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THOUGHTS AND TAKEAWAYS ON SPENDING
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Smucker) for 5 minutes.
Mr. SMUCKER. Mr. Speaker, this body just spent several weeks considering a massive spending bill proposed by the Democrats. In my case, as a member of the Ways and Means Committee, we went through a 4-
day markup considering the bill and debating the bill, and I want to just share some of my thoughts and takeaways.
The number one takeaway is that I just cannot comprehend how my Democrat colleagues on this bill are thinking. In fact, I hope the American people are paying attention because I have never seen such divergent views about how to create prosperity for all Americans. I have never seen such differing opinions about how to do it.
Now, I will give this to the Democrats: I believe they do want to see the American people prosper. They want to help people. I know we as Republicans want to do that, and I hope they grant us that same courtesy of believing that. But this administration has already spent trillions of dollars in the past 6 months, trillions of dollars, and now, with this bill, they want to spend another $3\1/2\ trillion.
Democrats literally believe that Big Government is the answer. They believe Big Government will solve these problems and will help Americans prosper.
At the same time, they are disincentivizing work and advancing policies that increase dependence on the Federal Government as if they don't even understand that those who are working and businesses creating jobs and prospering are the ones who are paying the taxes that will pay for these programs. I just don't get it.
Republicans have a far different answer. We believe in the American people. We believe in their creativity, their hard work, their ingenuity. We believe in achieving the American Dream. I have lived that American Dream.
I was born in an Old Order Amish family, number 10 of 12 children. My father was first a farmer and then a roofer, raising 12 children on that income. I was the first in my family to graduate from high school. I paid for my own education. My parents required me to attend a private Christian school.
I bought a small business when I was 17 years old, operating out of a spare bedroom in my parents' home, and lived the American Dream. Over 25 years, I grew, with other family members, that company to be a leader in the type of construction we were doing, creating jobs for hundreds of Americans, family-sustaining jobs.
There are stories like that all across this body, all across the district that I represent, all across the country. It is what we call the American Dream, the idea that every generation can do better than their parents' generation and their grandparents' generation before them.
I think we have a choice in this body, and I think the choice is clear. Will we allow the government to dictate every facet of American life, or will we renew our trust in the American people and in their freedom? That is a question that will determine how our kids and our grandkids will be able to live and whether they have the same opportunities that we had.
I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, whose side I am on. I am on the side of the American people. We have already seen the damage done as a result of these policies that the Democrats have implemented.
We are seeing inflation where the American people are paying more for goods, and their paycheck is buying less than it did before. It is only going to get worse if we continue going down this path. These programs can only be paid for with more debt, printing money, or raising taxes on hardworking Americans. It doesn't work.
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Tell me a time in history when it has worked, when a country has overdelivered, overspent, and overpromised.
Mr. Speaker, we have a choice in this body. Every American's desire to achieve greatness is what has made our country the envy of the world.
Let's reject these policies and let's put us on a path to allowing every American the chance to achieve their own American Dream.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 165
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