In the News

WASHINGTON – Majority Whip Tom Emmer today discussed House Republicans’ success in passing the Fiscal Responsibility Act after forcing Joe Biden to the negotiating table and rallying members around a $2.1 trillion spending cut – the largest deficit reduction in American history.

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Whip Emmer: “If I learned anything during my years playing a sport that was given to us from God because we know ice only exists in heaven – if I learned anything from that experience as a player and as a coach, it was that championship teams are not created the very first day of practice. First, you have to build a team. You have to then get the team to work together and to believe in something as a group. Then, you have to develop a strategy – in sports it’s called a game plan – on how the team can win. The debt limit fight last week displayed just how far House Republicans have come as a team.

“A lot of people in this room were looking back in January saying how can these Republicans actually want to run a one-car parade? That was the single greatest experience we could have had the first day of practice as people were out on the field running into each other with different ideas, with different perspectives, and it’s only improved from there. Each and every week, it has been another success for Republicans in the House. And last week was no different.

“This was a concerted effort that started at the very beginning of this Congress when House Republicans realized that we have to take the lead in solving our soaring debt crisis in a divided government because God knows they’re not doing it over in the Senate, where their biggest accomplishment before we gave them the bill last week was making March ‘Maple Syrup Month.’ And the White House that now wants to run to the finish line and say that they somehow made this thing happen. It was only Kevin McCarthy and House Republicans that made this happen.

“Republicans spent months learning to work together and developing the ideas that became the initial debt ceiling bill – which forced President Biden to the negotiating table and ultimately led to a historic debt ceiling deal. By the way, also known as the largest deficit reduction bill in the history of this country. Joe Biden and the Democrats got nothing out of this deal, and I wish somebody in this room would start to scrutinize the garbage that they’re spewing about how they protected this and that when it wasn’t even part of the agreement. Republicans protected it. Our only concession by the way was averting an economic disaster that would have hurt American families and small businesses. Meanwhile, Republicans secured $2.1 trillion in spending cuts and put Congress on a path toward fiscal responsibility for years to come.

“Our conference promised Americans that we would not sit idly by while the Democrats continued to spend this country into oblivion, and last week we used the debt limit to follow through on that pledge. Month after month, bill after bill – House Republicans are changing the way business is done in Washington, bringing common sense back to our nation’s capital. It’s time to stop underestimating Speaker McCarthy and the House Republicans.”

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