RSC Hosts America 250 Member Roundtable to Celebrate Generational Wins for Hardworking Families on Nation's Birthday
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Republican Study Committee (RSC) hosted a roundtable to celebrate America's 250th birthday and the one-year anniversary of the Working Families Tax Cuts delivering for hardworking families across the country, proving that the same spirit that drove a handful of patriots to bet everything on freedom 250 years ago is alive and well today.
The roundtable was co-led by RSC Chairman August Pfluger (TX-11) and RSC Messaging Task Force Chair Mark Alford (MO-04) alongside RSC Members to reflect on what this historic double anniversary means for hardworking Americans from coast to coast.
On America's 250th birthday, RSC members reaffirmed their commitment to the timeless principles that have made this nation the envy of the world: limited government, individual liberty, and an unshakable belief that the American people, not Washington bureaucrats, know best how to build a life and spend their own money.
A few of the historic wins mentioned during the roundtable included:
- Preventing the largest tax hike in history
- Creation of Trump Accounts
- Investing and fully securing the southern border
- Bringing back American manufacturing and restoring American jobs
- $50 billion investment to rural health care through the Rural Health Transformation Program
- Rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in federal programs like Medicaid and Medicare
- Delivering historic investments in our military and national defense
- $12 billion rescissions package to save taxpayer money
Read highlights from RSC Members’ remarks below:
RSC Chairman Pfluger (TX-11): “America's story has become one of resilience, one of a people who refused to quit because America was never built by people who played it safe. It was built by those who believed that they must fight for it every single day, and who handed it to the next generation longer than they found it, and that's the legacy we inherited. It's a standard that we are obligated to meet over the next 250 years.”
RSC Messaging Task Force Chair Alford (MO-04): “In 1776, ordinary people, farmers, craftsmen, small business owners stood up to the most powerful empire in the world with something that was extraordinary at the time, declaring that our rights don't come from government, they come from God Almighty. They took a risk on an idea that people could actually govern themselves, and guess what, 250 years is working. A milestone like this, though, is not about looking back. It's really a chance to ask where our country is going in the next 250 years.”
Rep. Blake Moore (UT-01): “This [Trump Accounts] is going to set up our next generation for success, and it will enable them to be able to understand the benefit of investing in their future. The Trump Accounts initiative goes live on the fourth. Accounts will be funded by the sixth of July, and it is going to fundamentally change the way we think about saving for our future, and it's something I'm really, really excited that we'd be able to celebrate this year.”
Rep. Erin Houchin (IN-09): “As we celebrate America 250 this week, we have the opportunity to reflect on what has made this country unlike any other in history. Representing Southern Indiana gives me a unique perspective on America's story. Our district has helped feed, build, and defend this country for generations, from the limestone quarried in Bedford, Indiana, to the family farms that have been passed down for generations. The people I represent have quietly helped shape the nation for more than two centuries. That's what America 250 means to me.”
Rep. Marlin Stutzman (IN-03): “I got to brag a little bit about Indiana, because being at home over the past couple of weeks, I have sensed this energy and this excitement about the future of America. Talking with businesses, they are doing better than they’ve ever been. Talking with electrical contractors, they have more work than they’ve had in years. Even over Father's Day, the restaurants were packed, and you could just sense this energy with people that they're not only excited about America's 250th birthday, but also about the future of America. I'm more optimistic today about America than I have been in a long, long time, and it's not just my feeling.”
Rep. Claudia Tenney (NY-24): “Now is more important than ever for us to renew our faith in our founders, our self-governance, and our ability to come back. And we're going to be leading the way in upstate New York and around the country, but I do want to say, thank you to our leadership and everyone here. This is the heroic age as well. We have heroes around this table who worked so hard last year to make sure that there was a reality for the American people, for everyone, and for common sense.”
Rep. Brian Babin (TX-36): “The Founders entrusted us with the greatest experiment in self governance the world has ever known. It is now our responsibility to preserve it, to strengthen it, and leave it stronger than we found it. America did not become the greatest nation on earth by accident. It became great because generation after generation chose courage over complacency, freedom over tyranny, and opportunity over government control. As the Science, Space, and Technology Chairman in the House of Representatives, we have a lot of work to do on our end of the spectrum because we have some cutting edge technologies that we cannot afford to be second to our adversaries. So with that, I believe history will remember this Congress, the 119th, as the one that...will usher in a new Golden Age.”
Rep. Pete Stauber (MN-08): “I want to thank the Republicans in this room and across our conference for stopping it. We started out with Feeding Our Future fraud, daycare, autism, housing, SNAP, Medicaid, the list goes on and on, and my colleague from Southern Minnesota, we know that Minnesota can do better, and we're here to do better. And I want to thank all my colleagues and the Republican Study Committee for taking the fraud, the task of fraud, on and stopping it.”
