Our Nation's Economic Outlook

Floor Speech

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Mr. KUSTOFF. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Louisiana for organizing this evening's Special Order. The gentleman is a brilliant orator and brilliant lawyer, and I am proud to serve with him.

Mr. Speaker, tonight I want to speak about one of the biggest challenges facing our country today, and that is our national debt. We have heard about it tonight.

Our national debt today stands at over $31 trillion. It is really hard to comprehend a number that large even for us who serve in the House of Representatives.

Instead of taking advantage of the record tax revenues that were produced from the Republican-passed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017, Democrats have used the 2 prior years that they had in power when they had the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives to spend an unprecedented amount of taxpayer dollars.

Here are two big democratic initiatives: Almost $2 trillion spent on the American Rescue Plan; almost $750 billion spent on what they call the Inflation Reduction Act, really the inflation expansion act.

Here is the bottom line: The result of the massive and colossal spending over those past 2 years has produced skyrocketing debt and rampant and raging inflation. We all hear about that inflation each and every day, just the fact that Americans have a tough time affording to live and exist today.

Right now, our country is on track to add almost $20 trillion to the national debt over the next decade. We have heard these numbers quite a bit tonight. I don't think the American people can hear it enough.

By 2053, that number will reach almost 153 to $154 trillion; trillion with a t. The interest costs on our national debt will amount to almost $10.5 trillion for taxpayers over the next decade.

Now, again, to put that in perspective, the net interest cost over the previous 10 years was a little over $3 trillion. Almost a month ago, our government officially hit its debt limit, and the Treasury Department is now using extraordinary measures to postpone a default.

Every household, every business, frankly, everybody, must balance their budget in order to survive. The Federal Government should be no exception.

The bottom line is something has got to change because Americans are getting crushed under the weight of President Biden's failed economic policies.

The good news is that House Republicans are committed to turning this around for American families, for American businesses, for the American people.

Just this week, I traveled to Yukon, Oklahoma, with my colleagues on the House Ways and Means Committee to hear about the economic and regulatory challenges that they face each and every day. It is the second field hearing that the committee has held since taking back the House of Representatives.

In February, we traveled to West Virginia to hear from people in Appalachia. Republicans on the House Committee on Ways and Means are determined to hear directly from taxpayers, from businessowners, from farmers, from manufacturers, from energy producers about how we can ensure that we can get past all the hardships and all the hurdles. We want to ensure that everyone can succeed. The message that we have heard as a committee from the American people has been very clear: Americans have had enough.

In our commitment to America, House Republicans promise to work toward creating an economy that is strong. One of the most effective ways that we can do that is to reign in the out-of-control spending and get our government's fiscal house in order. We have got to find sensible, reasonable, and responsible solutions to addressing our Nation's economic and debt crisis.

As it stands now, we are leaving our children, our grandchildren, and the next generation with the bill and forcing them to live with potentially higher taxes and less opportunities unless we can do something and do something now.

From all of us on this side of the aisle, we want to make sure that Congress can come together, that we get our country's finances in order so that the promise of the American Dream stays intact for families in my home State of Tennessee, in my district, and certainly across the Nation.

We can do it. We have got to work hard. We have got to reign in this out-of-control spending.

I thank you, Congressman Johnson, for organizing tonight's Special Order so we can speak directly to the American people about this crucial issue.

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