Thomas Massie: “I would love to stand here and tell the American people that we can cut your taxes and increase spending, and everything…”

“I would love to stand here and tell the American people that we can cut your taxes and increase spending, and everything is going to be just fine. I can't do that because I am here to deliver a dose of reality. This bill dramatically increases deficits in the near term but promises our government will be fiscally responsible 5 years from now. Where have we heard that before? How do you bind a future Congress to these promises? This bill is a debt bomb ticking. Congress can do funny math, fantasy math if it wants, but bond investors don't. This week, they sent us a message. Moody's downgraded our credit rating, and the bond investors who buy and finance our debt demanded higher interest rates on the 10-year note, 20-year note, and the 30-year note. What does this mean? Very soon, the government will be paying $16,000 of interest, interest alone, per U.S. family. What are we telling them? Instead of taking care of that problem, we are going to give them a $1,600 tax break. Under the taxing and spending levels in this bill, we are going to rack up, the authors say, $20 trillion of new debt over the next 10 years. I am telling you, it is closer to $30 trillion of new debt in the next 10 years. Mr. Speaker, we are not rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic tonight. We are putting coal in the boiler and setting a course for the iceberg. If something is beautiful, you don't do it after midnight. Mr. Speaker, I oppose this bill.”