Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCALISE. Madam Chair, I thank Mr. Schweikert for yielding and I thank the gentleman from California's Central Valley for his passion. He has been a vocal advocate for the things that are necessary to keep these programs like Medicaid strengthened. As we know, some of these programs are weakened right now. As we move this through the process, he surely has my commitment and that of all of leadership that we will continue to not only listen to him, but his district is going to have a very loud voice as this process moves forward to protect and make sure that people who are on these programs, who are deserving, and who need these programs are going to--frankly, we all ought to be focused on getting better services to these people and rooting out the waste, fraud, and abuse. That is what we are focused on, protecting those people who are on these programs who need them so desperately as Mr. Valadao has fought for years to deliver. He will continue to do that, and we absolutely commit to that for him and others.

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Mr. SCALISE. Madam Chairwoman, I thank my friend from Arizona for yielding to me for 1 minute.

Madam Chair, I rise in strong support, first of all, of this budget resolution. It is a critically important piece of legislation. Frankly, it might be one of the most important resolutions that this Chamber has taken up in years to start the process of delivering on the mandate that President Trump and this House and Senate Republican majority got from the voters of America in November.

I understand that my friends on the other side of the aisle are upset with the voters of America that the minority lost the election. My Democratic colleagues are upset with the results. If everybody here listened to what the American people said in November, frankly, first of all, they would vote for this resolution because the resolution delivers on those commitments, the things that were talked about, the things that sent people to the polls that say: Let's finally get America back on track.

How do we do it? Number one, we start by staving off a $4.5 trillion tax increase. That is $4.5 trillion.

We have heard a lot of hyperbole over the last few days. Just here on this House floor, we have heard from the other side of the aisle, Madam Chair, about millionaires and billionaires. For some reason, it seems like, if somebody is successful in America, the other side of the aisle wants to demonize them, as if that is wrong.

Clearly, if Members read this resolution, this resolution is not about millionaires and billionaires. This resolution is about whether or not Congress is going to stand up for the middle class of America, who will be devastated if this resolution fails.

A lot of times, when we come to the House floor, Madam Chair, my colleagues can vote for or against a bill, and maybe the bill does good things. Maybe Members think the bill does bad things and nothing happens if they vote against the bill. Some days, nothing happening is a good day.

Today, if nothing happens, it is not nothing that happens. Let's be clear: Members have options, Madam Chair. They can vote ``yes'' to pass this resolution and get this process of budget reconciliation started, or they can vote ``no,'' like all of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle brag that they are going to do.

If that is the case, Madam Chair, maybe I can persuade a few. Maybe Democrats don't know this because clearly my colleagues on the other side of the aisle haven't read the resolution. We hear Democrats talking about Medicaid over and over again: Cuts to Medicaid. Cuts to Medicaid.

Clearly, my colleagues haven't read the resolution because, if they read the resolution, the word ``Medicaid'' is mentioned a total of zero times in the resolution. That is all my colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to talk about.

If Democrats read the resolution, the minority would talk about what this does to engage 11 different committees in this Congress to start a process called budget reconciliation, where they will go into open hearings, on C-SPAN. Everybody in America can watch the deliberations, where there will be a discussion about how to get this country back on track. The people of this Nation are hungering for that.

They are not hungering for people yelling and screaming and telling lies and trying to scare people with false information. We are here to talk about facts, and the facts are that a ``no'' vote imposes $4.5 trillion in taxes that primarily hit middle- and low-income families, not the millionaires and billionaires that my colleagues seem to want to demonize.

For example, President Trump was heard talking at every rally about no tax on tips. Clearly, the other side of the aisle was against that. They wanted everybody's taxes to go up. They said they were against renewing the Trump tax cuts, let alone adding things like no tax on tips. We know they were against making sure that those people who work for tips don't have to pay taxes on it.

Well, who are those people who work for tips? Madam Chair, last time I checked, Elon Musk does not work for tips. The billionaires aren't the ones working for tips. In fact, we went back and checked. There are over 6 million Americans in this country who actually do work for tips.

Madam Chair, what is their average salary? Is it $1 million? Is it tens of millions? Is it $1 billion? No. In fact, the average salary of tip workers is $32,000 a year. That is who we are helping in this resolution.

Those tip workers who are struggling, some of them may be working two or three jobs. They are not the millionaires and the billionaires. They might actually be able to take a family vacation for the first time if they don't have to pay a tax on tips and if the 87,000 new IRS agents who Democrats created in the last administration are not unleashed on them to go audit them, to try to make them pay more money on their tip money, which is what is happening. Madam Chair, we say: No, they shouldn't have to pay taxes on those tips.

