Congressman Tom Cole (OK-04) released the following statement after voting in support of House passage of H.R. 2811, the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023.
“In the last two years due to the reckless and out-of-control spending policies of President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats, more than $6 trillion has been added to the national debt,” said Cole. “House Republicans have made clear that President Biden must negotiate a responsible increase to the debt limit that is coupled with commonsense reforms. Unfortunately, President Biden continues to stonewall his opponents and put his head in the sand. In the absence of presidential leadership, House Republicans have voted to take the first step in the negotiation process, and I hope President Biden will soon come to the table to find a compromise that is agreeable to all sides.”
While managing the rule for the consideration of the legislation, Cole made extensive remarks. Video is available here and transcript is below.
Madam Speaker, earlier this year, the United States government hit our statutory debt limit of $31.3 trillion. That is an astonishing number. It is over 120 percent of our annual gross domestic product.
This level of spending is simply unsustainable. And the American people know it. Three out of four Americans support taking action on the national debt. They know that if we do nothing and keep moving forward as we have been doing, the result will be leaving a huge burden for our children and grandchildren. A pile of debt, a weak economy, and a broken currency.
Now, you would think that given this staggering reality, President Biden and congressional Democrats would acknowledge the need to do something to address this problem. You would think that they would be open to doing what we have done many times in the past: to couple needed fiscal reforms with an agreement to lift the debt ceiling. You’d even think that President Biden, who himself personally negotiated several debt ceiling increases over the years, would be willing to sit down with us and talk.
But instead, we have heard none of this. No, we will not negotiate with you. No, we will not talk about the federal budget. No, we won’t look at commonsense reforms. No, no, no.
Instead, President Biden and Congressional Democrats insist it is their way or the highway. No reforms, no changes to Federal spending, not even clawing back unspent pandemic relief funds that are no longer necessary.
With the passage of the Limit, Save, Grow Act, the House will stand with the American people, who desperately want us to fix our national debt problem. And that fix starts here, with today’s bill.
