CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2025

CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2025

Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 37 (Tuesday, February 25, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 37 (Tuesday, February 25, 2025)] [House] [Pages H791-H823] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2025 general leave Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members [[Page H792]] may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H. Con. Res. 14. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Texas? There was no objection. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 161 and rule XVIII, the Chair declares the House in the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union for the consideration of the concurrent resolution, H. Con. Res. 14. The Chair appoints the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Womack) to preside over the Committee of the Whole. {time} 1415 In the Committee of the Whole Accordingly, the House resolved itself into the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union for the consideration of the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 14) establishing the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2025 and setting forth the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2026 through 2034, with Mr. Womack in the chair. The Clerk read the title of the concurrent resolution. The CHAIR. Pursuant to the rule, the concurrent resolution is considered read the first time. General debate shall not exceed 3 hours, with 2 hours confined to the congressional budget, equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on the Budget or their respective designees and 1 hour on the subject of economic goals and policies equally divided and controlled by the Representative Schweikert of Arizona and Representative Beyer of Virginia or their respective designees. The gentleman from Texas (Mr. Arrington) and the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Boyle) each will control 1 hour of debate on the congressional budget. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Arrington). Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chair, today, the majority will unlock the policies for making America safe and prosperous again by advancing the FY 2025 budget resolution. Mr. Chairman, this fiscal framework will guide the process for restoring the fiscal health of our Nation by reining in reckless spending and reigniting economic growth. In addition, it provides critical resources to our Commander in Chief to secure our border, strengthen our military, and provide for the common defense. For the next 2 hours, Mr. Chairman, my Democratic colleagues are going to reach way back to the only plays they know how to run: making false claims and fear-mongering. Why? Because they are still, even after the recent election, disconnected from the people's reality because they are more concerned with protecting unionized government bureaucrats and woke and wasteful government programs than they are about protecting taxpayers and their sacred treasure. Why? Because their commitment isn't to we the people in this fateful moment. It is to we the government and to derailing the mandate from the people for commonsense policies and President Trump's America First agenda. I am going to take some time to set the record straight, Mr. Chairman, so that every time the American people hear these false claims to mislead them into thinking that the tax cuts somehow benefited the billionaires and corporations and that Republicans are cutting benefits for seniors and the poorest among us, I want the American people to know the truth. Here is the truth: The Trump tax cuts lower tax rates for every American household at every income level while increasing the amount of taxes paid by the top 1 percent. According to The Washington Post--which, by the way, gave Democrats not one, not two, not three, but four Pinocchios every time they made these misleading claims--$3 of every $4 in the Trump tax cuts didn't go to corporations but to individuals, cutting taxes for the lowest income individuals by 10 percent while cutting taxes for the top 1 percent of income earners by less than one-half of 1 percent. In addition, we saw a record 25-year wage increase for median household incomes. Real wages in the bottom 10 percent rose two times faster than the top 10 percent. Real wealth at the bottom half of households rose three times faster than that of the top half of our country. A record 6 million people were lifted out of poverty. Black, Hispanic, and Asian-American citizens experienced historic high incomes and all-time low unemployment. Here is the reality, Mr. Chairman: Our Democratic colleagues opposed the American people's tax cuts back in 2017, and they oppose their tax cuts today. If they were successful in this endeavor, here is what would happen. We would have a 22 percent tax hike on every American citizen, on average, when they just suffered through a 21 percent tax hike from the inflation tax over the last 4 years and the worst cost-of-living crisis in modern history. Median-income families would lose $1,700. Twenty-six million small businesses would pay at the highest marginal rate and lose the 20 percent deduction, putting them on a comparable level to corporate tax rates. Forty million families would have the child tax credits for their children cut in half. Ninety-one percent of the American people who get the standard deduction would have that cut in half. Those are the results of the Democrats standing in the way of what would be, if they were successful, the highest tax hike in American history. Here is the other false claim. To pay for these tax cuts, the Democrats are going to say that Republicans are cutting benefits for seniors and for, again, our poorest and most vulnerable among us. Here is the truth, Mr. Chairman: Republicans are fighting to rightsize a woke, weaponized, and bloated bureaucracy; to root out the trillions of dollars in waste, fraud, and abuse; and to rein in the reckless spending of the Biden administration and our Democratic colleagues from over the last 4 years. Prior to 2019, before President Biden took office and he and the Democrats jammed $2 trillion through in the so-called COVID relief, even though maybe 10, 20 percent of that money actually went for the purposes of COVID relief, our budget back then was $4.5 trillion. Today, it is $7 trillion. With the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, they gave away $700 billion in tax credits to green energy corporations. They expanded ObamaCare subsidies to people making more than half a million dollars, many of whom already had employer-sponsored healthcare. They expanded the IRS to 80,000 new IRS agents tasked with shaking down mostly middle-class people and small businesses. With the stroke of a pen, President Biden wasted $2 trillion unilaterally of taxpayer money by opening up our taxpayer-funded welfare services to people in this country illegally; waived work requirements for means-tested welfare programs, from SNAP to Medicaid and beyond, trapping people in poverty and dependence on the Federal Government; mandated expensive and unreliable electric vehicles for all Americans; and a whole lot more. In fact, we are spending $9,000 per illegal immigrant in this country for the millions of people who violated our sovereignty and came to this country in violation of our immigration laws. Mr. Chairman, $9,000 is what taxpayers pay for people who are here illegally for taxpayer- funded social services. That is more than we spend on the most vulnerable Americans for Medicaid. That is more than we spend collectively for our veterans' military retirement. President Biden weakened government program integrity, allowing people who aren't eligible for Medicaid and other programs to receive benefits. Case in point, we used to review the Medicaid rolls twice a year to make sure people who were on the rolls were those who were most vulnerable and those who qualified according to the law. That was revoked by the Biden administration. They only did it once a year. If we changed it back, we would eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse and save $160 billion of taxpayer money. President Biden implemented unconstitutional and regressive student loan bailouts, forcing working Americans to subsidize the upper-middle class, law [[Page H793]] students, and medical students. These are folks who deferred their education. These are hardworking people who didn't think they could afford college. We have an unprecedented opportunity, Mr. Chairman. My fellow Republicans and I have a sacred obligation at this moment to meet this moment with the urgency it demands. Now more than ever is the time for Republicans in Congress to demonstrate the courage of their convictions and take bold action in this historic moment. Let's save this country, save our children's future, and save us from wrecking the greatest economy in the world and jeopardizing our national security and our leadership in the world. The world is counting on a safe, strong, and free America, and I believe that this bill encapsulates the policies that are going to restore America's greatness. Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support it, and I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. BOYLE of Pennsylvania. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, I should be quite clear about what this is really about. This budget represents a Republican betrayal of the middle class, and I am proud to rise to oppose it. Here is what is at stake. My friends on the other side of the aisle want to deliver $4.5 trillion of tax cuts, almost all of which go to the richest 1 percent of Americans. How do they pay for it? How do they pay for that $4.5 trillion in tax cuts? First, at least $880 billion is from Medicaid and the Affo

Referenced legislation: HCONRES14, HCONRES14, HRES161