The recent process of selecting a new Speaker of the House was ugly – no doubt about it. It was frustrating, ill-timed, and utterly chaotic.
Still, somehow, we ultimately escaped the quagmire with a great new speaker, my colleague Mike Johnson of Louisiana. A solid conservative with a sharp mind, he will lead our work to shrink big government, end ruinous “Bidenflation,” and force Democrats to reverse their dangerous and deadly open border policies.
He passed his first test, as the House responded to the horrific attack on Israel by the Islamist terrorist group Hamas. We sent to the Senate a strong bipartisan bill that will help Israel crush Hamas, who slaughtered more than 1,200 innocent Israelis as well as 36 Americans. Not since 1998 have more Americans been killed abroad in an entire year, let alone a single day. They hold an additional 10 Americans hostage. The aid we voted to send Israel will give them the weapons and other resources they need to destroy this evil, Iran-backed terrorist group, allowing us to support our steadfast ally while delivering a punishing blow to those who committed mass murder and kidnappings of Americans – all without putting American boots on the ground.
We are also continuing our push for sensible domestic policies. We recently passed seven appropriations bills. These bills cover Defense; Energy-Water; Homeland Security; Interior-Environment; Military Construction-Veterans Affairs; State-Foreign Operations; and Legislative Branch appropriations. With these bills, House Republicans have worked together to enact meaningful fiscal savings. Among the cuts, the Interior and Environment appropriations bill rescinds billions of dollars from Biden’s budget-busting stimulus bill that funneled money to questionable programs for liberal special interest groups. This is the beginning of our efforts to make government work for the American people instead of against them.
Our job continues as we work to pass the remaining appropriations bills and impose a fiscal diet on our government. As of October 31, the national debt as reported by the U.S. Treasury is more than $33 trillion. Compared to January 1, 2020, that is more than a 45% increase in our national debt. That’s money that won’t go to build important infrastructure across Arkansas or to sustain a military that no adversarial nation would dare challenge. No, that is debt that must be repaid. This spending spree is also a major contributor to the inflation that is hurting American families every time they step into a grocery store or pay their utility bills. On top of that, more overspending means more borrowing and thus more interest to pay back, leading the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office to estimate that interest payments alone will reach $1.4 trillion annually by 2032.
I know fiscal policy is not the most exciting topic, but it impacts every one of us. There’s no way around it. We must tackle these issues before our debt drives us into a catastrophic economic crisis. Working with Speaker Mike Johnson, my fellow Republicans, and Democrats willing to break with their leadership to rein in spending, I believe we’ll solve this problem while imposing necessary checks and balances on the Biden Administration’s big government policies.
