Patrick McHenryChairman

WASHINGTON- Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) delivered the following opening statement at today’s full committee markup of its FY 2017 Budget Views and Estimates:

Three weeks ago we heard President Obama deliver his last State of the Union address, and perhaps never has there been a greater disconnect between the American people and their president. President Obama may spend his last year in office trying to take a victory lap, but the American people certainly are taking no victory lap in their household finances. The undeniable truth is the economy still isn’t working for working Americans. They remain stuck in the slowest and weakest economic recovery of their lifetimes.

Median household income today is $1,600 lower than it was when he took office.

Because the economy is under-performing by historical standards, 16 million Americans are still unemployed or underemployed even though the recession, theoretically, officially ended nearly 7 years ago. The number includes 6 million Americans who are forced to work at part-time jobs because no other work is available. In fact, the number of long-term unemployed Americans is 761,000 higher than it was at the start of the recession.

And during the Obama administration, we have accumulated more debt than we did during our nation’s first 200 years.

For anyone trying to determine what the Obama “legacy” will be – just look at the rapidly spinning debt clocks displayed to our left and right, front and center. There it is. Under President Obama, publicly-held debt has more than doubled. And when measured as a percentage of the economy, gross federal debt has grown from 68 percent to over 103 percent by the end of 2014.

This level of debt is the highest at any time during our nation’s history other than World War II. Back then it was temporary and in response to a mortal threat. Today’s debt is structural, unsustainable and I would offer immoral. It is stolen from our children and grandchildren and it represents a mortal threat to our future.

With debt on a steeply upward climb rather than a downward path, the Congressional Budget Office reports that Americans’ will be condemned to even slower economic growth over the next 25 years. For young Americans starting out today, our growing debt represents $250,000 in lost income over the course of their careers, again, $250,000.

That’s money they will never be able to use to send their kids to college, or buy a home, or create a job, or pay for rising health insurance premiums thanks to Obamacare.

For our nation this ticking time-bomb threatens our ability to sustain a functioning and financially viable safety net for our truly needy.

It also leaves little room for important priorities such as national defense. We must change course, because the status quo leads only to debt and decline. Indeed, while we will probably hear some on this Committee claim victory over the deficit, as President Obama did during his speech, the truth is our deficit is growing. The Associated Press reported just a few days ago: “The deficit and debt picture over the long-term has worsened considerably” and the economy will grow at a slower pace than budget forecasters predicted just a few months ago.

Some try to portray any alternative to the status quo as austerity and pain when, actually, it’s the exact opposite. Austerity and pain are what await us if we continue down the current path of more and more deficit spending. If we keep spending money we don’t have, then someday soon a future president and a future Congress will be left with no choice but austerity -- massive tax increases and massive cuts to the social safety net.

Instead we must pre-empt austerity and pain by getting back to a healthy economy with greater growth, opportunity and prosperity for all. And the best way to do that is to work together on a plan that is responsible and offers positive solutions that address our economic and fiscal challenges.

So today we will work on our Committee’s Views and Estimates. They will help our Committee and help the Budget Committee guide our efforts to help low and middle-income Americans pursue happiness and achieve the American Dream of financial independence.

As we confront this task, we do so with the knowledge that it is neither fair nor compassionate to saddle future generations with ruinous debt.

It is neither fair nor compassionate to continue spending money we don’t have, for that ultimately makes it impossible to support the safety net for those who truly need it.

The answer is prosperity, not austerity. That’s how we can help create a more secure and more confident America.

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