Cole Opposes Democrats Inflation Expansion Act

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Tom Cole (OK-04) made remarks on the House floor during debate on the rule providing for consideration of the Senate Amendment to H.R. 5376, a partisan tax-and-spend reconciliation package. Cole will oppose the legislation during the final vote later today.
Mr. Speaker, it's worth asking why we're here at all right now. Quite frankly, we face no emergency. The government is not about to shut down. Nothing in this bill is actually going to take effect in the immediate future. We are simply here because my friends on the other side want to create the illusion that they are doing something positive before the midterm elections.

I think they also fear that the American people will actually have a chance to look at this monstrosity over a month and their own members will have to go home and give an accounting for what they have done here. Sadly, we are going to rush this through without appropriate consideration.

It is worth noting, Mr. Speaker, 180 of our own members, plus, are not even here. They are not here because they have submitted a declaration because we are in a “health emergency.” What health emergency? We have vaccines. We have therapeutics. The airports are full of people. People are traveling pretty easily. But 180 members won't be here. Both parties. Again, that's a sad commentary on the manner in which we're operating this House.

This bill comes before us in a process that I can only describe as lousy. No committee of jurisdiction in either the Senate or the House has dealt with this bill as written. No House member has had any meaningful input in this legislation. The reality is this bill was negotiated in backrooms by two Senators and rammed through the Senate on a partisan vote. My friends have picked it up without changing it, without considering it and are going to ram it through here today. That's a process that they ought to be embarrassed by.

There are two reasons to oppose the legislation itself, Mr. Speaker. The first is simply because of what is in it. The Democrats are repeating the mistake they made last year. They are going to try and spend their way out of inflation, a novel approach. We saw how well that worked when they rammed through the American Rescue Plan under reconciliation. It is going to work exactly the same way again.

And on top of that, we are going to try and tax our way out of recession. That is a novel, new economic idea. Raise taxes while you're in a recession, something other administrations of both parties have always rejected as a bad idea. But my friends feverishly intent upon action, are going to do it here.

We are going to do one thing and I guess that could start immediately. We are going to hire, as my friend from Texas suggested, 87,000 new IRS employees. Only my friends on the other side think that's a good idea. Nobody thinks 87,000 new IRS agents are going to do anything to help us with inflation, or to help us with the problems that we have in energy, or to help us in any meaningful way, improve the economy or the lives of the average American.

But what is not in this bill is another reason to vote against it. It does nothing to deal with inflation. Indeed, during the Rules Committee, we submitted a letter from 280 economists that said, this is going to make it worse, not better. 280. They can rely on Mr. Summers and rely on the 280 economists from both parties and every point of view that said this is not going to work when it comes to inflation. There is nothing in this bill is going to increase energy production in the United States. Nothing at all.

And finally, there's nothing meaningful, as my friend from Texas pointed out, that will actually reduce the deficit. That deficit doesn't begin to come down until seven years from now under this legislation, which assumes everything stays the same for seven years. That is not going to happen.

So, for those reasons. Mr. Speaker, we ought to reject this rule. We ought to submit this bill to the appropriate committees of jurisdiction in this House, allow them to do their work and continue to negotiate with the Senate. There is no emergency. There is no hurry here. We do not need to ram this through.

So, for that reason. Mr. Speaker, I urge the rejection of the rule and the rejection of the underlying legislation.