The other side of the aisle says ``no'' to that. My colleagues hide behind Elon Musk and hide behind billionaires and millionaires, except it is not the millionaires and billionaires who we are trying to help.

Democratic Members want to confuse the voters of this country so that, when the minority votes ``no,'' the middle class of America doesn't realize and revolt that Democrats just voted with their ``no'' vote to impose a $4.5 trillion tax hike on the middle class of this country.

Look at the big number. Taxes on every income level go up. Madam Chair, for those who pay income taxes in America, if the other side of the aisle votes ``no,'' everybody's income tax rate goes up.

Who are those folks? It is 145 million families. It is not 145 million people. I am talking about 145 million families in America who make less than $1 million will see their taxes go up. It is a tax increase not on the millionaires and billionaires if my colleagues vote ``no,'' but it is a tax increase primarily on middle- and lower-income families.

Why aren't Democrats telling us that? Why haven't Members said that on this House floor? It is because my Democratic colleagues don't want the American people to know the truth. The minority wants to create class warfare and try to divide the country against itself.

Shame on people who want to divide this country even more. It is time we unite this country and grow this country, grow the middle class, actually create more jobs and wealth and opportunity.

Madam Chair, as Mr. Schweikert pointed out earlier, and he has the charts to prove it, wealth and opportunity for lower and middle-income families is what happened in 2017 and beyond when we started with the Trump tax cuts.

Just because minority Members don't like the person whose name is behind those tax cuts, Democrats want to try to demonize him, but the facts still remain.

Who benefited the most? We were losing our middle class in America in the decade before we passed those tax cuts. Why? Go look at the record, the facts. We were losing great American company after great American company. They were moving out of America. They were leaving the country. Why is that? It is because we had the highest corporate tax rate in the world.

Madam Chair, the other side would say: Stick it to them even more. Raise tax rates even more.

Madam Chair, there are laboratories of democracy where that has been tried. It is called New York and California, and every time they keep raising rates, what happens? People move in droves. A million-plus people have left those States to go to other States, such as Texas, Florida, and Tennessee, where there is no income tax.

Sure, we are seeing it happen in America, but what happens if Democrats destroy America's system? Where do people go? Well, some of those people left America.

Madam Chair, we don't want that to happen. We actually brought companies back. The logos of all of them would be recognized if we put them up. There is too many to mention that left America over years and years, and nobody did anything about it. Everybody knew why it was happening. We made our country competitive again. How? It was by lowering tax rates.

Madam Chair, everybody should have been for that. Unfortunately, the Democratic Party back then said: We are going to vote ``no'' on that.

Every single Democrat voted ``no.'' Why did my colleagues on the other side of the aisle make it a partisan issue? I don't know, but I know this: We lowered those tax rates to make America competitive.

We are a globally competing economy. Our companies in America don't just compete against the person down the street. They are competing against companies all over the globe, and we should applaud that. We shouldn't just applaud it, by the way; we should make sure they remain the most competitive businesses in the world and that America remains the most competitive country in the world, but we weren't. We were not.

That is why we were losing people. Imagine people saying: I am going to leave the United States of America, the greatest country in the history of the world. It is because our country stopped being competitive, and we finally did something about it.

In 2017, this Republican majority did something about it and finally brought those jobs back and brought wages up. Wages grew for everybody. Companies were giving out bonuses and pay raises. Our unemployment rate went to virtually zero. Those are the facts.

Democrats want those tax rates to go up. Not all of them expire. The corporate rate remains, by the way, competitively low at 21 percent. The corporate rate stays at 21 percent. Do my colleagues know what doesn't stay low if Democrats vote ``no''? I am a ``yes'' vote because I want our country to be competitive. I want our small businesses to be able to be competitive with big businesses.

My Democratic colleagues love beating up on the big guy, but guess what the minority is going to do, and let's look at the facts.

Madam Chair, every small business in America is under a provisional tax code called 199A. If companies are not a small business, they probably have never heard of 199A. If they are a small business, a 20- person mom-and-pop shop on Main Street America, anywhere in this country, 199A is their lifeblood because that is what allows a small business, a 10-, 15-, 20-person American Dream story who started their own business, to now compete and pay the same tax rate as the big, global, multinational corporation who is at 21 percent.

Madam Chair, what happens if Democratic Members vote ``no''? Again, the ``no'' vote does not mean nothing happens. If Members vote ``no,'' they are saying they want the small business now to go from a 21 percent effective rate to as high as 43 percent in taxes.

