Preventing Paygo Sequestration

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, this week, the President has been traveling across the country telling Americans how appreciative they should be that Washington Democrats are spending, or have spent, $1.9 trillion in borrowed dollars, money they are using to bail out States run by the President's political buddies and to reward devastating lockdowns that have destroyed hundreds of thousands of small businesses and kept kids out of schools; billions on policies that will reduce private-sector employment in this country; billions on foreign aid.

And out of all the money, less than 9 percent goes towards healthcare spending to crush the virus and to put vaccinations in people's arms.

The massive debt-inducing spending package also threatens billions in cuts to seniors on Medicare, including $36 billion starting next year. My guess is that the President is probably not going to be bragging to seniors he meets on the road that the bill he signed into law is cutting billions of dollars from their Medicare, just as I am sure he won't bother to mention that the economic recovery he wants to take credit for is already underway; that the economy is steadily projected to reach the level of real GDP growth we saw prior to the pandemic by the middle of this year; that we are on track this year, in fact, to have the largest economic growth in more than 15 years, all without one dime used from the nearly $2 trillion bailout package that the Democrats passed in the last week.

In other words, just as President Biden has desperately tried to take credit for the incredible, truly historic work President Trump did to ensure that we have vaccines going into the arms to save lives, he is trying to take credit for an economic recovery put in place by the policies signed into law by President Trump. Don't listen to the words. Watch his actions.

In fact, it was under President Trump's leadership that Operation Warp Speed delivered multiple vaccines in record time with planning to get those shots in the arms of the American people. Meanwhile, the Biden administration has spent an inordinate amount of time running afoul of fact checkers with their shameless rhetoric meant to dismiss the incredible work done by the previous administration.

Nevertheless, we are here today because Democrats want to fix one of the many problems caused by President Biden and the House Democrats in the $1.9 trillion bailout: Those cuts to Medicare. And they want to do so by erasing almost $2 trillion in spending from the Nation's books; pretending $2 trillion in spending is not going to happen.

That, of course, serves two purposes for our Democrat colleagues. First, it avoids the immediate cuts, which they caused and they chose to happen. Second, it gives them a clean slate on which they are reportedly already planning to add trillions more in spending in the months to come.

Given all of this, I would ask my colleagues to move forward with a much better approach, one that stops their Medicare cuts and does so in a more responsible way. Let's work together to protect seniors and to cut waste from their bailout bill that the American people clearly don't want, such as stopping billions in benefits and payments to prisoners and illegal immigrants--billions in payments to prisoners and illegal immigrants; stopping funds they recklessly jammed into the bailout for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities; stopping special handouts to Federal employees; rescinding billions in bailouts that go to State governments that do not need it, and reward their continued lockdowns.

Mr. Speaker, put people before politics. Put people before politics. Put seniors ahead of the Democrats' special interests and their political class. This is the responsible way to address the Medicare cuts caused by my Democrat colleagues. It is a far better approach than to simply pretend $1.9 trillion in spending is not happening. It is a far more honest approach given the fact that the President is traveling the country bragging about the same nearly $2 trillion in spending.

Mr. Speaker, $1.9 trillion, such a big number, is hard to put in proper perspective. But this year, when the American people pay their Federal income taxes, every single penny--every single penny of their hard-earned money the IRS collects will total less than the cost of this $1.9 trillion bailout to their friends, donors, and political allies.

Let's do the responsible thing: Protect seniors by rolling back some of the most wasteful and wrong policies embedded in the Democrat's bailout bill.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to remind the gentleman from New Jersey that the folks in southeast Missouri, a family of four who makes less than $55,000 a year, under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act had zero in tax liability because of what the Republicans passed.

I don't think a family of four, who makes $55,000 or less, is considered the wealthy. But apparently maybe someone from New Jersey might think someone who makes $55,000 for a family of four is wealthy. It is surely not in southeast Missouri.

I also would like to point out that the gentleman from New Jersey did not help support in waiving this provision back in 2017.

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Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind the body that the reason we are here today is because of the reckless behavior. All of these cuts on Medicare are because House Democrats forced through a nearly $2 trillion spending bill. The reason we have the paygo statutory provision is because President Obama signed it into law and House Democrats passed it. So the cuts are the result today of all the policies that Democrats have been doing since 2010.

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Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind the gentlewoman from Illinois that actions speak louder than words, and that the Democrats did not help the folks in 2017, since the gentlewoman tried to point out the hypocrisy.

Mr. Speaker, my colleagues and I have introduced an alternative, a more responsible approach that protects our seniors and rolls back some of the most wasteful and absurd parts of the Democratic bailout bill.

I would encourage my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to put America's seniors ahead of their special interest allies. Join us in finding a solution that protects and respects America's seniors and the working class. We will offer such a solution as a motion to recommit. If adopted, it will instruct the Budget Committee to consider an amendment to make the sensible cuts in waste offered in H.R. 1999, the Protect Seniors and Cut Waste Act.

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