Rep. Monica De La Cruz (TX-15): “It is an honor to serve South Texas, especially as we celebrate 250 years of American freedom. True freedom begins with economic security and safe communities. From eliminating tax on tips, overtime, and seniors’ benefits to making key tax deductions for small businesses permanent, the Working Families Tax Cuts delivered real wins for Texans."
Rep. Michael Guest (MS-03): “We cut taxes for all Americans making $12,000 or more. We saved the standard deduction in the child tax credit from being slashed in half. We created additional deductions for our seniors, individuals who work hourly and who are paid overtime, individuals who earn their incomes by way of tips, and we did this while also making a generational investment in our military and our national security, and creating a $50 billion rural hospital stabilization fund, and I want you to know that this, this legislation is impactful, not just across the nation, but has been extremely impactful for my state of Mississippi.”
Rep. Brad Knott (NC-13): “You look back to the Pilgrims in 1620, what was their principle? They wanted religious freedom; they wanted the ability to exercise their faith without persecution. And then the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Again, these principles were consistent throughout, and those principles are ones rooted in individual liberty, individual freedom, and a limited government, a limited but strong government. And when you look at the work that RSC is doing, we are not taking advantage of or taking for granted the last 250 years. Rather, we are working feverishly under the reality that the next 250 years are not guaranteed.”
Rep. Mike Kennedy (UT-03): “I'm here to say that the American Dream is alive and well, and it's alive and well in this room. It's alive and well in my life as a first-generation American on my father's side. As my father, as an immigrant, came to this country, along with my grandparents, with the hope that the light of the world, as Congressman Knott just talked about, the United States of America serves as that they could have a better life and a better opportunity here is as present in my own life. The fact that I've been able to go to medical school and law school and run for Congress and be here today, it is a great privilege for me.”
Rep. Jeff Crank (CO-05): “When I look at the founding of America, you look at it today, and we think that everybody was all on the same side. We were all fighting the British, but that isn't the case. If you look at it, there were patriots who stood up and fought and risked everything, and then there were other people who just wanted to go along, loyalists who felt like that was disloyal to the king, and they wanted to stay the course and not have this great experiment that we had, and I think we find ourselves today in kind of that same position, we have a choice between those that believe America's not a good place and those of us who understand the value and the beauty of this great country that we have.”
Rep. Adrian Smith (NE-03): “I know a farmer in my district by the name of Lance Atwater, he has some peace because of his multi-generational agriculture operation as it relates to the death tax and the death tax exemption, where we put it in the bill, really empowers families to keep their ag operations moving forward. I know a beef processing plant that opened in my district, they benefit from the expensing, they, they benefit because their workers benefit on the, on the overtime tax relief, and just so many, so many items that I don't have time to list here, but it boils down to individuals having more freedom to do with their, with their money what they wish.”
Rep. Troy Downing (MT-02): “This great American experiment, now after 250 years, has proven what a government of the people, by the people, for the people can do, and nothing in the history of humanity, no rules, no laws, no systems of man have done more to improve the human condition than free market capitalism, and the type of government that we have here, the rest of the world looks at us. So, I just want to say happy birthday on that. And my colleagues and I have been working to make sure that we continue that prosperity and continue the promise that is the United States of America.”
Rep. Mike Haridopolos (FL-08): “I represent the Space Coast in Florida, and it is truly an exciting time in the Space Coast, because we are going back to the moon, and the big bill that we passed last summer had a lot to do with it. Not only do we fully fund NASA, but we added additional dollars to make sure we are the spaceport for the world, and the emergence of the space economy, which a lot of people thought would be dead back in 2011 when Obama killed our space program, and so to see the re-emergence of not just NASA but the private sector is incredible.”
Rep. Vince Fong (CA-20): “In contrast, the direction that we took contrasts [with] the leadership of what's happening in California. Gavin Newsom is pushing a national wealth tax now, he's raising taxes, he's increased regulations, he's providing more benefits to illegal immigrants, that's made programs in California insolvent. That is the wrong direction. You couldn't see a clear contrast between what we're doing here in Washington, DC, and what's happening in California, and so I'm proud of the work that we've done.”
Rep. Brad Finstad (MN-01): “I would submit to all of you that we are here because we are living on the shoulders of giants, and as a birthday celebration, plus this, I think we reflect on that great history, but we also then are asked, what is our calling to make sure that this great country and this great American experiment lasts another 250 years, and so I am very proud of the work that we have done on the Republican Study Committee to make sure that we have a fighting chance for another 250 years.”