In the two years following Joe Biden’s inauguration, nearly everything he touched under one-party Democrat rule turned into a crisis. His executive actions and the administration’s policies created an energy crisis; the massive spending he championed set off the worst inflation crisis in 40 years; and Washington Democrat’s embrace of soft-on-crime policies helped create a violent crime crisis. House Republicans promised the American people that we would fight to change the direction of our country, and in our first 100 days, we have done just that.
On Day 1 of his presidency, President Biden canceled the Keystone Pipeline and then made it harder to drill for oil on public lands. During his State of the Union speech, Biden shared his opinion that Americans would only need oil for 10 more years. What world is he living in? Nothing could show you are out of touch with the working class more than making it harder for them to put gasoline in their cars to get to work. That’s why I was proud to support H.R. 1, the Lower Energy Costs Act, which would increase domestic production, reduce regulatory burdens on oil and gas production, and reform energy permitting to make it easier to produce more energy in America. We are determined to fight for our nation’s energy security and make America energy independent like we were under President Trump.
When President Biden passed his nearly $2 trillion American Rescue Plan, even liberal economists were predicting it would spark the fire of inflation. And did it ever. Because of the $10 trillion of new spending under one-party Democrat rule, Americans lost the equivalent of 2 months of their paycheck, as inflation has now increased 14.9 percent since the president took the oath of office. I was proud to coauthor a bill, the REIN IN Inflation Act, which would force the administration to account for the inflationary impact of Biden’s executive actions before enacting them.
But the spending has done more than give us the worst cost-of-living crisis in 40 years – it has also sparked a debt crisis where we have seen our nation increase our debt $2.5 trillion in just over 13 months. If we continue at our current pace under his policies, just the annual interest payments alone will cost our country $1.4 trillion – more than we spend on our entire national defense. That’s why House Republicans have insisted on getting our spending under control rather than handing the president a blank check debt limit increase. We passed the Limit, Grow, Save Act, which will save $4.8 trillion while also avoiding default. The bill will help lift more Americans out of poverty and restore America’s workforce through commonsense work requirements. In addition, it will end an agenda of welfare for the wealthy and big corporations and take the target off the backs of low- and middle-income taxpayers under threat from an army of 87,000 new IRS agents.
