Yakym Votes for Budget Blueprint to Restore Fiscal Responsibility 

Washington, D.C. – In a House Budget Committee markup today, Congressman Yakym (IN-02) voted to advance the House Budget Committee’s Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for FY2024-FY2033. The Concurrent Resolution is a blueprint to restore fiscal responsibility in Washington, D.C., and would reduce the deficit by $16 trillion and balance the federal budget in 10 years.    Click HERE to watch Congressman Yakym’s remarks today in support of the House Budget Committee’s Concurrent Resolution.

Congressman Yakym’s full remarks:   One of my main drivers and reasons in running for Congress is our federal debt, which has been out of control for years, but exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic.   Our debt totals $33 trillion, which is more than the combined GDP of China, Japan, Germany, and India.   The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that the federal debt will amount to 124% of GDP by the end of this fiscal year. In 10 years, it’s projected to be 129% of GDP.   There’s no way to look at those numbers and think that Washington’s spending habits are sustainable or acceptable.   In 2022, we paid $475 billion in interest on our debt, and the CBO estimates that our interest payments will rise to $1.4 trillion annually over the next decade, meaning that we will be spending more annually on interest payments than on programs like Medicaid or national defense.   Those interest payments represent money that could be used to care for our veterans or invest in our nation’s security.   President Biden’s runaway spending unleashed generational inflation that’s left American workers and families worse off.   Since President Biden took office, the price of the food we buy in the grocery store is up nearly 20%. The average price of gas when President Biden took office was $2.39 a gallon. It is now $3.88.   Home and new car affordability are at all-time lows. “Bidenomics” just doesn’t work for Hoosiers. It makes them worse off and it makes them work harder every day just to get by.   The ballooning debt also has substantial implications for our national security. It undermines our ability to act in our own interest, adequately invest in our future, and respond to the ever-changing geopolitics.   As of January 2023, $7.4 trillion of U.S. debt was held by foreign countries and individuals, with just over $850 billion held by China. Who’s to say that China won’t try to leverage that against us?   I’m proud of the budget resolution that we put forward today. It takes meaningful steps to get our spending and debt under control.   It would balance the budget and reduce our overall deficit by $16.3 trillion over the next 10 years. It makes logical and necessary changes to discretionary and non-discretionary spending.   For example, it cuts down improper payments by 50%, saving $1 trillion. It establishes work requirements for able bodied adults that participate in Medicaid or SNAP, which leads to greater self-sufficiency and increases our workforce participation rate.   There are so many other things that this budget resolution does. I am proud to support it.   Mister Chairman, thank you for your tireless work on this, and I yield back.