The Debt Limit and Fiscal Restraint
House Republicans will pay our debts and protect the good faith and credit of the United States, but we will not give President Biden an unlimited line of credit.
After two years and $10 trillion of unbridled spending by Democrats, which led to record inflation, soaring interest rates, and an economic recession, it would be irresponsible to raise the debt limit without common sense spending controls.
Why?
Our federal debt is now over $31 trillion, levels we have not seen since World War II – and is projected to grow exponentially. In fact, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects $16 trillion in new debt over the next ten years. Annual interest on this debt alone will reach $1.2 trillion, more than current funding for defense, health services, and veterans combined.
We must “reverse the curse” of deepening deficits and debt by addressing the underlying reason that we are having to raise the debt ceiling to begin with: uncontrolled federal spending.
President Biden must acknowledge the spending crisis he helped create and responsibly negotiate with House Republicans on a new budgetary framework oriented around fiscal restraint.
House Republicans are committed to finding reasonable and sensible solutions to our nation’s debt crisis. This includes identifying wasteful, inefficient and unnecessary federal spending.
- Recapture Unobligated COVID Money – There is nearly $100 billion in uncommitted pandemic money that Congress could rescind to reduce the deficit.
- Put Americans Back to Work – By reinstating work requirements in welfare programs (like TANF and SNAP) we could save tens of billions and spur economic growth.
- Reduce Fraud in the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and SNAP (Food Stamp) Program – Requiring Social Security numbers for the CTC and income verification for SNAP would not only reduce fraud, but it would also save roughly $70 billion.
- Limit Obamacare to its Original Purpose – Capping Obamacare subsidies at 400 percent of poverty and below while recovering overpayments could save nearly $65 billion.
- Cancel Wasteful EPA Programs from the IRA – The Inflation Reduction Act included $27 billion for the EPA with no specific programmatic purpose, and $60 billion for “environmental justice” programs. That money should be rescinded.
- End President Biden’s Student Loan Bailouts – President Biden’s student loan bailout is not only costly and misguided, but recent studies have also shown that it disproportionally benefits the top 10% of income earners. Ending these bailouts would save hundreds of billions of dollars: $25 billion from ending his loan repayment moratorium and $379 billion from prohibiting the debt cancellation all together.
- Stop Wasteful and Extreme Climate Spending – Rescind $3 billion for new USPS electric vehicles, $1 billion for “clean” garbage trucks, $3.4 billion for “regional greenways” and “tree planting,” and $5.6 billion for low emissions buses.
- Refocus Spending to Programs that Address the Crisis at Our Border, Not Exacerbate It –The recent $1.7 trillion omnibus that Democrats rushed through at the end of the year was ripe with wasteful and misguided spending, including hundreds of millions of dollars towards organizations that facilitate illegal immigration and $10 million for legal assistance for detained migrants.
- Address Billions in improper payments – The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently reported that federal agencies made an estimated $281 billion in improper payments during FY21. House Republicans will put a stop to these improper payments.
- Stop Woke-Waste – The recent omnibus included millions of dollars in funding for woke policies that American taxpayers shouldn't be footing the bill for, including $1.2 million for "LGBTQIA+ Pride Centers," $1 million for a space for "gender-expansive people of color," $3.6 million for a Michelle Obama Trail in Georgia, and $750,000 for "Transgender and Gender nonconforming and Intersex (TGI) immigrant women in Los Angeles."
Medicare and Social Security Should be Saved and Strengthened Through Bipartisan Efforts
Social Security and Medicare are earned benefit programs that must be saved and strengthened.
Unfortunately, Democrats controlled the House, Senate, and White House for the last two years, yet did nothing to preserve, protect, or strengthen Social Security and Medicare. Instead, Biden and Democrats expanded welfare without work, doubled down on Obamacare, and provided giveaways to green energy companies.
Democrats’ should stop preying on the fears of seniors by accusing Republicans of cutting Social Security and Medicare and, instead, work with us on bipartisan solutions to address their insolvency.
