The Math
Floor Speech
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Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, there is no reason for any of you to know me. My whole life has been spent in the private sector, and I have really come to believe that nobody should serve in the public sector unless they first have been in the private sector.
My whole life has been about making sure that on the 6th of each month and the 21st of each month--they are special days for me because those were days that the people who worked with me every day got paid.
We use something called kitchen table economics. I sit beside David, and I talk to him all the time. I am more of a person who says: Do you know what? Let's use kitchen table economics.
Now, I am told that Army manuals are written on a sixth-grade level so that people can understand them. I want to show you something. I reduced this down to a $1 bill because when you hear our friends talking about: Oh, no, you can cut spending. You can do this.
I want you to think not as a Member of Congress who can spend whatever he or she wants because it is not coming completely out of your pocket but of the American people, hardworking American taxpayers.
We took a dollar bill and said: Let's look at this dollar bill. Mandatory spending is money that has to be spent out of every dollar we collect from a taxpayer, $0.63. Look at this. What do you mean by that? Well, we are talking about Social Security. We are talking about Medicare. We are talking about Medicaid.
As all of you know, any loan you ever had, you are actually charged interest on it, $0.10 of every dollar. This year, that represents $663 billion just to pay for the interest on our debt. That leaves us a whopping $0.27 out of every single dollar we collect from you.
This is the important thing. I am so fed up with elected officials talking about what they have done for you. They do nothing for you. Every single thing we do in this country is paid for by a taxpayer or a debt that you cosigned that you didn't know about.
Now, I told you a bit of my history. I am an automobile dealer. Most people, 97 percent of the people that we sell a car or truck to, borrow money to pay for that car or truck. They sign their name to a contract. We take great time to explain to them exactly what is expected of them.
I told you this $0.63 goes for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and 10 percent, $0.10 on each dollar, just to pay our debt down--$663 billion.
That is why I wanted to reduce it down to kitchen table economics. This is what is happening to your dollar.
We have $0.27 that we can spend any way we want. What does that mean? Well, that includes transportation, education, defense, and other programs. Let's take a look at the $0.27 of our budget, of our revenues, that we have left to spend.
Of the $0.27 of each dollar, spending for defense, $0.13. We don't ever want to walk away from that. In the world we live in now, are you kidding me? We are going to stop that?
That leaves us, my friends, with $0.14 that we can actually control. Every single dollar out of your pocket is reduced down to this.
When people say that you have to learn how to cut spending, I say: You gave me a dollar bill? I can adjust $0.14.
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Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Yes.
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Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Yes.
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Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Schweikert and I sit beside each other every day, and we keep--honestly, these are things that keep me up at night.
In another month, my wife and I will be celebrating our 50th anniversary. I don't know what she was thinking. All I did was ask, and she said yes. Then, for half a century, we have been going at this.
We have 10 grandchildren, and I am constantly asked by people: How can you be so responsible when it comes to spending our tax dollars?
We don't want to be irresponsible. David and I sit there, and I have to tell you, sitting beside him is hard because he has so much going on in his head at one time. He is like a calculator, and I keep going back just to the basics.
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Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Social services, natural resources, science, space, technology, and other programs, we are down to $0.14 of a dollar. This is a dollar that you paid, by the way. This is out of your taxes.
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Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. The interest is $663 billion of what we owe.
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Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. It keeps growing and growing and growing. No responsible person would ever sit back and work this model.
The greatest nation the world has ever known, the wealthiest nation the world has ever known, has been totally irresponsible in the way she spent her money, and it wasn't done by her.
This incredible group of people that sit down here--remember, I said this to begin with. I don't believe anybody should serve in public office until they have been in the private sector. I, myself, have been in situations on the 6th of the month and the 21st of the month where I made sure every person that worked at the dealership got paid. There were many times I did not pay myself because I didn't have enough money to do it.
The point I think we keep trying to make is: When are we going to wake up to what is going on? This is a Titanic moment for our country.
The reason I say that is because the Titanic went full speed ahead into an iceberg. What did the captain of the Titanic see? Just a small part of the iceberg. They didn't see what was hidden.
My friends, right now the hidden part of what it is that we are spending--I would just ask you to please think with us as we go through this.
Reduce it down to where it makes sense and understand what is happening right now on the floor of this Congress. We represent you. We do not represent ourselves alone. We represent you.
If we talk about this, and this is where we are--I would just think at some point, we would sit back and say I cannot watch this and allow this to happen to hardworking American taxpayers.
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Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. When we have talked about this, because we have time when we are in meetings to talk about this--I want you all to try and just bear with me a little bit. I know that at some point, you say, I don't know if I like this dog-and-pony show.
In my district, PA-16, the average income for a family of four--mom, dad, two children--is $54,000. This is where it really starts to make sense.
Federal revenues this year will be the highest we have ever gotten. They are projected to be $5 trillion. That is a lot of money. I mean, it is almost incomprehensible.
What we are projected to spend is $6.9 trillion. You say, okay, well, that is only--that is not that far apart. It is only $1.9 trillion. Here is what it means. This is where it starts to sink in. That means a family that I represent in western Pennsylvania earning about $50,000 a year is spending $69,000 a year.
You see what we are getting to. Because when we reduce the numbers down, first of all, the high numbers are just so high, it is unimaginable. It is also unimaginable that we can ever pay the debt down.
I would just say this to you. If we continue on the path we are going, if we disregard the basic math that stands there, and the way we do it--I can tell you that most of the time that I pay monthly bills, it is at our kitchen table. I open my checkbook, and I start doing the subtract, subtract, subtract, subtract. I am just trying to understand how we can be so reckless.
