Boyle Slams OMB Director Russell Vought Over Trump Administration’s Economic Failures
WASHINGTON, DC — Congressman Brendan F. Boyle (PA-02), Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee, slammed Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought for advancing the Trump administration’s failed economic agenda during today’s Committee hearing.
In his opening statement, Boyle called out Vought — a chief architect of the administration’s domestic policy agenda and Project 2025 — for pushing extreme policies that have driven up costs, worsened the affordability crisis, ripped away health care, and rewarded billionaires while working families fall further behind. Video of Ranking Member Boyle’s opening statement is available here. A transcript as delivered is below.
(Click for video of remarks as delivered)
During questioning, Boyle pressed Vought on the more than 15 million Americans who will lose their health care to fund Trump’s tax breaks for billionaires. Boyle also pressed Vought on Trump’s recent comments that we cannot afford to fund “daycare, Medicaid, Medicare” because we must pay for more endless wars. Full video of Boyle’s questions is available here.
(Click for video of questions)
Ranking Member Boyle has led the charge to hold Director Vought accountable. In December, Boyle and Budget Committee Democrats formally demanded Vought testify, and after he refused, Boyle escalated pressure with follow-up letters in January seeking answers on the administration’s economic policies. After months of silence, Boyle publicly highlighted Vought’s absence during a Budget Committee hearing — even displaying a “missing” milk carton with his name — prompting Vought to agree to testify at today’s hearing. Boyle continues to push for accountability and defend Congress’s constitutional authority over federal spending, including through his Congressional Power of the Purse Act.
Ranking Member Boyle's remarks as delivered:
Thank you Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Mr. OMB Director. I didn't know how shy you were until the last 15 months when you weren't before our committee, but do appreciate you taking the time today. You know how bad this economy is when we hear Joe Biden being invoked, we hear trans people being invoked. I was waiting for Jimmy Carter to be blamed next, but apparently we didn't get quite there.
Let me just do a reset and present to you a set of facts, a set of data. Right now, according to opinion polls, the approval of the economy of the American people is at its lowest level since 2008, the great recession, 29 percent. An average of the last three polls shows 30 percent approval. Disapproval over approval of this administration's handling of the economy - more than two to one disapproval over approval. The Michigan consumer data, consumer confidence level - the lowest level ever recorded, even lower than during COVID, even lower than during the Great Recession.
If you look at the job creation over the last 15 months, there's one thing missing and that's job creation. We have been in a jobless economy over the last 15 months. Inflation, which actually, even though there's no question we had an inflation crisis, not just in the United States, but all throughout the world after the COVID pandemic in 2022, after the pandemic had ended. Every single month in 2024, inflation dropped over the preceding month.
What happened around April of last year? "Liberation Day." Inflation was liberated. You saw inflation begin to increase. In every single month, we've seen inflation increase and gas prices. Yesterday, I was in Northeast Philly, where I'm from and where I live, a working-class part of the city of Philadelphia. I was in front of a gas station. The gas at that particular location was $4.11, which is slightly lower than the average, nationally in the United States of about $4.15 a gallon. Six weeks ago, that same gas station was under $3 a gallon. We have seen over the last month the largest increase in gas prices in my lifetime, in the lifetime of most people here.
What's different about this economy, unlike the inflation crisis after the pandemic, unlike the Great Recession, unlike the recession of 2001, unlike the recession of 1992 - the economic downturn that we're experiencing, no jobs, record inflation, gas prices through the roof, consumer confidence plummeting - all of this is directly related to the policies of the Trump administration that you carry out, Mr. Vought.
None of those previous examples that I cited, none of them, could be directly attributed to the policies of the president at that time. We can debate about certain things that did influence them, particularly going into the 2008 recession, but with this president, the change is so abrupt. The fact inflation was dropping month over month, the fact that we had an incredible jobs economy until it was lost a year and a half ago.
I'm from Pennsylvania, the biggest battleground state in the nation, also the nation's birthplace, which we're making a big to-do about this year in 2026 and celebrating our semiquincentennial. But Pennsylvania is really known over the last decade in our politics as the nation's biggest battleground state. So as a result, basically every day in 2024 in the fall, we had either Donald Trump or the Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, in our state.
Donald Trump had, I have to say, a brilliant campaign slogan. He said, your prices are too high, I will lower them. And I quote him, I will lower them "on day one." Here we are about day 450. He hasn't lowered anything. The only thing he has lowered is his approval rating on the economy. He has lowered that. Donald Trump and this administration have failed miserably on this economy. They failed to bring prices down and in fact, they made the situation worse.
With that, we have a lot of questions on this side since it's been 15 months. You're the first OMB Director ever to not appear before this committee last year. I appreciate you, at least today, taking the time. We have a lot of questions and I certainly hope after today, if we send to you questions in writing that you would respond finally, as you've ignored all of our previous requests. It's a matter of basic respect for the Congress of the United States and for this committee.
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