HUDSON: One step toward a fiscally responsible future
$95,000.
That’s more than the average household income for an entire family in North Carolina. It’s also your share of our nation’s astonishing $31 trillion debt. When I think about my seven-year-old son being saddled with a $95,000 bill before he even enters the 2nd grade, I can’t help but be worried about his future and all our children and grandchildren.
While our national debt is nothing new, out-of-control spending from Washington the last two years has accelerated this crisis to a five-alarm fire.
In fact, since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, he and House Democrats have increased the nation’s 10-year spending trajectory by $10 trillion. This includes their $2 trillion “American Rescue Plan” that ignited the highest inflation in consumer prices in forty years. It contained $400 billion for policies that paid Americans to stay home rather than go to work, $783 million in stimulus checks to federal prisoners, $2 million for a ski slope, $140 million for a luxury hotel, and $1.2 million to buy trash cans. Democrats’ so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” followed up with $80 billion to the IRS to target your family with audits, and over $400 billion for Green New Deal initiatives. President Biden’s Executive Orders have also cost over $1.5 trillion, including Democrats’ student loan giveaway to the wealthy.
The last two years under one-party rule saw astronomical spending, but we didn’t get in this mess overnight and we can’t fix it overnight—especially in a divided government.
This spending problem is the greatest threat to America and one of the reasons I ran for Congress in the first place. That’s why last week, I voted for the Fiscal Responsibility Act. This debt limit bill was not perfect, but it is the largest spending cut that Congress has ever voted for in American history.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the Fiscal Responsibility Act will reduce the deficit by $2.1 trillion. It will cut spending year-over-year, limit top line federal spending to 1% annual growth for the next 6 years, and end uncontrollable executive spending by enforcing “Pay-Go” rules which should save taxpayers trillions.
It will jumpstart our economy with work requirements for able-bodied childless adults and will help with the number one problem every business I talk to has—a need for workers. I have been fighting for work requirements for 19 years because we have a moral obligation to stop trapping people in the cycle of poverty. While Democrats prefer dependency, Republicans are focused on self sufficiency and improving your family’s quality of life. Cutting red tape and slashing funding for new IRS agents will also help build new infrastructure and unleash the economy.
This bill will save taxpayers $5 billion per month by restarting student loan debt payments. It rejects all of President Biden’s $5 trillion in proposed new tax increases and claws back $29 billion of unspent COVID funds. All of this is done while fully funding critical defense programs and preserving both Social Security and Medicare.
For the first time, non-defense spending will be significantly lowered while defense spending will receive a $28 billion boost from the previous year to ensure our military is ready to respond to any threat.
There was not a single Democratic priority included in the Fiscal Responsibility Act. Speaker Kevin McCarthy forced President Biden and House Democrats to negotiate in order to avoid defaulting on our debt. This is a historic win for the American people and because of our efforts, the pattern of Washington reckless spending has come to a screeching halt.
President Ronald Reagan once said, “We can leave our children with an unrepayable massive debt and a shattered economy, or we can leave them liberty in a land where every individual has the opportunity to be whatever God intended us to be.”
The Fiscal Responsibility Act is a step in the right direction. With every man, woman, and child owing $95,000 to the government, I believe we can and must do more to build on this success. The largest spending cut in history is an important step to restoring fiscal sanity in our nation’s capital and leaving the next generation better than the last—just as Reagan had hoped.
Richard Hudson is serving his sixth term in the U.S. House and represents North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District. He currently serves as the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee and is a member of the House Republican Steering Committee.
