U.S. Rep. Ron Estes Discusses U.S. Debt Ceiling Crisis in a Joint Economic Committee Hearing

In a joint Economic Committee Hearing, U.S. Rep. for Kansas’s 4th District Ron Estes (R), spoke on the U.S. debt ceiling crisis.  In the meeting, which took place on Wednesday, May 17, 2023, he took shots at President Joe Biden, saying he wasn’t taking the negotiation seriously as he has taken 97 days to get with Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R). He pointed out that as of the meeting, the Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023 is the only current plan to address the U.S. debt ceiling crisis. Through this bill, the U.S. debt ceiling would be suspended until March 31, 2024 or increased by $1.5 trillion from the current $31.4 trillion ceiling, whichever comes first. Rep. Estes acknowledges that it’s a reoccurring problem that we will continue to face again and again unless we get our spending under control.

“Let’s start with some basic facts we can all agree on,” Rep. Estes said. “Our national debt is $31.4 trillion. We’re borrowing one out of every five dollars the federal government spends, which means we’re borrowing $50,000 a second. With my time at the Hearings done, we’ll have accumulated nearly $14 million more in debt. Every taxpayer is on the hook for over $250,000 in debt. These are facts.” 

Rep. Estes also said a “default” is not the best way to describe our situation since we do have revenue coming in.

“We’re just spending more than what the revenue is,” Rep. Estes said. 

He then said that $17 trillion would be added to the deficit over the next ten years under the budget proposed by President Biden, making our debt in the next ten years over $50 trillion.

“If the government borrows a million dollars today the total cost of the American taxpayer is more than $2.3 million by the time that ten years is up because there is no plan to repay that money,” Rep. Estes continued. “While the president proposes borrowing mass sums of money, he’s also included taxes as part of that, which is going to slow down the economy which will impact the amount of tax revenue that comes in.”

He went on to point out that a Democrat in the House Budget Committee Hearing the week prior admitted that those making less than $40,000 would need to pay more in taxes to help cover the cost to “some of those wide-ranging spending policies from the Biden Administration.” He also pointed out that the economy is turning in more tax revenue, meaning the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017–the largest overhaul of the tax code in three decades–was beneficial not just for citizens, but for the government.

“If someone’s making $48,000 a year, but spends $63,000 a year, and carrying $314,000 on a credit card, do you think it’s fiscally responsible for that person to go get another $15,000 on the credit card just to spend over the next year just so they can overspend their debt limit,” Rep. Estes asked.

He proposed that the first thing the government needs to do is look at how to reduce spending to match it up with the revenue, noting the Hearing is about how a U.S. default crisis harms American families and businesses. He stated that the only bill that will do that is the Limit, Save, Grow Act passed by House Republicans.

Rep. Estes, then questioned Former Trump Director of the Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney about what needs to be done.

“When I came to Congress six years ago, the estimate was that if we could save about $6 trillion in a ten-year period we’d have a balanced budget,” Rep. Estes said. “Now that’s roughly $16 trillion based on where we’re at today. How do we address our out of control spending to actually make sure we get back in the right direction?”

Mulvaney said to address out of control spending you try and convince folks in both parties that spending is a problem. 

“Face it, you don’t get $31 trillion in debt by one party doing it to you,” Mulvaney said. “There are folks in my own party that are just as eager to spend as some Democrats are, so yeah, you’ve got to fight to do it…. When I was writing the first version of one of the budgets we were cutting pretty heavily. Then, we got some instructions from up above to spend a little bit more money, and I want you to know that the meetings were a lot easier after that. When you can tell people, ‘oh yeah, we’ll spend more on this, spend more.’ It’s really easy to spend other people’s money, which is what you all do, right? So, you have to figure out how to do the right thing and realize you’re spending your grandkids’ money and not your own.”