Think about this: The mom-and-pop small business is barely hanging on. They have beaten all the internet competitors, and they are still able to hold onto those jobs, show up at work every day, and employ the 20 people or the 15 people that they are creating jobs for.

If the other side gets their way, that small business jacks up to a 43 percent tax rate when their competitor, the big, global, billionaire corporation, is still at 21 percent. That is what happens if Democrats vote ``no.''

Why haven't my colleagues said that during the debate? I haven't heard it yet. Again, all we hear about is the billionaires and the millionaires are the ones getting all the breaks, except it is not true, Madam Chair. It is just not true.

Every small business in America gets kicked in the gut if this fails. It will be every small business in America. Look at the numbers. This is over 20 million small businesses. Think of how many workers that is.

Do Democrats just want to kick all of those workers out to the street and to the unemployment rolls? If businesses are paying 43 percent and their competitor is paying 21 percent, one doesn't need a math degree to figure out how quickly they are not going to be able to compete.

We made them competitive in 2017. Why does the other side want to vote ``no'' and all of a sudden make every small business in America uncompetitive with the big billionaires? Madam Chair, Democratic Members are defending the billionaires. This is insanity, but that is the reality of what happens if Members vote ``no.''

Again, maybe by me going through the actual details, we might convince a couple of Members that maybe somebody duped them. Someone gave Members some talking points. Someone mentions the words ``millionaire'' and ``billionaire'' and, next thing we know, we have a parade of 200 people who will just line up and bash the resolution, except it is not in the resolution.

Do my colleagues want to stand up for the middle-class families of this country? Vote ``yes'' on the resolution because that is who we are defending.

Republicans are going to defend the ability for the next billionaire company maybe, but right now it is a dream in somebody's basement. This is what is great about America. If my Democratic colleagues haven't, they should go look at their favorite company. Go look at the biggest companies. Most of them started with a dream in somebody's garage in Silicon Valley.

I know a lot of entrepreneurs who started with great ideas and risked it all over and over again, and then ultimately they might have hit it big, but the only way they were able to hit it big is because they had the ability in the United States of America to turn that dream into a reality where now, all of a sudden, they might hire 300 people.

We ought to applaud that. We ought to celebrate that. We ought to make sure that remains in place. The day we take away that ability in the United States, God help us as a country because the few people who still want that dream but don't have America to go to pursue it, they might go to other places, but there just aren't that many other places in the world to pursue it.

We cannot crush the American Dream of America. It starts with strengthening the middle class and the lower income families' ability to compete with the big guys so that maybe one day they can be, and then they, too, will be demonized by the other side.

In the meantime, give them that ability to compete fairly, and you take that away if you vote ``no'' on this bill. Those are the facts.

Whose rates go up and whose rates don't if this bill fails? That is where we are.

I do think it is important to, one more time, go through the facts of the 2017 bill because so many lies have been told about that.

The poverty rate dropped to the lowest level in history. This isn't the millionaires and billionaires. When we passed the bill in 2017 that every Democrat voted no on, the poverty rate in America dropped to its lowest rate in history. Unemployment hit a 50-year low, and lower- income workers--not the millionaires and billionaires, lower-income workers--saw their wages grow substantially faster than the highest 10 percent of income earners.

Whose side are you going to be on today? We are going to give everybody an opportunity to stand up for those hardworking people who want their shot at the American Dream. Stand up for that waiter or waitress who is working their tail off tonight and who is going to come home and go: Wait a minute. I might not have to pay taxes on my tips. I can save that money and, for the first time, start a college fund for my kid.

It is not the millionaires and billionaires that benefit from that. It is the average income worker. There are millions of them, by the way. The average income is $32,000 a year. That is who House Republicans are fighting for, and we are going to deliver for them because that was the mandate that the people of this country gave us.

Whether you agree or not, whether you like Donald Trump or not, Donald Trump ran on very specific things, and he is delivering on those things. I applaud President Trump for actually following through on the promises that were made. Promises made and promises kept actually matter in this town, and they are rare. When it happens, we ought to applaud it.

When this majority actually delivers, we are going to see on that board real soon who actually stands with the 77 million people of this country who said we want this change, that we demand this change, and that we are going to go to the polls to vote for this change. Let's preserve the American Dream.

Yes, at the risk of offending a couple of people, I am fine with saying: Let's make America great again because America deserves to be great again.

Don't put a $4.5 trillion tax on the middle class of this country. Let's let this country grow. Let's see opportunity flourish. We will do it. We need to pass this bill to start that process.

Mr. Chair, I urge all of my colleagues to vote ``yes.''

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