Top Ten Moments: Budget Republicans are Unified on a Fiscal Framework to Make America Safe and Prosperous
WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Thursday, the House Budget Committee Republicans advanced the Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2025. The budget resolution from House Republicans provides tax relief for working families and small businesses, reverses the Biden-Harris Administration’s whole of government assault on domestic energy, reins-in reckless spending that lit the fuse on inflation, and provides critical resources to our border patrol agents and our troops to strengthen our military.
On delivering for the American people:
Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) —“We have an unprecedented opportunity—and a sacred obligation—to meet this moment with the urgency it demands. Now, more than ever is the time for Republicans in Congress to demonstrate the courage of their convictions and take the bold action this historic moment requires. This budget resolution is more than numbers on a ledger. It’s a blueprint for restoring America’s security, prosperity, and leadership in the world. It’s a promissory note for our children to preserve the land of liberty and opportunity by safeguarding it from an unwieldy government and the unbridled spending, taxing, and regulating that threatens to destroy it. Together, under the leadership of President Trump, we will usher in the Golden Age of America.”
Congressman Addison McDowell (R-N.C.) — “Americans have endured runaway inflation and a border crisis that has put families in danger and now our colleagues across the aisle who created this mess want to strike the very instructions that begin to fix it. Let’s be clear about what that really means. Striking the whole resolution means keeping a broken system in place. It means siding with criminals over law enforcement and it means refusing to acknowledge the damage done by reckless, radical, woke policies.”
On restoring fiscal balance:
Congressman Chip Roy (R-Texas) —“The American people expect us to do our job to balance the budget and to stop spending money we don’t have. Our country is suffering from rampant inflation, our younger Americans are unable to buy homes, interest on the debt is over a trillion dollars. As we refinance our debt, we’re going to be looking at hundreds of billions of dollars in additional interest every year. This budget put forward by the Chairman is a giant step forward to reduce spending, the primary driver of the inflation and the expansion of the government largesse that is strangling the future of our children and grandchildren. I am proud of what the Chairman has put forward. I believe that it is responsible, and I believe that it is a balance of what we’re supposed to do. We have a moral responsibility to leave more dollars in the hands of the American people who produce wealth and produce prosperity. We have a moral responsibility to take dollars out of the largesse of government, which is wasting that money, but more importantly spending that money in ways that is making the lives of our children and grandchildren unaffordable.”
On returning money to American workers and small businesses:
Budget Vice Chair Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.) —“I’d like to recognize the hard work the Chairman has put into achieving this and coming to this day. There was input from every side, every individual in our conference and there is a lot that our conference will be proud of in this bill. It has extremely strong support and I think at the end of the day we’ll have unanimous support for this bill on the floor.
…Let’s talk just a little bit about the successes of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. We heard this is just for the billionaires. Couldn’t be further from the truth. Our income tax system became more progressive after the implementation of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. I’ll ask you to ask any of your constituents whether they did better under the policies implemented through the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act—under the policies of the Trump Administration—or did they do better under the four years of the Biden Administration. I can tell you how every one of my constituents would answer. I’ll put our policies up any day against the policies that are being espoused on the other side of this aisle today.”
Congressman Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) —“One of the greatest things about what we’re doing today is giving Americans tax cuts. It’s their money. The amazing thing about this, the Left still doesn’t realize, it’s not their money. It’s the taxpayer money and it’sgoing to be exposed for this type of abuse, this type of fraud, and this kind of waste. So, it’s a new day in America.And Jodey, under your leadership, thank you for bringing this up. We’regoing to fight.”
On sustaining vital programs for America’s most vulnerable:
Congressman Tim Moore (R-N.C.) —“There are no plans in this bill whatsoever that affect or impact benefits going to Medicare recipients. I’ll say that again:Medicare recipients, those over 65 receiving Medicare that were being talked up by my two colleagues, they are not going to be negatively impacted. What will happen, however, the trust fund will be more secure. We will get rid of the waste, fraud, and abuse. Some of the estimates of total waste and fraudulent spending by the government by the GAO, Mr. Chairman, is around $2.7 trillion if I’m not mistaken. That’s a lot of money. My response to my Democratic friends is, join us and vote with us on this bill. If you want to see benefits like this continue to be sustained, we have to get rid of that, and these instructions to the Committee move forward that.”
