REPUBLICAN BUDGET

REPUBLICAN BUDGET

Congressional Record, Volume 171 Issue 37 (Tuesday, February 25, 2025) [Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 37 (Tuesday, February 25, 2025)] [House] [Pages H828-H831] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [ www.gpo.gov ] REPUBLICAN BUDGET The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Kennedy of Utah). Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Schweikert) is recognized for one-half the time remaining until 10 p.m. as the designee of the majority leader. Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield to my good friend, the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Wilson). Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for the opportunity. Under the Biden-Harris administration, America experienced wasteful spending, harming families and destroying jobs. Tonight, in a very historic vote that we just completed; in order to combat those destructive impacts, House Republicans have voted to establish the congressional budget for the United States Government for 2025 and set forth the appropriate budgetary levels for 2026 through 2034. Introduced by the very capable House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, this bill will pave the way for the passage of a single comprehensive bill which will deliver on the agenda of President Donald Trump. Again, it is Donald Trump promises made promises kept. This budget resolution provides a framework for Congress to secure the border, unleash American energy, prevent the largest tax hike in history, create jobs, and bring common sense back to the government. Unnecessary and wasteful government spending will be eliminated, putting the American people first. I am grateful for the leadership of Speaker Mike Johnson working closely with President Donald Trump for economic opportunity in jobs for all American families. The Trump tax cuts have been proven to energize small businesses and to create jobs across the United States. The National Federation of Independent Business, NFIB, has made a difference in working with the administration for this progress tonight. Additionally, large companies have expanded in my home State of South Carolina, anticipating the tax cuts which provide for citizens to have more money which they can use to improve their lives. In the district I represent, I am very grateful that Michelin Tire Corporation of Lexington is the largest facility in the world, and this facility is producing tires for energy production across North America. President Trump has provided for an all-of-the-above energy policy which will create jobs. It is also encouraging that Boeing Aircraft Company in Charleston is doubling its size. It has already been announced that there was the sale of $39 billion of 787-10 jets to Saudi, Arabia, as Saudi Arabia is developing a new airline, Riyadh Airways, which we know will be successful for our friends and allies of Saudi Arabia. It is additionally encouraging, and I am grateful, that we have BMW success in South Carolina with the largest BMW manufacturing facility in the world along with Volvo in Summerville. It makes South Carolina the leading exporter of tires and automobiles of any State in the Union. In addition to Michelin, we have Continental Tire, which is obviously German. We are grateful for their investment in Bridgestone, which is very important, and Japanese investment in the district I represent along with GITI of Singapore. So over and over we have investments that are being made because of, I believe, significant anticipation of the vote that just occurred tonight. In conclusion, God bless our troops as the global war on terrorism continues while the people of Ukraine continue to successfully stop war criminal Putin who is trying to resurrect the failed Soviet Union, killing so many people in Ukraine, additionally in Georgia, and threatening the people of Moldova. We know what war criminal Putin has done to oppress the people of Belarus and to address and try to disrupt the elections in Romania and the Republic of Georgia. Open borders for dictators puts all Americans at risk of more 9/11 attacks imminent as warned by the FBI. President Donald Trump is reinstituting existing laws which are successfully securing our border to protect American families with peace through strength. Today also marks the 100th day of the inspiring protest in Tbilisi, the capital of the Republic of Georgia, where the people are protesting the rigged election that occurred on October 26 where war criminal Putin interfered in the elections and provided for, sadly, the institution of a new government which is not legitimate. The legitimate government of Georgia led by President Salome Zourabichvili is so important to recognize as she courageously stands as a patriot for the people of Georgia. Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Mr. Speaker, first, is there a chance to get the amount of time that we are splitting so we have a sense of the run time here? The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman has 36\1/2\ minutes. Mr. SCHWEIKERT. If we are all blessed, I won't use it all. Mr. Speaker, have you ever had a moment where the first words in your head are: I am damned if I do and damned if I don't, but is there a chance? For a decade, I have been coming behind this very microphone and walking through demographics, debt, and the deficit and trying to explain something that the left doesn't like and the right doesn't like, that almost 100 percent of the growth of the deficit for the next three decades is demographics. We don't like saying that because it is harder to play the politics of blaming each other. There have been dozens of things said. That is just the nature of it in regards to the reconciliation budget resolution that was just passed. I managed part of the Joint Economic Committee time, and my job there as the chair of the Joint Economic Committee is I represent the committee, and now I get to represent myself. I worry, but the opportunity is having basically authorizing committees do what is necessary to save our future. Mr. Speaker, a little while ago you saw a beautiful little baby here. Last week, when we were here, I had my 2\1/2\-year-old that we have adopted with me. Here are some basic pieces of math. For my 2\1/2\-year-old, when he is 24, 25 years old, every U.S. tax rate has to have been doubled, all of them, just to maintain baseline services. The whole presentation of walking through what happens when you get a moment to actually disrupt policy and do things that are better, faster, and cheaper--because I will argue the army of lobbyists, basically the rent seekers, if you remember your high school economics, who are around us all, despise the concept of reform. They despise the concept of modernization. That is actually some of the basic things I want to go over tonight, and I will try to do it efficiently. First off, I know I used this board a little while ago, and I am sorry it is handwritten. I broke the printer. It is just simply making a point that for the average American at the end of this year, if we don't fix the expiring provisions, their taxes go up $2,853, and functionally 62 percent of all taxpayers will be subject to higher taxes. Now, we actually have our friends on the left basically saying: You are going to give away to the millionaires and billionaires. It is not the distributional effect of 2017. As a matter of fact, one of the great trivia points--and I actually had some fun with this one because it comes from my progressive analysis from a few years ago--is that after the 2017 tax reform, the U.S. tax regime actually became more progressive. There were lower rates, but it meant the top-tier [[Page H829]] of taxpayers were paying more of the Federal budget. You walk through saying: Okay. Can I show you? Well, you gave money to corporations. Yes, but we can show you that the vast majority of that actually went to wages. People forget many of the things we did to force the repatriation back of capital, intellectual property, expensing, and R&D expensing. As a Republican, don't ever tell anyone this: A bunch of that was in the Obama budget. They were in many ways bipartisan ideas from back then because we were bleeding out productive capacity in this country. We were transferring productive capacity and our assets overseas because of our tax regime and the ability to compete. Now, it looks like the reality of sounding like an idiot economist around here doesn't buy you a lot of friends, Mr. Speaker. Yet, the fact of the matter is the budget box that was just offered is an opportunity to--Mr. Speaker, forgive me, my asthma and my lung infection are going a little nuts right now--it is an opportunity to stop our taxes from going up. What I am actually more interested in is what I believe are solemn promises I got from the leadership about many of the things I have come behind this microphone for a decade talking about as to how we can adopt technology and how we can adopt models to lower costs and yet cover our brothers and sisters and give them more access and more opportunity to be healthier, because the way we deliver services as a government is archaic. Right now, Mr. Speaker, if you were designing a system, you wouldn't do it this way. We are all terrified of whether it be the bureaucracy and their lobbyists and their unions, you know, something the left has to deal with. Many of the businesspeople that have learned how to make money off these programs are a problem. They come marching into our offices all upset because we are going to change their business model and make them compete. Guess what, Mr. Speaker. That might be what we just accomplished in this vote, which is less about fixing the expiring tax provisions, which we are going to do, but maybe it will also give us that window where we can change and improve the way we deliver these services. {time} 2100 I can't figure out why this place is so intellectually calcified that they are terrified of chang