Rep. Burlison: Congress 'Drunk on Spending' Despite Fiscal Crisis

Eric Burlison sits in his office in Washington with a simple diagnosis: Congress has lost control of its appetite for spending, and working families are paying the bill.

The Missouri congressman, representing the state's 7th district, doesn't mince words about his own colleagues. In a recent conversation with Fox News Digital, he described lawmakers on both sides of the aisle as intoxicated by the act of spending—particularly spending money that isn't theirs. Even Republicans, he said, fall into this trap. The national debt has now crossed $40 trillion, a figure that animates his frustration. He frames himself as one of a shrinking breed willing to actually cut spending, a position he says required fighting not just Democrats but members of his own party to secure any reductions in what he calls the "Big, Beautiful Bill."

Burlison's central argument pivots on healthcare. He points to a stark arithmetic: in 2000, a family of four paid roughly $6,000 annually for health insurance premiums. Today, that figure stands at $27,000. If healthcare costs had simply tracked normal inflation over those two decades, families would be paying about $11,000 per year. Instead, healthcare premiums have inflated at three times the normal rate, creating a gap of $16,000 that families must find somewhere in their budgets. This squeeze, he argues, explains why young people cannot afford homes, why families skip vacations, why dining out becomes a luxury. The math crowds out everything else.

He has proposed solutions—a plan he calls the Great American Healthcare Plan, alongside legislation addressing housing affordability. For two years, he says, his office has been broadcasting these ideas to party leadership, warning that Americans feel the crunch acutely. Yet the difficult work of reform hasn't happened. Washington, he suggests, avoids hard problems. Healthcare reform should be the priority, but it isn't.

Burlison's frustration extends to what he saw as a missed moment. When Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency fervor swept through the capital in early 2025, he felt genuine excitement. But watching it unfold proved disillusioning. The same members of Congress who rushed to embrace Musk and talk about spending cuts were the ones voting against every spending reduction amendment that came to the floor. Hundreds of opportunities to cut spending have failed, he says. The irony stung: the swampiest members were the ones most eager to be photographed with Musk.

He frames the Republican Party's problem as fundamentally one of messaging and vision. The GOP, he argues, cannot simply run against Democrats. It must offer the American people something concrete. If you asked a voter today what the Republican Party would actually do if reelected, he suggests, most couldn't answer. His vision is specific: fix healthcare by making it a free market, with transparent pricing so people know exactly what they're buying.

On the immediate question of gas prices, tied to tensions with Iran, Burlison offers a simpler prescription: cut fuel taxes. He'd prefer to eliminate them entirely, but at minimum, cutting taxes on both gasoline and diesel during the conflict would put roughly 40 cents per gallon back in people's pockets. It's a direct intervention in the affordability crisis he sees everywhere.

The broader tension Burlison identifies is this: the Republican Party wants to be seen as the party of affordability, yet most of its members vote for spending increases. The party is heading into midterm elections six weeks away with what he sees as a major messaging problem. His argument is that fiscal prudence—the kind he practices—is nearly extinct among his colleagues, and until Republicans look in the mirror and acknowledge the problem is themselves, they cannot credibly offer solutions to the American people.