Research and Development Expensing

Floor Speech

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Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Kansas who represents a district that may be the second largest production ag district only to west Texas, the food, fuel, and fiber capital of the world.

In all seriousness, spending is out of control like never before in this country. Our debt is unsustainable, which is an understatement, maybe the biggest one of the night, and America's fiscal health is in rapid decline.

What is the formula? Reverse Biden's spending spree, right-size this bloated and weaponized bureaucracy, rein in mandatory spending, reform entitlements, root out all of this trillions in waste and fraud, and then return to progrowth, prowork, proenergy policies.

That last piece is critical. In order for us to bring this indebtedness in this great country of ours--it has surpassed World War II as the highest levels of indebtedness in the history of our country. We have to have growth. Growth is essential not only to reining in deficits. It generates more revenue for the country and reduces spending by giving Americans better-paying jobs and allowing people to save and invest more of their hard-earned money.

CBO projects over the next 10 years we will have a paltry 2 percent economic growth. If we grow 1 more percent, we can help bring the deficit down by $3 trillion. We need $16 trillion, Mr. Speaker, in order to balance the budget, so growth will play a critical role.

In 2017, Republicans and President Trump passed tax reform. After that, we saw unprecedented, record investment in R&D, capital investment, growth, job creation, lowest unemployment, lowest poverty rates, lifting 6 million people out of poverty in this country. It had tremendous value to the country as a whole. All boats rose on the tide of prosperity.

In fact, the CBO projected that we would only grow the revenue from the tax cuts by $327 billion in 2021, the year after, and the revenues actually grew by tens of billions more. The following year, 2022, the CBO projected $353 billion. They were off by $100 billion. We got record revenue.

One of the biggest progrowth provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was 100 percent business expensing. We need to give businesses the certainty to make the investment, supercharge America's competitiveness, and create more things in this country instead of depending on other countries for important products, making sure that we stave off what is projected to be a sustained recession if not stagnation.

We can do this, address inflation, save this country from a debt crisis, and reverse the curse of these failed economic policies and this unbridled spending. We can do it in part with progrowth, prowork, and proenergy policies.

I am proud to work alongside my friend from Kansas, a true leader on the Budget Committee, on the Ways and Means Committee, and on all things progrowth and making America the most powerful, most prosperous Nation in the world. I thank Mr. Estes for his leadership.

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