GOP's Budget Will 'Make Us All Poorer': Khanna Slams Big Beautiful Bill That 'Explodes Deficits'

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During remarks on the House floor, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) tore into the GOP's budget.

Transcript

00:00Mr. Speaker, one of the largest challenges our country faces is exploding deficits.

00:11The Republican budget would add $2.4 trillion over 10 years to the existing deficits. Let me

00:21show this chart. This chart, the yellow line, shows the existing deficits as they currently

00:28are projected. The Republicans would take those existing deficits and add over 10 years $2.4

00:37trillion. Now, Ray Dalio and Jamie Dimon have said this is a disaster, that the bond markets

00:45are afraid. Why are the bond markets afraid? Because they know that the Fed would engage

00:51in quantitative easing, buying up more treasury bonds as people outside view the treasuries

00:57is more risky, and this will lower the value of the dollar, and it will make basically

01:03all Americans poorer. But people are tired of just hearing one side bash the other side about

01:11deficits and no one doing anything about it. And so today we are introducing a plan, a real

01:16plan, to lower deficits in America. This plan would take the deficit down over the next 10

01:25years to below 3 percent of GDP. The historical average over the last 40, 50 years has been

01:32under 4 percent of GDP. The Republican plan, by the way, independent analysis, takes the deficits

01:39to 7 to 8.6 percent of GDP. That's the highest it's ever been in peace time. Our plan would

01:46take it back down to under 4 percent. Here you see the Republican deficits. Here you see the

01:53current deficits. Here you see our plan, which would reduce deficits by 12 trillion dollars.

01:58Now you say, how are we going to do this deficit reduction? Where are the spending cuts and where

02:04are the revenue generators? It's pretty simple, actually. We need to start with the Pentagon

02:11and modernizing the Pentagon. This is what Elon Musk actually signed up to do with SpaceX and

02:17initially with Doge. He wanted to cut the bloated defense contractors and the waste out of the

02:23Pentagon. We need not cost plus accounting. We need new competition. Secondly, we need to go after

02:32negotiating big pharma. Medicare should be negotiating drug prices. Third, we should be stopping Medicare

02:39Advantage from ripping off the American people. They're upcoding. They're making people sicker than they

02:46actually are. We should make competitive procurement for the government. None of this, by the way,

02:51is in the Republican plan. These are the big ticket items that would actually start to reduce the

02:56deficit. They always say, oh, we're not for spending cuts. Right here, spending cuts. Actual spending cuts

03:02of what we can be doing to reduce the deficit. And end fossil fuel subsidies. Musk has called for this

03:08too, by the way, ending these fossil fuel subsidies. And then let's have some revenue generators.

03:13You know, you have to both cut spending and generate revenue. Let's tax billionaires.

03:20I never understood the billionaire argument. I am more billionaires than anyone in this chamber.

03:26There are $5 trillion companies in my district. Apple, Google, Nvidia, Broadcom, and Tesla. I'm saying,

03:32let's raise taxes on them. I don't understand how this is a hard vote for 434 other members of Congress.

03:38And we should be making sure that we are taxing our stock buybacks. That we're making sure that when

03:45we have large inheritances, people who are inheriting it actually have to pay capital gains. So that we,

03:52in this country, start to reward hard work again. Not just speculation. So that we celebrate the people

03:59who are doing daily work and paying taxes as opposed to just speculators who are avoiding taxes.

04:07Anyway, this plan would reduce the deficit, reduce debt by $12 trillion over 10 years. And it would

04:16also reduce the interest payments on the deficit every year, which would add an extra $2 trillion of

04:22savings. Now, I'm not saying this plan is perfect, but here's what I think every member of Congress

04:28should do. Propose how you're going to reduce the deficit. Tell the American people how the math

04:34works. Every member of Congress owes that to their constituents. If you disagree with me,

04:40have your own plan. But here's what I do know. The Republican plan is just going to explode deficits,

04:46and it's going to hurt the American economy and make us all poorer. I hope, Mr. Speaker,

04:52we can come together in this body to be honest with the American people, to actually have a calculator,

04:58to do math, and to propose real plans for deficit reduction. Thank you.

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