None of you would do this because you have too much respect for your children and grandchildren's future, and you also have too much respect for yourselves. Nobody would consciously do this. That is the problem.
One of my favorite movies--I just want to make a point.
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Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. The movie I love is called ``A Few Good Men.'' Have you seen this movie?
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Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Jack Nicholson is in it, and he is being cross-examined in a military trial.
They keep asking him questions, and at the end, he becomes so frustrated, he said: ``You can't handle the truth.''
In our lives, the people who raised us--our moms, our dads, our grandparents--would never have done to us what is happening right now and what we are doing to our own grandchildren.
We have to handle the truth. We have to face the truth--this path that we are on, this mission that we are on, and this idea that somehow we have to get the message out to our hardworking American taxpayers that our future is being destroyed because of irresponsible spending.
Now, just to be sure on this, your Social Security will never be touched. Medicare and Medicaid are not going to be touched. The banks are never going to forgive the interest on our loans. That is the reality of it.
When you understand it that way, it becomes, oh, my gosh, what are we going to do? So, we sit there and try to figure out what it is that we can do to save the future for our children, and I looked at pictures yesterday with your two children. What are we doing to these kids? What are we doing to them?
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Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. I don't think there are many. The people I represent are either in ag or in the fields, in the mines, in the mills, on the rails. They are blue-collar people who are living an incredibly strong life because those families, the nuclear family, the mom and dad raising children, are the key to our success going forward, and an education. Based on the very foundations of what we know is true, is accurate, has been proven over the ages, the gift that America gave all of its citizens was the gift of education.
Mr. Schweikert and I can talk all day. I wish the gallery was full. I really wish the gallery was full. It is not a message of anger. It is a message of hope. We have to change our spending. We cannot sustain this irresponsible trajectory.
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Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. I would pose this for those of you who have been watching: Are we making sense? If we are making sense, can you please raise your hand? Does this make sense to you about what we are talking about or what we are doing with your dollars? No, it doesn't make sense.
We can't have the interaction with the gallery.
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Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. This is their House. We just happen to represent them. This is your House. Everything that goes on in this House is being done by people who are voted in to represent you, not represent themselves, but represent you. If it is not making sense, we need to know because, I have to tell you, it makes no sense to me at all what we are doing, not only to our future, but to our present.
If we can't grasp what is happening right now--that is why I talk about kitchen table economics. If I can reduce this down to a $1 bill that I would hand you and say, oh, by the way, that first 73 cents, give it back to me. You can keep the 27 cents, but then I am going to take another 13 cents.
When you really get down to it, it is so small what it is that we can control. In your own lives, you know if you have a mortgage payment come due, if you have a car payment come due, if you have healthcare costs come due, you can't walk away from that. At some time or other, a lender is going to say to you: Do you know what? We would love to help you, but we can't. The math doesn't work. It is not good for you.
When we talked about this the other day, the real challenge is to make sure that we understand the path that we are on and not try to sugarcoat it for you.
I know for myself the hardest lessons in life to learn are the days that you lost something. I wish I could go back and sit across from my mother and father and thank them for what they did for us, sit across from my grandparents and thank them for what they did for us. I can't thank them enough for what they did for us.
I am just so disappointed that we haven't performed as well as they have and made it possible for us to enjoy the most incredible country the world has ever known, a nation of people that is so diverse. There is no place else in the world. None of us are thinking about leaving to go someplace else, but it is our responsibility to make sure that it is a sustainable business model.
If I am not connecting with you, I apologize for that, but only because we have to understand the dilemma that we are in. This is not a scare tactic, by the way. This is a wake-up moment that we have to be aware of what is happening right now to each of us every day in every way.
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Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Arizona for the chance to work with you, and all our friends in the gallery.
This is called the people's House because it is truly your House. Anybody that is here was elected, they didn't just walk in and sit down. They take an oath of office to do things in your best interest.
What we have been trying to go through--and we have looked at all the different charts. All of you probably have a $1 bill somewhere in your wallet or your purse. I want you to imagine, taking this $1 dollar bill, and this is what you actually can control when it comes to the spending.
So when I hear this thing about: Well, you just have to cut spending, you just have to cut spending. That is fine. Could you please give me a road map of what you want us to cut?
That is not accepted because that is not what is being fed to you. I am going to tell you; we are here because of you. We are here for you. I thought the dollar bill was the easiest way to show it because we are all used to that.
Mr. Speaker, I have 10 grandchildren--and maybe you can all relate to this. When our kids were growing up they liked to go skiing in the wintertime because I am from Pennsylvania. They came to me one time, and said, Dad, can we go skiing? I said, No, I don't have the money to go this weekend. They said, Sure you do. They went under the bed and picked out my checkbook that has three checks to a page. My son said, Here, you have all kinds of money. I said, Well, you have to put the money in before you can write the check to take it out.
That was a concept that a child didn't understand, and unfortunately, there are too many children representing you here right now that don't understand what is taking place in every American home and with every one of our hardworking American taxpayers.
We are here for you. I don't care if you are Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, or say, I wish you people would stay the heck out of our lives, we are here representing you. I would ask you to please communicate with the people who represent you to let them know that you are concerned about the way the country is going and the future, not only for our grandchildren and children, but also for us.
I hope we get through, and if we didn't, please contact us. We are here every day for you. There is no other reason for us to be here other than for you.
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