{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://smucker.house.gov/media/press-releases/icymi-rep-lloyd-smucker-discusses-national-debt-crisis-keep-faith-america", "ICYMI: Rep. Lloyd Smucker Discusses the National Debt Crisis on \u2018Keep Faith America\u2019 Podcast with Host Former Gov. John Kasich", "2025-11-20", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "PA", "Lloyd Smucker", "S001199", "smucker.house.gov", "smucker", "https://smucker.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "LANCASTER \u2013 Rep. Lloyd Smucker (PA-11) joined John Kasich, former House Budget Committee Chairman and Governor of Ohio, on his podcast, \u2018Keep Faith America,\u2019 to discuss the growing national debt and what Congress is doing to fix our fiscal trajectory.\n\nAmerica\u2019s national debt surpassed $37 trillion in August and $38 trillion in October. In 2025, government spending grew far faster than revenue and today our debt is climbing at a dangerous pace that we simply cannot afford.\n\nOn Rep. Smucker\u2019s background:\n\n\"I was born old order Amish, number 10 of 12 kids. I was the first in my family to attend high school\u2026I had to pay my own tuition\u2026so I hung dry wall at night to pay my way through high school\u2026 I [became] a business owner at 17 years old operating out of a spare bedroom in my parent\u2019s home\u2026 I went to college at night while operating a business during the day\u2026I was learning and putting it into practice every day.\u201d\n\n\u2026\n\n\u201cAmerica had provided me with the opportunity to live the American dream, so I want to be sure that opportunity continues to exist for my kids, my grandkids\u2026.for future generations.\u201d\n\nOn Republican efforts to improve our economy:\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re making some great progress. I think there is a real debate in the country about what America should look like. It had been for years going in a direction that I didn\u2019t think would have a good outcome\u2026 we\u2019re changing that over the past year.\u201d\n\nOn the national debt:\n\n\u201cThis is an issue that I spend a lot of time thinking about, trying to solve. And in fact, it\u2019s my mission. If one day I leave Congress and I will have done something to help change the fiscal trajectory and put the country in a better spot as a result of that then I\u2019d feel like job accomplished.\u201d\n\nOn the threat of our national debt:\n\n\u201c\u2026a real threat, not only to the standard of living for Americans but to the country itself\u2026history is full of countries and empires that have dominated\u2014sometimes for centuries\u2014and then had fallen off, had declined over a period of time or perhaps collapsed suddenly\u2026a common thread is poor fiscal policy\u2014taking on too much debt.\u201d\n\n\u201c[The debt has] already impacted us. You see inflation, interest rates are higher because of the debt we\u2019re taking on, it is already impacting every American\u2026.and will continue to impact if we don\u2019t change course.\u201d\n\nOn spending:\n\n\u201cThis fiscal year\u2026 we took in $5 trillion in taxes. We spent $7 trillion\u2026a $2 trillion deficit and of course those deficits have accumulated overtime...and ever since\u2026and now they\u2019re $38 trillion. It\u2019s projected to continue to grow.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe need to have a real discussion\u2026about what Americans expect from their government and then what they\u2019re willing to pay for that.\u201d\n\nOn congressional efforts to care about the debt:\n\n\u201cAs Vice Chair of the Budget Committee\u2026we led a group of about 30 Republicans in the House who insisted that we find savings to offset some of the lost revenue that we would be getting by extending the current tax rates\u2026 we were able to find about $1.6 trillion [in savings]. That would not have happened had you not had a group of about 30 of us pushing for this\u2026 that\u2019s a nucleus of folks who are very, very concerned [about the debt].\u201d\n\nOn the impact of the debt on everyday Americans:\n\n\u201c[American people] need to understand more about how the debt is currently impacting their daily lives and how that is going to get worse if we don\u2019t solve it.\u201d\n\n\u201cI want the American people to start to call their Congressperson and say: why aren\u2019t you doing something about the debt.\u201d\n\nOn future progress:\n\n\u201cI\u2019m really hoping we\u2019re on the cusp of really making some positive strides here to get this moving in the right direction.\u201d\n\nWatch the full interview HERE.\n\nRep. Lloyd Smucker currently serves as Vice Chairman of the House Budget Committee and is a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://smucker.house.gov/media/press-releases/icymi-rep-lloyd-smucker-discusses-national-debt-crisis-keep-faith-america"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.3207329902797937, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}