The House’s passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act ushers in a new era of fiscal sanity in Washington. Speaker McCarthy, in his floor speech prior to the vote on the bill, pointed out that Congress will spend less money next year than this year - without raising taxes on American families. Further, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) revealed that the Fiscal Responsibility Act will save taxpayers $2.1 trillion. Despite President Biden’s unwillingness to negotiate for 97 days, House Republicans, led by Speaker McCarthy, forced him to the table and changed our nation’s fiscal trajectory for the better. This bill is a transformative and true solution for the Biden administration’s profligate spending. Let’s discuss.
In all, this bill is 99 pages in length, and contains the largest rescissions package in history. Rescissions are a mechanism used to claw back previously appropriated funding. For example, $29 billion of unobligated, unspent COVID funds would be clawed back. It also strips $400 million from the CDC “Global Health Fund” that has sent taxpayer money directly to China. I encourage you to read this bill for yourself, look at the facts, and develop your own opinions rather than depending on what others may have said, or are saying, about it.
Out-of-control inflationary spending has been stopped dead in its tracks. The Fiscal Responsibility Act limits topline federal spending to 1% annual growth for the next six years. This means that the far left will be unable to pass absurd spending bills. While cutting $2 trillion in government spending, the fact is that Social Security, Medicare, defense, and veterans programs will remain fully funded. Plus, non-defense discretionary spending will be rolled back to FY22 levels.
President Biden’s student loan repayment pause suffered a crippling defeat. The Biden administration extended the student loan repayment pause half a dozen times, citing the pandemic as justification. COVID-19 became a tool for the administration to advance the president’s radical free college agenda. This bill puts a stop to it and returns borrowers to repayment. As a result, hardworking taxpayers will save an estimated $5 billion per month. The pandemic is over, and the national emergency status has been lifted. We must move forward.
President Biden’s new wave of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents did not emerge unscathed. The FY23 staffing funding request for new IRS agents, who would target American families, was nixed. No new agents will be hired this year. The federal government has a spending problem, not a revenue problem - tax revenues in 2022 were the second highest ever outside of World War II, primarily because of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The Fiscal Responsibility Act acts as a xxxxxx to protect American families from undue targeting from the IRS.
Executive overreach has been beaten into submission. This bill will enact into law the first ever statutory Administrative Pay-Go to hold the president’s feet to the fire for the full cost of executive rules and regulations. Trillions of dollars will be saved for hardworking taxpayers. As a result, President Biden will be forced to propose one or more administrative actions that reduce direct spending for any proposed regulation.
Trust me, I know good and bad deals when I see them. In 2008, I voted against the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bailouts. I voted against the bloated CHIPS Act, did not take the bait on the so-called “Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal”, and I led the charge against both the so-called “American Rescue Plan” and the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act”. House Republicans accomplished exactly what we said we would do: we cut spending. Now, it’s time for Congress to turn its attention to cutting, slashing, and burning bloated federal spending in the upcoming appropriations process.
Alongside my conservative colleagues such as House Judiciary Committee Chairman, Jim Jordan, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, Oversight and Accountability Chairman, James Comer, and Congressman Thomas Massie - among others - I supported the Fiscal Responsibility Act when it came to the House floor for a vote. This bill represents a positive step towards establishing a much higher level of accountability for taxpayer dollars and restoring individual responsibility in America. In addition to the information I have listed above, click here to read a fact sheet courtesy of the House Republican Conference.
Again, please take the time and read through the resources I have outlined, and form your own opinions based on the facts - not conjecture or misrepresentations that have been played on an endless loop by the mainstream media. As always, turn to the facts when in the pursuit of information. They will always serve you well.
Have a blessed weekend,
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