Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, Benjamin Franklin told of a French woman who once confided to her sister: ``I don't know how it happens, sister, but I meet with nobody but myself that is always in the right.'' He was reminding his colleagues that democracies were never designed to make perfect decisions, only the most acceptable ones to the most people.

My disappointment in the Senate version before us is vast, but it has one redeeming quality: It is within reach. No, it doesn't begin to address the dangerous debt that threatens our Nation's solvency, but it does open up a process that is absolutely critical if we are going to stop a $4.5 trillion tax increase that would devastate our economy, provide the funds to secure our borders, and provide for our defense in a dangerous world.

I am frustrated with the Senate numbers, but in DOGE we trust. I think we can achieve a trillion dollars of savings as a result of its work. The mass repatriation of millions of illegal aliens should save another $150 billion. Restoring the work requirement for able-bodied welfare recipients will save hundreds of billions of dollars more without touching a single service for the truly needy. The economic rebound from the regulatory and fiscal reforms and from the bilateral free trade agreements the President intends to negotiate are potentially explosive.

None of these reforms are in this resolution, but all of them depend on this resolution. If anybody has a better alternative, they need to bring it to a vote in both Houses this week. Otherwise, let us take a little of Benjamin Franklin's advice, doubt a little of our own infallibility, and get on with the work we were elected to do and upon which the prosperity of our people and the future of our Nation depends.

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