud ton of money to California.

That is coming. That is coming.

They will try to blame the Freedom Caucus and conservatives like me who dare say, hold on a second, maybe we shouldn't do that. Maybe we should come up with another path forward to actually honor our commitments to cut spending and reduce the size and scope of government while we cut taxes, secure the border, and do the things we are supposed to do.

Again, we have put forward a plan. We have shared it with our colleagues. We have shared it with the incoming administration. We are making it public. That plan will increase the debt ceiling so that Chuck Schumer can't play games with the bond market, fund border, fund defense, cut some of the disastrous Biden policies to pay for those things the American people prioritize, and in so doing, free up defense to be modernized and built so that when we come to March we don't have to do what happens every year where defense hawks sell their souls to the devil to raise defense spending all driven by K Street lobbyists and the defense contractors in this town who define our defense policy so that Democrats can get increases in nondefense spending, which is an increase in programs, and our discretionary budget keeps going up and up and up and up, and you keep funding the very bureaucrats that the DOGE folks say they want to cut.

I have this wild idea for these crazy conservatives in the Freedom Caucus that maybe, just maybe, we should change the game. Maybe, just maybe, we should take that money, go build our defense through reconciliation, level the playing field, pass either a continuing resolution or spending at the caps that we put in place this last year, hold spending frozen for the rest of this year, go do the appropriations process, let DOGE do its work, cut spending to pre-COVID levels, save about a trillion dollars over a decade, do our job to actually deliver on the promises that we made, give wins to the President of the United States, give wins to Republicans, unite the party, unite the country, and demonstrate that we can do our job.

But you know why we can't? You know why we can't do that right now? Because the forces in this town who want nothing but tax cuts and no spending cuts are telling you, you can't do it. That is what is happening.

The lobbyists, the people in this town, Members of Congress are saying that we can't cut because there is some program, there is something in Medicaid, there is some reason, there is some excuse, but, gosh, we are definitely going to go ahead and reinstate all the tax policies because they read in some book a long time ago that they all pay for themselves irrespective, by the way, of the Laffer curve or any commonsense economics.

What I will say to you right now is that if any of my Republican colleagues want to come down to the floor and tell me that each one of those tax provisions pay for themselves, I want to see it. Show me that the child tax credits pay for themselves. I am not saying the child tax credits may not be decent policy. I will tell you right now I would love to vote on a bill right now to just eliminate the tax code and zero it out. Maybe we will do that before this year is over. Maybe everybody will have to put their money where their mouth is. Do you believe in taxation or not? Because if you think you can just freely print money and fund all the things you are too afraid to go back to your district and say that there is a limit on what you can spend while out of the other side of your mouth you talk about tax cuts, let's vote on a bill to zero out the tax code because if you're going to constantly live with $2 trillion deficits, which is where we are right now, why not $6 trillion? Why does it matter? That is a genuine question. Anybody in the complex can feel free to come down here and explain to me why my family, your family, my constituents' families should pay taxes into a system that is designed by this body to bleed 2 trillion-plus dollars a year.

They keep talking about tax policy that is good for economic growth. Okay. Yes, I agree. I support it. I started this speech by saying I support it, but I don't support it blindly. I don't support it without recognizing our responsibility and our need to cut spending. There ain't no free lunch. You can't make up math. You can't just go blame it on the CBO or blame it on scores. Show the American people the math, and don't go run and hide behind a vote on a balanced budget amendment because I promise you that is what my colleagues will say. They will say, oh, man, we need a balanced budget amendment. Do you think they would follow it? That is a genuine question. Pass a balanced budget amendment.

By the way, when all the people out there on Twitter say Chip Roy is railing against a balanced budget amendment, I would respond, no, I am not. I am for a balanced budget amendment. Sign me up. I have cosponsored it. I will vote for it. In the odd event we pass it when it has whatever line it is going to have in it in an exception for national security, do you not believe that everything will be a national emergency?

Do you believe that the insatiable appetite of your Members of Congress to spend money on programs will end because you inserted an amendment in the Constitution that says we must balance the budget? I can promise you every time we hit a debt ceiling, what will happen is we are going to raise the debt ceiling.

The American people sent us here to actually change things. The American people didn't send us here to keep racking up debt. We are $36.3 trillion in debt. It is piling up around our ears. As my friend David Schweikert from Arizona points out every time he comes to the floor of the House, the interest is piling up. It is going up. We are refinancing our debt. We are paying a trillion dollars a year in interest, and that is about to be 1.2, about maybe 1.4. It is going to be $2 trillion pretty soon.

My colleagues are running around like chickens with their heads cut off squawking about what they need to do on tax policy--again, a policy I support--but without recognizing the mathematical need to have spending cuts at least or more than what you think will happen with respect to revenue when you change the tax policy.

The American people expect us to be adults. You cannot have your cake and eat it too. You cannot just go straight to the dessert of going home to your constituents and saying, I cut your taxes, aren't you proud? You can't just get on your donor calls and say, man, I really made sure that your corporate rates are great, and we are making sure your capital gains rates are great, and then not do the other side of the work. You have got to eat your vegetables. You have got to actually do the job.

