Next, the bill rolls back clean energy tax credits that were passed under the Inflation Reduction Act three years ago. American companies have begun to plan, permit, and begin construction on enough projects utilizing these credits to power 227 million homes. Without these tax credits, too many of these projects won't be completed. We need all this power, because for the first time in decades we are seeing an increase in demand for energy, driven by AI data centers, bringing back manufacturing, and electrifying things like cars and generators. This additional supply of power is needed to help lower electricity costs, prevent blackouts, and meet this additional demand. Without it, prices will skyrocket by as much as $400 per household annually - not the lower cost you might’ve heard about in a certain presidential campaign. Also, we will lose 175,000 jobs in the clean energy industry, and we will fall behind China and our competitors in the AI race.

With an additional $4 trillion in borrowing over the next 10 years, this the single most expensive piece of legislation in U.S. history. According to one estimate, the bill is more expensive than both Covid-19 response bills and the original Trump tax cuts combined. You may be thinking to yourself, “I thought the Medicaid cuts were necessary to cut our deficit spending.” No. They aren’t being used to offset our annual deficits. The cuts are used to offset the cost of the revenue loss from the extension of tax cuts. And as steep as the cuts are, they don’t even come close to paying for the full price tag of just this bill! The bill includes a $5 trillion increase in the country’s debt limit so we can borrow the money to pay for the remainder of this bill for years to come.

This is a huge transfer of wealth from the young to the old. Today, interest payments on the national debt  are now more than what we pay for Medicaid, Medicare, or defense, and this will only make that worse. That debt also means interest rates for houses, cars, and business loans stay high, keeping prices elevated for everyone. If we don't address this now, our kids will be stuck with the bill for our spending.

The bill allocates $75 billion to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, making it larger than most militaries in the world. As I've pointed out before, we agree that the border should be secure and that violent criminals should be deported. But the mass deportation that this bill will fund - in addition to being heartbreakingly cruel - will hollow out our workforce and raise labor prices. That means more inflation, not less. It would be much wiser and cheaper to agree to allow enough legal immigration to address our workplace storage while continuing to enforce at the border.

Finally, my Republican colleagues often claim that if we don’t pass this bill, Americans will face the largest tax increase in forever. First, let’s remember that this is the way they set this up when they voted for the tax cuts in 2017. It’s Republicans who set them to expire. And second, it’s not an all or nothing deal. We can maintain lower taxes for the middle class while allowing taxes for the highest earners, who can afford to contribute more, to go back to where they were just a few years ago. We could avoid a whole lot of pain for lower income people while not bankrupting the country.

I know it’s difficult to stand up to your own party in the middle of a reconciliation process like this. I know, because I did it myself in 2021. I took a lot of criticism, but I did what I thought was best for San Diego. I made our bill better, and made sure we passed it. I’m so disappointed that so few of my Republican colleagues, who know better, did not work this bill for what they said they believed in. Some promised they wouldn’t cut Medicaid, or demanded the retention of energy incentives, or lamented about debt and deficit, but in the end they all folded.

I have been up for over 32 hours now as we moved through this process, but my resolve is still strong. I am going to keep working to expand access to affordable healthcare, to build a cleaner, more resilient energy system, to keep our country from financial ruin, and to protect San Diegans.

But first, I’m going to celebrate our nation’s 249th birthday. It’s the greatest democracy in the history of the world, but we’re not entitled to it. Like so many before us, we have to fight for it. Have a happy 4th and may God bless America.