Swamp Math 

This week, the House Ways & Means Committee held a hearing with United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to discuss President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2023 budget proposal. The Biden administration is falsely claiming victory for “reducing the deficit.” Biden is lying to the American people and justifying that lie by using gimmicks – it is unconscionable.

I call it swamp math because it is the same kind of deceptive spin that Washington tries to varnish on the truth.

Think of it this way: if I eat 10,000 calories of food today and only 5,000 calories of food tomorrow, I am not suddenly dieting. I am still overeating. That same logic is how the Biden administration is making false claims of deficit reduction. Biden’s Fiscal Year 2023 Budget demonstrates that deficits will remain over $1 trillion annually over the next decade, with the deficit growing nearly every year. 

I asked Sec. Yellen during the Ways & Means hearing to defend the administration’s deficit reduction claims. As I said during the hearing, you go outside the beltway one step, and there is no one in America who will believe that the Biden administration is reducing deficits. It’s harmful to the future of the country. I don’t understand how they can be claiming that deficits are being reduced when it obviously is not the case. The Biden administration claiming otherwise is simply wrong.

Watch my questioning of Sec. Yellen by clicking the image below.

Yellen’s appearance at the House Committee on Ways & Means meeting comes one week after her admission that “I think I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take.” And the Biden administration certainly was wrong. This inflation is not temporary. It’s crushing families’ budgets and costing them thousands more a year.

The latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that costs soared in May, up 8.6 percent from last year. Bidenflation has remained at 40-year highs. And Biden’s spending is what caused it.

Gas Costs Skyrocket

During the hearing with Sec. Yellen, I also asked her about the Biden administration’s plan on energy. We know that the Biden administration has proposed $45 billion in new taxes on energy producers. I asked Sec. Yellen: “Do you believe that raising taxes on fossil fuel production will lower the record high gas prices?” Listen to her response by clicking here. The Biden administration is simply out of touch with average Americans who are struggling to pay $5 for a gallon of gas. Here’s an idea: why don’t we work to increase domestic energy production instead of raising taxes?

The Biden administration continues to encourage Americans to participate in the “incredible transition” to the Green New Deal by purchasing an electric vehicle (EV).

Yet, EVs pay nothing towards the maintenance of the roads they drive on. With many manufacturers continuing to build new models of electric vehicles, which are a growing share of cars on the road, it is critical that we be forward thinking about the impact of the EVs on federal policy.

Read my op-ed published in The Hill about my USER FEE Act to ensure our nation’s highway infrastructure finances are put on firmer footing over the long-term.

Visiting Biden's Border Crisis 

Earlier this month, I visited McAllen, Texas with my fellow colleagues on the House Budget Committee to see President Biden’s border crisis first-hand. Our visit included briefings from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials, touring border security infrastructure and processing facilities, meeting with members of the Texas Department of Public Safety, and a roundtable with local elected and law enforcement officials.  

The Biden administration continues to fail the American people by not securing our nation’s southern border. The policies of the Biden administration have created the humanitarian and national security crisis we all are witnessing. Their refusal to secure our border is resulting in drug trafficking, particularly fentanyl, and human trafficking which impacts communities like ours across the country. This is the result of weak border policies.   

Biden’s failure to secure our southern border poses an enormous national security threat. We know of at least 42 individuals on the terrorist watchlist have attempted to enter the country since Biden took office.

Cartels earn an estimated $1 billion a month extorting migrants into paying fees. These dollars embolden criminal enterprises responsible for unspeakable crimes of human and drug trafficking. While criminals profit, CBP agents are not receiving the support they need to effectively do their jobs.

I witnessed mile-wide gaps in border wall while nearby millions of dollars in construction materials paid for by the taxpayers continues to rust since the Biden administration stopped building. Watch my video about the millions of dollars of rusting materials by clicking the image below.

I applaud the work of the CBP agents who continue their work despite the lack of support they are receiving from the president’s administration. Should Title 42 go away, CBP officials estimate that attempted crossings would increase nearly 25 percent. Congress and the Biden administration should be adopting policies to support CBP officials, not making their jobs more difficult. This is an intentional choice by the Biden administration that is driven by politics, not good policy. For the good of our country, the Biden administration must work swiftly to put an end to this humanitarian and national security crisis.

Democrats' Hidden Spending

This week, without a hearing and without its own vote, Democrats advanced $1.6 trillion in future spending. Instead of using the Budget Committee and following regular order, Congressional Democrats secretly granted themselves the authority to spend $1.6 trillion next year by “deeming” a resolution as passed. This kind of gimmicky budgeting is bad for the financial health of our nation. We ought to debate and vote on our spending priorities.

Around the District

Thanks to members of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau for visiting me in Washington this week to discuss how we can continue to ensure a bright future for Pennsylvania’s agriculture industry!

Here to Help

Attention Lancaster County businesses who were impacted by Tropical Depression Ida in early September 2021, the deadline to apply for the Small Business Administration’s economic injury disaster loans is July 6, 2022. Learn more by clicking here. 

To any veteran, there is always support available at the Veterans Crisis Line. Call 1-800-273-8255 and Press 1 or text 838255. Visit the Veterans Crisis Line website for more information.

Looking for information on federal grants? Learn more about the grant awarding process and search the federal database of grant programs at www.grants.gov.

If you have any questions or issues with a federal agency, please know that my office is here to assist you. You can call my district or Washington, DC offices for assistance or visit my website for any issue with a federal agency or department.

Stay Connected

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Sincerely,

Lloyd Smucker