At a press conference on Friday, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and his colleagues in the House Freedom Caucus unveiled their economic plan to reduce the size of the government and grow the American economy.

Biggs tweeted the following about this economic plan:

Just now, @freedomcaucus and I released an economic plan to shrink Washington and save America. We must cut wasteful, weaponized, and woke spending programs.

In their proposal titled “Shrink Washington, Grow America,” the House Freedom Caucus listed its demands for negotiations to tackle the growing debt ceiling crisis. Republican leaders and the Biden administration have been butting heads over budget proposals in recent weeks as the country’s national debt approaches $32 trillion.

Biggs declared the following about the Freedom Caucus plan:

If you want to save America, you have to shrink Washington. You must attack the bureaucracy. This plan put forth by the Freedom Caucus today is a blueprint, a baseline. It should not be the end-all; it is a baseline to shrinking Washington and not just growing America, but saving America.

Some of the Caucus demands include terminating the student loan bailout program, rescinding COVID-19 funds that have yet to be spent, and scrapping increased funding originally allocated toward the Internal Revenue Service.

In addition, the Caucus members are looking to place a cap on discretionary funding over the next decade by implementing a maximum top-line number at the current fiscal year’s level while allowing for 1% growth. By placing this cap, caucus members claim it would give Congress the power to cut $131 billion in spending and save nearly $3 trillion in the long-term.

In a letter highlighting their list of demands, caucus members stated how their demands would be a fiscally responsible way of addressing the fiscal crisis the country is facing:

This enables Congress to use the appropriations process to address the many abuses and disasters caused by the Biden administration, such as the chaos at the southern border, COVID vaccine mandates and discrimination policies, and the unconstitutional ‘pistol brace’ ATF rule.

The Caucus members also detailed their reforms which would jumpstart economic growth:

Grow the economy by enacting major policy changes and reforms to the wasteful, woke, and weaponized federal bureaucracy:

• Curtailing burdensome regulations by requiring congressional approval under the REINS Act;
• Unleashing the production of reliable domestic energy by ending federal regulations and subsidies;
• Restoring Clinton-era work requirements on welfare programs; and
• Passing a pre-emptive Continuing Resolution with non-defense discretionary spending restored to the pre-COVID FY2019 level to force Congress to pass appropriations in a timely manner.

The House Freedom Caucus demands were rolled out a day following the Biden administration’s release of a budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year, which calls on $6.8 trillion to be allocated toward his legislative projects. Republicans have been incensed by the Biden administration’s bloated budget and believe it will only perpetuate DC’s long-standing fiscal issues.

Biden sharply criticized the Freedom Caucus proposal in a speech he gave about the state of the economy on Friday. He declared that Republican elected officials have a "very different value set" than him.

Biden said:

Members of the House Freedom Caucus would consider voting to raise the debt ceiling contingent upon the enactment of legislation. Do you know what the essence of the enactment of that legislation is? Cut all spending other than defense by 25%.

The President continued:

Twenty-five percent across the board. That means cops, firefighters. It means healthcare. That's just what they call discretionary spending. And what kind of surprised me, they want to make sure we don't have enough IRS agents.

Senator John N. Kennedy tweeted Monday:

There are lots of things we can do to reduce spending in Pres. Biden’s budget. His plan to have the American people pay for student debt cost $400 billion over 10 years.

 

We already had a plan to repay student debt. It’s called a job. We ought to get rid of that spending.

Senator John N Kennedy (R-LA) shared his opinion of the Biden budget on Fox News Sunday:

The President says that his budget will solve our financial problems in Medicare and Social Security; that is not true. Anything seems possible when you don’t know what you are talking about.

“The only way I know how to improve the President’s budget is with a shredder,” Sen. Kennedy later added.