Watch Kennedy’s comments here. 

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) explained why Congress must focus on spending cuts over the next six months even as it bolsters America’s national defense, extends its 2017 tax cuts, addresses inflation and grows the country’s economy enough to pay down its national debt in a speech on the Senate floor.

Key excerpts of Kennedy’s speech are below:

“If we don’t extend those tax cuts, it is going to drive our GDP and our economy on a journey to the center of the Earth. Even my Democratic friends know those tax cuts have to be extended, but we have got other things we have to do, too. We are deficit spending. We are spending money around here like it was pond water, like it was ditch water. . . . I don’t want to blame it all on President Biden, but, if the shoe fits, wear it, Cinderella.”

. . .

“We have now got $36 trillion worth of national debt. . . . That is the most debt we have ever had, well over 100% of GDP. So, we have got to renew the tax cuts, . . . and we have got to stop the deficit spending, and we have got to reduce our debt—but there’s more. There’s more.

“We have got to increase defense spending because President Xi is working with President Putin, who is working with the Ayatollah in Iran. . . . I don’t want America to be the world’s policeman, but I don’t want President Xi or President Putin or the Ayatollah in Iran to be the world’s policemen either. Weakness invites the wolves, and we have got to start spending more money on defense.

“Now you don’t have to be Einstein’s cousin to figure out that all the things that I just described that we have to do in the next year-to-six-months could be called ‘competing interests’—tax cuts, stop deficit spending, reduce the debt, but find more money for defense. Something has got to give . . . we are going to have to reduce spending.

“Since 2019, the American population has grown 2%. We are not having babies. Two percent—and that is after all the illegal immigration. Do you know what has happened to our budget? It has gone up [nearly] 55%.”

. . .

“We’re going to have to reduce spending to pre-pandemic levels, and that is what this [Office of Management and Budget] memorandum today—which temporarily held up the spending of some money, consistent with President Trump’s executive orders—was the first baby step toward. That is what this is all about. That is what this is all about. The world is not going to spin off its axis.”

. . .

“So, I hope all the folks today will go home and take off their Batman t-shirts, wash them [because they’re] probably a little sweaty. I hope everybody will go home—those who drink, have a cocktail—take their meds and put this all in perspective. That's what that OMB memorandum was all about.”

. . . 

“If you don't believe we're going to have to cut spending substantially in order to get out of this mess that has been created, then you shouldn't be driving.”

 Watch Kennedy’s full speech here.