Bob Good — Rep. Good Speaks Out on Fiscal Solvency on the House Floor

Speaker 1: Mr. Speaker, I also want to commend our Speaker and this House, this very body, for negotiating and passing a responsible bill to raise the debt limit in exchange for spending cuts and reforms. While the White House and the Senate stood on the sidelines for 90 days, this very body came together and negotiating a debt limit increase. While many of our members did not want to increase the debt limit, but we negotiated that with responsible and reasonable spending cuts and reforms. Democrats in the White House and here in Congress, if they had their way, they'd raise the debt ceiling by some $4 trillion with no reforms or spending cuts, promising to do what Washington never does and cut spending in some future undefined date. Certainly a default will occur if we continue on the current track and we can no longer borrow, we can no longer sell our debt, we can no longer service our debt. Republicans here in the House are determined not to let this happen

and that's why

Speaker 1: we have done our job. What did we pass out of this House? Returning spending to pre-COVID levels for non-defense discretionary

Speaker 2 (higher-pitched voice): spending. We put 1% caps on future growth in spending. We've eliminated hundreds of billions of dollars in woke climate environmental extremism that's in the Phony Inflation Increase Act and the Phony Inflation Reduction Act. We have eliminated the half a trillion dollar student loan transfer scheme, eliminated the expansion of the IRS

and

Speaker 2 (higher-pitched voice): and rescinded unspent COVID funds, which are tens of billions of dollars more. Most Americans understand those are reasonable, and all of those should be rescinded and eliminated. We've also reinstated work requirements for able-bodied Americans of working age, without dependents, in return for federal assistance. This is important not just to save tens of billions of dollars, but also to grow our economy and get

Speaker 1: back to the Trump growth of 3 to 4 percent a year, instead of the Biden growth of 1 percent a year. We've got the Reigns Act, which will require a floor vote

on every significant rule

Speaker 1: or regulation coming out of the regulatory bodies, the unaccounted bureaucrats who run our agencies and departments. We've also got H.R. 1, our energy bill, which will return to American energy independence, which is critical for our national security as well as our economic security. Default will not happen June 1 or any time thereafter unless it is willfully caused by the Secretary of Treasury, who chooses not to prioritize payments towards the obligations on our debt, Social Security, Medicare, our veterans and our defense. Matter of fact, I authored a letter to Secretary Yellen, joined by many of my colleagues, asking what is her plan to ensure we don't have a default and to prioritize spending. What will happen if we don't raise the debt ceiling is you would have the forced reduction of $100 billion

on a

Speaker 1: monthly basis in discretionary spending. Democrats in the House and in the Senate and in the White House will not allow that to happen. We need to hold the line and have the Senate pass the Save Limit Grow Act, which was passed three weeks ago in this very body, do their job

avoid

Speaker 1: whatever consequences there might be for reaching the debt limit. And what we ought to do actually in this House body, rather than negotiate down and weaken the bill that we've passed, we ought to be adding H.R. 2, our border security bill, as we see the hundreds of thousands on a monthly basis that are invading our country as a result of this president's border policies. I applaud my House colleagues for doing our job to protect the financial integrity of the United States, which is our number one responsibility as the House of Representatives, in passing this responsible spending bill that will avoid any consequence from not raising the debt limit and will put us on a path to future fiscal responsibility. And I yield back, Mr. Speaker