Congressman Buddy Carter (R-GA) —“Chairman, finally! We agree with our colleagues on the other side of the aisle and that is that Medicaid serves as a vital safety net for America’s most vulnerable. That is what it is, it is a safety net program that was designed for the aged, blind, disabled. Yes, we agree. President Trump has been clear. We will focus reducing fraud, waste, and abuse. It is rampant in the program. It is rampant in the program and that’s what we’re going to concentrate on. In Fiscal Year 2023, the Government Accountability Office found over $50 billion dollars in improper payments in the Medicaid program. Over the last ten years, this equates to over $500 billion of American tax dollars lost to fraud, waste, and abuse in the Medicaid program alone. As Medicaid spending continues to grow unsustainably for taxpayers, the program is unaffordable for states, and poor access to quality care leads to negative health outcomes for enrollees. After all, as I have said numerous times before, whether you’re Republican, whether you’re Democrat, whether you’re Independent, we all want the same thing when it comes to health care. We want accessible, affordable, quality health care.”
Congressman Blake Moore (R-Utah) —“Sometimes when you vote in the minority of your party, you’re taking a tough stance, but you’re doing something that probably encouraged you to run for Congress and that was to not come back here to make a point, but to make a difference. So, I encourage you, several new members on both sides of the aisle on this committee in this Congress, that if we truly want to address, the looming shortfall of Social Security. In 2033, the trust fund that allows for the solvency of Social Security will be depleted because our retirement class has grown, and our number of workers and our participation rate has shrunk. So, we havefewer workers to beneficiary ratio and as that continues to deplete, there will be a massive cut automatically to Social Security recipients. If we want to address that, we can then be serious about the only way to deal with Social Security because you can’t deal with it in reconciliation, you have to deal with it in a bipartisan way.”
On DOGE rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in Washington:
Congressman Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) —“This is coming from someone who is deeply appreciative of what NIH does. I am also deeply appreciative of the work DOGE has been doing, going through NIH funding, looking for mistaken funding, waste, and abuse. I am horrified by the some of the things they have found. Horrified. It boggles the mind some of the things we’ve been spending taxpayer money on. These are all NIH studies or programs. $2.3 million dollars in taxpayer money on a program for injecting beagles with cocaine. $611,000 dollars on a study entitled, 'Evaluating Microaggressions among Latinx with Obesity'. $87,000 dollars to study the role of the estrous cycle on Oxycodone cravings in female rats. $19 million dollars to study why lesbian women of color prefer menthol cigarettes. And here’s my personal favorite, $710,000 dollars to study the correlation between binge drinking on Super Bowl Sunday and the birth of babies nine months later and I could probably shed some light on that, and it wouldn’t cost $710,000 dollars. So, the point here is, no one can claim that there isn’t waste to be rooted out. Mind you, many of these might be an appropriate topic for someone’s PHD thesis, but this is taxpayer money that’s being spent on this and so I am deeply grateful that someone on the outside is going through these programs looking for this kind of wasteful spending because it’s going to free up dollars to be spent on the things we all, everyone here on this dais, cares about.”
On unleashing American energy:
Congressman Marlin Stutzman (R—Ind.) —“To have policy that continues to hold back our energy capacity is only going to hurt not only our ability to protect our country, but it’s also going to prohibit the opportunities for men and women across this country to provide for their families. One of the things we know that’s coming is the increase of data centers that are going to use a huge amount of energy. We’re going to need to have the ability to increase our nuclear production. We’re going to have the ability to increase our baseline production. So, when we see the other side continuing to push and subsidize these green energy scams, it just doesn’t help our country in the long run.”
