WASHINGTON, D.C. – “This is an economic and political crisis of Democrats’ own making. There isn’t enough money in America to cover what Democrats want to spend. And Americans know it,” top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) said on the House floor during a debate against Democrats’ partisan discussions to raise the debt ceiling to pay for their $3.5 trillion tax hikes and spending spree bill.

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Rep. Brady’s remarks as prepared for delivery appear below:

Thank you, Madam Speaker, I’d like to reserve as much time as I may consume.

 

Madam Speaker, this is a political and economic crisis of the Democrats’ own making. They’ve known for two years this day was coming.

 

They never bothered to even draft a budget for the government – much less pass it. And never lifted a finger to start bipartisan discussions on how to raise the debt ceiling while addressing America’s exploding national debt. 

 

They’ve insisted on one-party rule all year: from an unnecessary $2 trillion Covid “stimulus” that didn’t stimulate the economy or defeat the virus to a national takeover of state and local elections, bailouts of failing state and local governments, ignoring the humanitarian and security crisis at the southern border and the disastrous surrender to the Taliban in Afghanistan.   

 

Bottom line on the debt ceiling: Democrats alone have set fire to America’s House, and are now demanding Republicans put it out for them.    

 

I urged Treasury Secretary Yellen, who I respect and who has bipartisan credibility, to do what the congressional Democrat leadership has not: Engage with Republicans on a framework of financial stability for our nation.

 

Secretary Mnuchin certainly set that precedent, reaching out repeatedly to Democrat leadership on these issues. 

 

Although it should be noted – given the strident blame-game by Speaker Pelosi on this debt ceiling – in February 2018 she, leader Hoyer, Whip Clyburn and 116 other House Democrats votes to default on the debt, shut down the government and refuse disaster relief to devastated communities across America. 

 

One said, “Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House. The responsibility to govern rests squarely on their shoulders.” 

 

Well, right now, the Democrats control the House, the Senate, and the White House. The responsibility rests on their shoulders. 

 

I agree that Congress should not play political games with the debt ceiling or ignore the danger of making permanent the temporary COVID relief with spending that will bankrupt our nation in the future. 

 

Democrats control everything – the House, the Senate, and the Presidency. And they can easily pass the debt ceiling by including it in their $5 trillion tax hikes & welfare state expansion – which requires no Republican votes. 

 

But rather than work together, what did Democrats do? 

 

Early this year, they rammed through a partisan $1.9 trillion so-called covid stimulus bill that continues to fall short on the jobs promised.

 

This was unaccountable, partisan Washington spending that only made matters worse.

 

For example, Democrats undid a bipartisan agreement to protect taxpayers against the greatest theft of tax dollars in our lifetime, which by now has lost up to $400 billion to international fraud rings.

 

They even opened the door to greater fraud, by replacing the Republican child tax credit that rewarded work with a cash-for-kids welfare check program with few safeguards. 

 

Stopping fraud and taking care of tax dollars should be a bipartisan goal. 

 

But instead, Democrats are demanding a $5 trillion tax and spending binge that will kill 3 million U.S. jobs, drive prices even higher and impose the largest expansion of the welfare state in our lifetime.

 

I urge my Democrat colleagues: End the brinkmanship. We can achieve a bipartisan framework. 

 

Just look at Republicans’ repeated efforts. 

 

In 2016, the House passed a Ways and Means bill called the Debt Management and Fiscal Responsibility Act, creating a system that would have allowed Congress to make informed decisions about the debt ceiling and consider changes before it becomes a crisis.

 

Yet the Obama Administration “strongly opposed” the bill, saying it would “impose needless, redundant burdens on the U.S. Department of Treasury.” 

 

Today, Democrats are hardly worried about new burdens, as they put the IRS in charge of workers’ paid family and medical leave, or have the IRS monitor the bank accounts of Main Street and working families.

 

And Democrats won’t take up a similar bill, the Debt Solution and Accountability Act, offered by Ways and Means Republican Rep. Lloyd Smucker of Pennsylvania. 

 

Democrats’ alternatives to a bipartisan framework range from ridiculous to irresponsible.

 

One Democrat congressman has proposed that the U.S. Treasury mint a “trillion-dollar coin.” 

 

That far-fetched idea sounds about as smart as the Speaker’s own call to end the debt limit entirely.

 

Democrats’ best answer to Washington’s out-of-control spending is to tear out the brakes.

 

So let’s be honest: This is an economic and political crisis of Democrats’ own making.

 

There isn’t enough money in America to cover what Democrats want to spend. And Americans know it.

 

That’s why President Biden has gone out of his way to sell his $3.5 trillion bill as not adding to the debt, saying: the “Build Back Better Agenda costs zero dollars.” 

 

Unfortunately for him–and for the taxpayers that will have to foot the bill–the Washington Post fact checker found this claim misleading. 

 

They said that it “would take some dubious gimmicks that help disguise the true cost of Biden’s agenda.”

 

Considering that Democrats haven’t had a single conversation about spending, stimulus, or the debt with us to date, I think they, by their behavior, have taken responsibility on passing this by themselves.

 

It’s irresponsible to keep raising the debt limit and keep on spending without any kind of framework.

 

We need to grow the economy and stop the increase in debt.