As I said, I will vote to zero out taxes. We didn't have an income tax for the first half of this country's existence. I think that is great.

You know what else? We didn't take on every single issue in the Federal Government because the Constitution didn't contemplate it. Now we take on all the issues, and we don't pay for them. We sprinkle magic fairy dust around here, borrow money, print money, mortgage our kids' future, and pretend to be adults. I do not for the life of me believe that we can actually change this all in a year. This is the last argument I want to present, and then I am going to recognize my good friend from Pennsylvania.

I said there are people out there who are saying that I don't believe in the dynamic impact of tax policy. That is false. I very much believe in the dynamic impact of tax policy. If we leave money in the hands of the American people and we produce revenue, we produce growth, and that means some additional revenue will come into the Treasury because of the economic growth--yes, but not all of it.

Other people will say, well, gosh, you guys, dollar for dollar you want to make sure that all these cuts are going to add up to the debt ceiling. No, I just want some common damn sense. Just show me some actual cuts up front. Again, I want to reiterate, the House Freedom Caucus conservatives, have put forward a plan and shared it. It will accomplish the objectives. The media and our colleagues will say that they don't want to do that, they can't do that. Well, we have done it. We have put it forward.

Now I want to call on my colleagues and ask them: Well, what is your plan? Because we have a plan, and that plan is to deliver right out of the gate. The President gets sworn in on Monday. Let's secure the border. Let's fund it. You want to have a strong national defense that is not woke, fund it. Do it now, and take it off the ledger in March when we are going to be told that we must eat more spending in government and California money and a $10 trillion debt ceiling increase.

Let's do it right now. Let's do the hard work. Let's extend the debt ceiling 2 years, fund the border, fund defense, give the cuts and the EV mandates, put in Medicaid work requirements. These are all things the American people want us to do. Let's end the student loan bailouts, save money, end bad programs, advance good programs. Let's secure our country, help the President, give him wins, give the American people wins, give us a chance to actually freeze spending in March and in September to stop the growth of the bureaucracy. Let's give Elon and Vivek and DOGE the ability to do what they want to do, which is cut the bureaucracy, which they can't do if we keep funding it.

We can do that, but if my colleagues are going to insist on putting us in a box and telling the world because Chip says, you know what, I think we should put everything on the table, all taxes, until we make sure we are getting enough cuts with respect to the tax policy, and then they have the audacity to go out and say, Chip won't vote for a bill unless there is a corporate tax increase. That is a lie. Anybody who says that is a liar because that is not what I am saying. Anybody who says I don't believe in dynamic scoring is lying. That is the truth.

What I want to do is make sure we save our country. What I don't want to do is play games. Unfortunately, all too often too many of my colleagues want to play games.

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Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Pennsylvania for his remarks.

Mr. Speaker, he is right. The clock is ticking. We can't let another legislative day go and another legislative day go in which we don't deliver. The American people expect us to deliver.

We can and will deliver tax policy that is progrowth and that extends what we did in 2017. We will deliver spending cuts if we get in the room and work, but it is going to take time.

It is going to take time to undo the damage of the Biden administration and for us to go through everything that we need to go through to identify the cuts that we can all work through, but we will do it if we have the willpower to do it and if we can do math and understand that we need deficits to go down.

What we are saying is, let's deliver right now. Do not risk border security by pushing it off months into the future.

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Mr. ROY. We could do that right now if the House would act. Right now, pass the budget, pass the instructions, and do exactly what we just laid out. Do the debt ceiling increase, do the funding for the border, and give it to Tom Homan tomorrow.

In a matter of 1 or 2 weeks, we can get that out of this Chamber and over to the Senate. By February, they would have money for defense, money for the border and a fence, and a debt ceiling that is gone.

We would have undone some of the worst Biden policies and paid for all of it. That is precisely what the American people sent us here to do.

Instead, this Chamber currently is locked in a cycle of talking about what we might do. We have to move for the American people. That is why we put forward an approach that we believe will work.

It is really important--really important--for the American people to understand that what is happening in this town is that games are being played by people who want to try to leverage those of us who want to cut spending. That is the bottom line.

I am speaking for myself right here. There are some of my colleagues who want to attach the border funding to the bills that we are moving forward without--they don't believe that we will get to the spending cuts that will make those of us who believe we need deficits to go down happy. They want to try to force us to eat increased deficits in order to achieve the border security funding.

I don't think we should play games with the border security. I don't think we should play games with defense. I don't think we should play games with getting the debt ceiling cleared off without giving more power to Chuck Schumer and Democrats to mess with us in March.

We can win across the board if we adopt this plan, and I would strongly recommend that we move forward with this plan so that we can deliver for the President and deliver for the American people.

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Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I would remind people that what happened before Christmas was precisely that, trying to cram down a bunch of stuff in a big bill, and it met with resounding failure.

Let's not do that. Let's make the 119th Congress be about success, delivering on the President's agenda and on the Republican agenda, the agenda we ran on, and, most importantly, delivering for our kids and grandkids a world in which they can actually live free from worrying about China, free from worrying about debt, and free from worrying about open borders and criminals on the streets.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Pennsylvania for his remarks, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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