As we approach the deadline in President Joe Biden ’s manufactured debt ceiling “crisis,” House Republicans must hold the line — not as a mere political strategy but because the future of our country depends on it.

House Republicans passed a bill — the Limit, Save, Grow Act — that responsibly raises the debt ceiling while fighting for hardworking families who are facing a " woke " and weaponized government that is at odds with their way of life. This terrifies Biden and the Democrats because they know their agenda is geared toward rich liberal elitists who want more spending, more government, more corporate subsidies, and, most of all, less freedom.

Republicans must hold the line and rally around each and every purposeful reform in the Limit, Save, Grow Act and not allow these reforms to be abandoned or watered down in the quest for a “deal” with Biden, as current reporting suggests they may be. This fight is not just about ensuring we do not default on our debt. It’s about ensuring we do not default on the American dream — a dream that is now increasingly out of reach for so many people.

The Limit, Save, Grow Act empowers us to cut funding for the federal bureaucracy to pre-COVID levels and would save $1 trillion in the first year and $5 trillion over the next decade. This comes in stark contrast to Biden’s desire to maintain the status quo of record inflation and spending.

While Democrats are fighting for wealthy, corporate elites, Republicans are fighting for reliable energy and middle-class Americans by repealing tax breaks for unreliable “green” energy in the “Inflation Reduction Act.” The Energy Information Administration estimates the Inflation Reduction Act could make wind and solar account for 60% of electricity generation by 2050, killing reliable energy in the process. Our grid is unreliable as is, and wind and solar only made up 12% of it in 2021. To chain ourselves to “renewables” would be a death sentence for energy affordability and American prosperity.

The Inflation Reduction Act’s climate handouts are also a massive giveaway to big corporations, which Goldman Sachs estimated will cost up to $1.2 trillion. Nearly 80% of the electric vehicle tax credits the bill expands are claimed by people making over $100,000 per year. Couples making up to $300,000 per year can still get these subsidies. Plus, more than 90% of green energy tax subsidies would go to corporations that make more than $1 billion per year. 

Cutting spending would not only cut the inflation affecting families, but it would also rein in the "woke" federal bureaucracy interfering with people’s ability to live free and prosper economically. While Biden fights to bail out people with master’s degrees in gender studies, we fight for the 87% of people, including plumbers, service industry employees, and blue-collar workers, who didn’t take out student loans. We are also fighting for the veterans who received GI Bill benefits because they risked everything for our republic. Plus, by overturning Biden’s unfair student loan bailout, we will cut the deficit by $400 billion immediately.

By holding the line, House Republicans are also standing up for the poor people who are targeted by the IRS at an alarming rate. Democrats want you to believe their 87,000 new IRS agents will go after only rich tax cheats, but the numbers tell a different story. The “IRS audits the poor at five times the rate of everyone else ,” and “ black taxpayers are at least three times as likely to be audited by the [IRS] as other taxpayers,” according to reports.

And while Democrats fight for the expansion of the regulatory state, we made it our purpose to fight for people struggling under Biden’s ever-growing list of regulations that created “ $318 billion in total costs and more than 218 million hours of paperwork” in just two years. That’s why our bill contains the REINS Act, a bipartisan proposal that empowers Congress to approve major regulations, regardless of which party is in the White House.

The president is working overtime to secure political power with more government dependency, but Republicans are fighting for the dignity of work in America by strengthening work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependent children who are on federal assistance programs. Leftists call these reforms “draconian,” but they are based on the 1996 welfare reform bill that Biden voted for and former President Bill Clinton signed.

Finally, while Democrats continue to cling to the $5 trillion of inflationary spending Congress dumped into the economy in the name of “COVID,” House Republicans want to reclaim the tens of billions of unobligated, unspent COVID dollars. This is a no-brainer — Biden himself has signed legislation that ended the COVID national emergency.

I do not want to raise the debt ceiling — America is at debt levels not seen since World War II. But the Limit, Save, Grow Act contains purposeful reforms to fight for the America long abandoned by the Democratic Party — reforms that shrink Washington and grow America. That’s why House Republicans should not back down on any of these reforms as we negotiate with Biden.

We must hold the line.

Chip Roy is a U.S. representative for Texas and serves on the House Judiciary Committee, House Rules Committee, and House Budget Committee.