Boyle Leads Floor Debate Against Republicans’ “America Last” Budget

WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Congressman Brendan F. Boyle (PA-02), Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee, led debate on the House floor against Republicans’ “America Last” budget. Boyle slammed the budget resolution for wasting tens of billions of dollars on Trump’s disastrous Iran war while doing nothing to lower costs for American families.

A new fact sheet on Republicans’ “America Last” budget is available here.

Remarks as delivered and video are below:

(Click for video of remarks as delivered)

Ranking Member Boyle's remarks as delivered:

Mr. Speaker, as you may recall, two years ago in the election that my good friend, the chair, referenced, in which Donald Trump won a whopping landslide of one and a half points, one of the closest national popular votes in American history, for those keeping score.

But during that election, he campaigned in my state, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, more than any other in the country. And the promise he most often recited at every rally was, and these were his exact words, quote, "I will lower your costs on day one." Mr. Speaker, what an abject failure. This presidency and the rubber-stamp Republicans who enable him have pushed through an agenda that hasn't lowered costs for the American people.

It has only made things far more expensive. He started over a year ago with the Trump tariff taxes, a tax on most imported goods. On average, this has raised costs by about $1,800 a year for the American family. He then doubled down on that last summer, in July of last year, when the rubber-stamp Republicans passed and the president signed what he used to call the Big Beautiful Bill, which has become the Big Ugly Law for the American people.

That bill makes healthcare more expensive for the American people while cutting off their food assistance at a time that food prices are through the roof. And now here we are, after all of that, we have the Republican Reconciliation 3.0. Now, I think that both parties would agree — in fact, the two presidential nominees two years ago happened to, a rare point of agreement, but they happened to agree — that the number one issue on people's minds by far was the affordability crisis, that America had become too expensive.

Isn't it interesting, despite the fact that polls continue to show by an overwhelming majority that is the biggest issue that voters care about, we have in front of us the Republican Reconciliation 3.0, 47 pages, 6,560 words, not one word about affordability, not one word about how to bring down costs for the American people. Folks, they're not even trying.

We have a president who just doesn't care about the average American family and the affordability crisis. Don't take my word for it. Take the president's own words. Quote, "I don't think about Americans' financial situation." And this bill reflects that fact. We have in this bill almost $100 billion in new deficit spending.

Yes, that's right, the same crowd that loves to cry crocodile tears about deficit and debt whenever there's a president in the White House who's a Democrat. Cumulatively now, they have added $5 trillion to our national debt, more than any other 18-month period in the history of Congress, and they're about to add $100 billion more.

Most of that spending is for President Trump's Iran war, a reckless decision with absolutely no plan on how to achieve victory and how it would end. The American people have paid the price for President Trump's war. In terms of dollars and cents, just look at gas prices. The day before the war was launched, the national average for a gallon of gas was $2.98.

Today, it is over $4 a gallon and climbing. And here we have another reconciliation bill in front of us. Nothing in there whatsoever to bring down costs, nothing to lower gas prices, nothing to lower food prices, nothing to lower the cost of consumer goods, just more spending on the most unpopular war in American history.

That might sound like an exaggeration, a Trumpian exaggeration. No, it's a fact. Going back to the beginning of polling almost a century ago, there is no other war in American history in which the American people, by a more than two-to-one margin, disapprove over approve. Only 30 percent of the American people approve of what the president is doing in Iran.

It's no wonder. They are paying the cost. And of course, as expensive as it is for the American family, that doesn't measure up to the ultimate cost, those lives that we have lost already in this war. So, Mr. Speaker, it is quite clear from the president's own words and the written text of this bill, this president and the Republican majority has no plan whatsoever on how to bring costs down for the American people.

What's worse, they're not even trying.

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