Raising the Debt Limit While Spending Beyond Our Means: The 'Road To Hell'
Massie on the floor explaining why the bipartisan debt-ceiling kabuki never actually reduces the debt — it just buys headlines and more spending.
Original by RepThomasMassie on YouTube ↗ · Is this yours? Claim credit →
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- recognize the gentleman from Kentucky Mr Massey I thank the good doctor from Texas um how long can we do it how long can we
- go on spending beyond our means I just wonder until we uh we're no longer the reserve
- currency how long will that take at the current clip I don't know it depends on the other countries really who are if any of
- them are managing their fiscal policy better than ours how long can we go on spending beyond our means and tell the the welfare benefits that the Democrats
- are so concerned about here today mean absolutely nothing because of inflation it's already happening I think it's been
- mentioned here today how much snap pays per meal for a meal I don't know if the number was correct if it's like two dollars
- two dollars doesn't go very far today thanks to what we have done here in Congress thanks to the spending we have undertaken without doing anything to pay
- for it how long can we go on spending beyond our means before it all crashes or before we get into hyperinflation
- I think the irresponsible thing to do is to raise the debt limit without taking any measures
- to take us off of this path this road to hell paved with great intentions
- but with no fiscal responsibility or accountability if I could offer one Amendment this bill here today
- it would be to prevent the treasury from borrowing this money from the Federal Reserve who would create it out of thin
- air I'm afraid that's going to happen some of this will get borrowed from China and some of them will get borrowed from Japan and maybe some from our allies in
- Europe and some from our own Social Security funds and some from Americans who hold wealth
- but I am worried that we're going to do when we raise this debt limit without sending a signal to the markets
- that we're serious about taking care of the overall problem that one of our options and what may be our only option to make up the difference between how
- much people want to loneliness and how much we need to borrow is going to be the Federal Reserve creating this money out of thin air that's what they did
- during Cove at five trillion dollars have been created out of thin air now it shows up on my debt Clock as dead
- because on the paper we borrowed the treasury borrowed it from the Federal Reserve but they borrowed money that didn't exist until the federally
- reserved waved their magic wand and said this exists so what is the Federal Reserve doing now they're raising interest rates why are
- they raising interest rates because because they have to because they printed so much money they're
- trying to get inflation under control so they you know usually or it's it said that when you have a hyperactive economy
- you raise interest rates and try to dampen it down we don't have a hyperactive economy we have hyperactive inflation at the moment and so they're throwing a wet blanket on
- an economy that these principles aren't that great right now and the Very people you're trying to help at the bottom end of the
- socioeconomic scale the ones who the biggest portion of their income goes to housing goes to food goes to energy are
- seeing increases in the cost of those three things because of what we're doing up here we're just spending and we're saying it's for their good it's for the
- benefit of the people at the lower end of the socioeconomic scale but most of that coven money ended up in Wall Street and Banks yeah the
- stock market did fine during covet but the people down the bottom were struggling after the 1200 and the 600
- and the fourteen hundred dollar checks ran out those don't make up for the lost wages that occurred because of inflation
- so if I could offer one amendment to this it would say when we do raise the debt limit because it's going to go up the question is are we going to do something real to keep from being back
- here in the same position in a year my Amendment would prevent the treasury from borrowing money that was just newly created from the Federal Reserve
- hopefully they're not going to do that but we've and we should be in control of that policy you know we say oh they should operate independently of the
- government where they don't operate independently the treasury how does a Fed operate independently the treasury they're calling each other either each other up every day okay well I'm gonna
- need you to uh create another uh 500 billion today and then we will borrow it at this rate they're working hand in
- glove they're not an independent uh agency they're working hand in glove with the treasury so they can create money and you can't create wealth you
- can create money but you can't create Prosperity by printing money oh you know I sit here thinking what what else could we do
- we could require the Pentagon to pass an audit or the audited yeah have they ever passed one no where's the money going
- that would be a good amendment to offer here we could offer you know we're talking about unobligated covid funds our yields if you got some more ideas to
- support the gentleman on the defense department Amendment and I got good news for you you're on the rules committee you can offer amendments yeah I think we're uh offering since the gentleman's
- such a strong proponent of regular order we're going to offer a bipartisan Standalone Bill to do that and to uh audit the Pig on you may already be on it maybe but regular order is also you
- can rules coming you can offer amendments so I'm happy to support the gentleman on that well back to and to the point on regular order I you know I prefer everything to go through
- committees as well but um the Democrats position on the debt limit is we shouldn't it shouldn't even it shouldn't go through a committee
- of jurisdiction it shouldn't go through the rules committee it shouldn't even be voted on the floor the Democrat position I've heard is that this is an archaic
- process that we are undertaking to vote on whether we should issue more debt or encumber uh that debt and that it should
- just be automatic like deemed to the the debt limit to increase whenever we spend money I thought that was the Democrat
- position just to get rid of not just regular order all order put it out of order um but here's one of the ideas and this gets to the unobligated covid money
- I think we should retract the billions of dollars of money flowing to Big Pharma look covet I just flew from an airport
- in Miami to DC today not even one percent are wearing a mask now and we are still paying for ads we're
- still funneling money to Pfizer they're still being underwritten hundreds of millions of dollars why are we doing that I think the fact that they're making so
- much money off of the government is the reason the president insists on keeping the the vaccine mandate after the covet emergencies already uh been declared
- over but there's that's a place we could save money quit spending the covet emergency money anyways there was uh many years
- ago it used to be an order on the floor to um to offer an amendment a privileged Amendment uh to rename a bill as soon as
- it passed you had to be at the microphone not too many people knew you could do this so I went to the microphone a few years ago and this is when Trump was president and there was a
- bill I think the Democrats might have been in charge at the time here in the house but certainly Trump was president and I offered an amendment to rename the
- the debt limit increase at the time a bill to Kick the Can down the road and for other purposes yeah my good friend here remembers that
- everybody got a chuckle out of it until I demanded a recorded vote but we had five Democrats vote for that and I
- remember one of them that was sitting close enough we could hear the a Democrat came up to him I won't call him out and said why are you voting for Massey's
- Amendment he said because it's the damn truth so I included for other purposes because there may have been other purposes I
- didn't know for for raising the debt limit but our other purposes in this bill should include if there are other purposes the sort of things that we've
- got in here to get us back on a path to sanity and um so as not to take up too much more time I know we've got votes coming
- up I yield back to the chairman