Ahead of Budget Resolution Vote, Grassley Underscores Need for Fiscal Sanity, End to Reckless Spending

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I rise to support the budget resolution that’s before the United States Senate.

Speaking to that, I want to remind people of some history.

These famous words came from Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s chief of staff. It dates from about 2008.

He famously said, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”

There’s no statement that better encapsulates the mindset of the previous administration.

We all know Americans are struggling to cope with economic and social disruption, still carrying on from the pandemic.

The Biden administration saw a real opportunity: an opportunity to permanently increase the size and scope of government.

They said that they wanted to transform America. I hope everybody on my side of the aisle wants to preserve America.

In my view, it makes sense, in times of national emergency, for government to take steps to help individuals, families and small businesses weather that storm.

But, once the crisis subsides, so should the programs and spending enacted in response.

Yet here we are in 2025. Federal spending as a share of the economy remains at levels never seen outside of war or national emergencies like recessions or depressions.

In 2019, before the pandemic, total federal spending totaled $4.45 trillion dollars. In 2024, the federal government spent over $2 trillion more. So that’s a total of $6.75 trillion – a relative increase of over 50 percent.

We must begin to put spending back on a path of normalcy, and that’s why we are having this debate we call the budget resolution.

The path to normalcy is a spending path that accounts for the historic inflation of the past four years, as well as population growth.

Now, there’s a lot of people in this body that would say that spending that much is still too much. But, I think it fits in with the principle of the 1974 budget resolution.

Once inflation and population growth are factored in, federal spending in 2024 remained roughly $1 trillion above pre-pandemic levels.

And if Social Security and Medicare and interest on the debt are set to the side — federal spending was still over half a trillion dollars above 2019 levels.

Unless we have a course correction, our national debt will set a new record as a share of our economy in 2028. That is eclipsing the previous high-water mark set in the wake of World War II.

As another Democrat said, elections have consequences.

So, as part of the November mandate, President Trump is looking for ways to reduce wasteful government spending.

And through this budget resolution before the Senate now, we plan to help in that process.

But, it’s Congress that has the power of the purse and will have to do the heavy lifting.

Getting out of the fiscal hole that we’ve dug for ourselves requires that we first stop digging.

The budget that we’re debating this week takes that first step. And, some people would say too small of a first step. Any new spending will have to be accompanied by reductions in spending elsewhere.

I look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues on a return to fiscal sanity. And, that fiscal sanity is the pre-pandemic level of spending, increased only by inflation and population growth.

I yield the floor.

Author: The Iowa Standard