Last week, the media obsessed over House Republicans’ debate concerning rules reforms and leadership decisions for the 118th Congress. Despite wall-to-wall coverage of the Speaker election, most media outlets ignored that conservatives are unified behind the desire to fix the top issue facing our country, the national debt and Biden’s reckless spending agenda. 

Restoring fiscal sanity will be what unites the House’s Republican majority and advances the conservative movement in 2023. The RSC, reinforced by new House Rules designed to rein in excessive spending, will be leading that charge.

Pelosi’s $2 trillion lame duck omnibus, which was riddled with additional mandatory spending, only added to our nation’s $31 trillion national debt and accelerated the United States’ approach to yet another fiscal cliff: the debt limit, which is set to expire later in 2023. 

Since Biden took office, Democrats have created $10 trillion in new spending, a record amount in just two years. Overspending has left America’s fiscal house in ruin and our economy ravaged with record inflation. Many economists believe next year brings new risks of major recession, stagflation, and market instability. 

HOUSE REPUBLICANS TO VOTE ON BILL ABOLISHING IRS, ELIMINATING INCOME TAX

Rather than take any responsibility, Biden and his allies have tried repeatedly to blame Republicans and the so-called "Trump tax cuts" for America’s yearly deficits. This assertion is simply false. In fact, CBO now projects that revenues are on track to increase by roughly $500 billion over ten years since TCJA’s enactment – even after adjusting for inflation. Furthermore, 2022 tax revenues were the second highest in history outside of World War II.

This much we know is true: our government does not have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem. 

At some point, the government will run out of borrowing authority in 2023. As we approach this harsh reality, it’s our responsibility in Congress to institute real spending reforms and restraints. It’s been over a decade since Congress enacted meaningful legislation to fight our swelling debt, and in that period, about $16 trillion has been added to our national. It more than doubled. 

Conservatives must be bold. We must fight to restore fiscal sanity and rein in government spending. Major reforms to the budget and appropriations process are necessary, as well as significant reductions in spending. Our voters elected us to ease the economic pain; anything else is a disservice to them.

I recently began my tenure as the new Chairman of the Republican Study Committee (RSC). My job is to ensure our members are given the policy knowledge and a voice to advance their conservative priorities. 

Regarding our spending problem, there’s a lot we can and must do to tackle it. For starters, lawmakers should institute strong discretionary statutory caps on spending, rather than leaving our annual limits up to negotiations conducted by a handful of powerful members. More mandatory spending should be subject to the annual appropriations process, reversing the persistent trend of moving discretionary spending to the mandatory side of the ledger. Congress must not shy away from reforms needed to protecting the solvency of our most important safety net entitlement programs. 

Moreover, countless government programs are non-essential or duplicative and must be consolidated or eliminated. In 2010, Congress required the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to inventory all existing government programs on their website. Over twelve years later, OMB is still unable to count how many federal programs exist. This is unacceptable.

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I am pleased that one of the promises made by House Republican leadership during last week’s negotiations was to pursue through regular order a Congressional budget that balances in ten years. Since Democrats took control of the House in 2018, Speaker Pelosi has not produced a single budget, violating her own axiom, "Show me your budget and I will show you your values." In stark contrast, RSC has put forth a budget every fiscal year (I was proud to lead the efforts for FY 22 and FY 23), and we will continue to do so.

The RSC’s budget offers a clear path to balancing in less than ten years. The longer we wait to begin the work of balancing the budget, the harder that process will become.

It’s time for conservatives to fight – relentlessly – to reduce government spending. For Americans discouraged by the passage of Pelosi’s last $2 trillion bill, know that the RSC stands ready to guide the House Republican agenda and stop Joe Biden’s dangerous spending in the 118th Congress.

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A former Virginia Tech soccer player who scored a legal win against her former coach sounded off Tuesday, claiming he benched her for declining to kneel in support of Black Lives Matter.

Kiersten Hening took her coach to court after he allegedly berated her in front of her teammates and removed her from the Hokies' starting lineup, leading her to quit the team and go to court on First Amendment grounds, "The Ingraham Angle" reported. She allegedly refused to kneel during a "unity statement" ahead of a game.

In the wake of her $100,000 settlement, Hening told "The Ingraham Angle" that politics of any stripe have no place in sports, and that she did not feel right to be told to kneel in that way.

"Personally, I didn't feel like I needed to kneel in order to support something," she said. "Personally, I felt like I could stand and be in support of something."

EX-VIRGINIA TECH SOCCER PLAYER ALLEGEDLY BENCHED FOR REFUSING TO KNEEL GETS $100K SETTLEMENT: ATTORNEY

"Personally, I think that the kneeling was very synonymous with the Colin Kaepernick movement and BLM movement, and I didn't feel like I needed to."

Hening said Coach Charles Adair was overly harsh when he allegedly called her out in the wake of her refusal to take a knee.

"It didn't feel good… I kind of I do my job and, you know, I was there for the love of the game and the love of the school," she said. "And to me, putting on that jersey meant so much to me, and to be called out like that, it was pretty harsh."

Ingraham read a statement from Adair, which said in part that he was "pleased the case against [him] has been closed and [he is] free to move forward, clear of any wrongdoing." 

EX-VIRGINIA TECH SOCCER PLAYER ALLEGEDLY BENCHED FOR REFUSING TO KNEEL ALLOWED TO PROCEED WITH LAWSUIT: JUDGE

"It's been difficult not being able to tell my side of the story. The people I care about whose opinions matter to me know the truth. They know my coaching decisions are based purely on getting our team in a position to win," Adair's statement continued, according to Ingraham.

Ingraham said implicit in Adair's statement was the contention she was "not good enough" as a starter — and asked Hening what she thought.

"I don't think that's accurate," Hening replied. "No. I think that the numbers speak for themselves."

"In that sense, I think [the judge] summarized it perfectly," she said. "I think I averaged 74 minutes my freshman year and 88 minutes my sophomore year, so there was definitely a significant decrease in playing time with no real explanation as to why."

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Hening said she found it unfortunate that politics has at times been injected into sports.

"It's unfortunate the political climate that was made in college sports — and not even college sports, but just everywhere, you know, putting this pressure on athletes who — personally I don't believe in politics having any place in sports," she said.