By John Rose
U.S. House of Representatives (6th District – Tennessee)
WASHINGTON – Millions of Tennesseans are suffering significant, if not disastrous, hardships from the record-breaking inflation we are all experiencing. Inflation is the highest it’s been since 1981, and despite President Biden’s admonition to the contrary, it’s proving to be anything but temporary.
I have been outspoken on numerous occasions on the House Floor as to how we got to this point as a nation, and it’s hard to sugarcoat it. Quite simply, Congressional Democrats and President Biden have recklessly spent massive amounts of money that we obviously couldn’t afford, and in doing so, have flooded the economy with trillions of borrowed dollars, which lessened the value of each dollar and thus increased the number of dollars it takes to buy anything – including necessities like food, clothes and gasoline.
Now, here we are again, as House Democrats just passed yet another spending bill costing hundreds of billions of dollars and filled with socialist wish list items that increase federal spending by double and even triple digit percentage increases in some areas of the federal government.
I, of course, voted “No.” Not only because it increases the size of our government by increasing spending on non-defense programs by 14%, but because it also fails to include the Hyde Amendment, which is a long-standing bipartisan agreement that protects taxpayer dollars from being used to fund abortions.
Overall, the bill would increase the budget for the Environmental Protection Agency by 20%, increase the budget for general governmental activities by 17% and includes a 10% increase for the Food and Drug Administration—the same department that contributed to the hurtful and inexcusable baby formula shortage. Passing this bill full of liberal initiatives will only fan the flames of the already red-hot inflation Tennesseans are facing due to Democrats’ reckless spending.
This legislation also encourages illegal immigration, discourages increased domestic energy output by restricting offshore oil and gas activities and fails to fund our national defense priorities like the nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile.
Borrowing more money from China, throwing it out the door, and forcing our grandchildren to pay it back only creates more problems, not solutions. We must return to our commonsense roots and end this inflationary spending now.
It’s been almost two years of complete Democratic control of government, and instead of addressing the root causes of the crises Democrats created, this bill doubles down on their failed socialist agenda. Tennesseans are fiscally responsible and always balance their state budgets, and there is absolutely no good reason why the federal government can’t do the same.
U.S. Rep. John Rose is currently serving his second term representing Tennessee’s Sixth Congressional District and resides in Cookeville with his wife, Chelsea, and their two sons, Guy and Sam. The Sixth District includes Cannon, Clay, Coffee, Cumberland, DeKalb, Fentress, Jackson, Macon, Overton, Pickett, Putnam, Robertson, Smith, Sumner, Trousdale, White and Wilson counties as well as portions of Cheatham and Van Buren counties. Representative Rose currently serves on the Financial Services Committee and is an eighth-generation farmer, small business owner and attorney.
