John:

Congressman Jodey Arrington 
Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
June 11, 2023 

Arrington: Debt deal is 'meaningful step in the right direction'

Our runaway spending and unsustainable national debt is the greatest 21st-century threat to the United States. If we shrink back and fail to address it, we will not only jeopardize our economy and national security, but our children’s future and America’s leadership in the world.

No one can look at our federal government’s balance sheet, future unfunded liabilities and interest payments and not shudder at the rapid deterioration of our nation’s financial health.

The last time the US had this magnitude of indebtedness was after World War II. It took decades for Congress to reduce our debt to a responsible level, but as a result of their steadfast efforts, the United States emerged as the only global superpower. The strategy was simple — bring down spending and grow the economy. While the causes of our current deteriorating financial health are different, the cure is the same. If we are going to be successful at restoring fiscal responsibility and securing the future for the next generation, today’s leaders must relentlessly run the same plays.

The Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) is an important step to getting our nation’s fiscal house in order by stopping Washington’s rampant spending, reining-in the bloated bureaucracy and reviving our economy through pro-growth, pro-work, pro-energy policies.

The FRA will reduce non-defense spending in 2024 and control future spending in the following years, saving at least $1.5 trillion and reeling in record inflation. Equally important are the permitting reforms that cut red tape for critical infrastructure and unleash domestic energy production — saving trillions more.

Once the Speaker brokered the deal, there was only one question to answer: “Do the biggest cuts to bureaucratic waste in over a decade and much-needed economic reforms constitute a meaningful step in the right direction?”

The answer was unequivocally yes. On top of that, if it failed to pass, we would have forfeited any spending cuts and empowered Chuck Schumer to jam through a clean debt ceiling.

The American people gave Republicans the majority in the House to stop wasteful Washington spending and Biden’s failed economic policies, and I believe the Fiscal Responsibility Act is a good start.

As former House Speaker Newt Gingrich wrote in a recent article, “I emphasize it’s a first step because that is what I lived through in 1995 in our first year as a Republican House majority (the first in 40 years). Step by step, we got budget changes, moved from welfare to work, cut taxes, and reduced bureaucratic regulatory overkill. We launched a generation of prosperity built upon the foundation that President Ronald Reagan created in the 1980s.”

We cannot be seduced into thinking our debt problem will be solved by any one-off legislative deal. Instead, we must demonstrate the persistence and political will to fight the series of battles necessary to end the era of big government and restore a culture of fiscal accountability in our nation’s capital.