During debate on the House floor, Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-PA) spoke in opposition to the Senate Republican budget proposal.
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00:00To the gentleman from the Keystone State, dear friend and Vice Chairman of the Budget Committee, Mr. Lloyd Smucker.
00:06Mr. Smucker is recognized for how long?
00:10Two minutes.
00:11Two minutes.
00:12Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Chairman for yielding.
00:15I want to say first that it has been a great pleasure of mine to work with the Chairman over the past few months.
00:24He's done an incredible job leading the Budget Committee and leading our conference to a bill passed out of the House that not only extended the tax cuts, it secured the border, it unleashes American energy, it funds our military.
00:42All of the priorities, all of the mandates makes good on the mandates that the American people have given us and have given the President in this past election.
00:51And I'll say first that it is, I think, important to every member of the Republican Conference in the House, and I believe every Republican member in the Senate as well, to extend those tax cuts to drive an economy that he's working for, working for Americans, and drive additional growth in the economy.
01:11So that's what came out of the House, and so I was very disappointed to see very, very different instructions to the Senate that I just think are not serious.
01:24I believe that we have to do these tax cuts, and what I think is also important to every member of the House, we know the fiscal trajectory that we're on.
01:35We know this won't end well if we constrain, if we don't restrain our runaway spending.
01:41I think this is our opportunity to do it, and the $4 billion floor in spending savings in that Senate bill just simply are not acceptable.
01:52There are those who argue that we'll be working on this, and we'll still come up with a good bill.
01:59But to me, it's important we have the guardrails in the initial resolution.
02:05I think there's a reason for the initial resolution.
02:08It's to set up the framework for what this reconciliation will look like.
02:13And so, unfortunately today, unusual for me, but I will not be able to support this bill on the floor.
02:19I will be voting no on this bill.
02:21It's time.
02:22I think the gentleman in reserve, I give the gentleman 15 seconds.
02:29Gentleman is recognized for an additional 15 seconds.
02:32Again, with what I started with, it's very important we get this bill done.
02:36There is a better path forward.
02:39We have an amendment that could be passed in this bill that would satisfy where the Senate is, where the House is.
02:46And as I said, I can't vote on this bill as it is, but there's a pathway forward here that is very, very important.
