An open letter to the U.S. Senate from former members of Congress, including former founders, members, and a chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, regarding the One Big Beautiful Bill Act: The U.S. Senate is now considering the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R.1), which narrowly passed the House on May 22, 2025. The Big Bill purports to address the serious fiscal situation we face as a nation due to our unsustainable national debt. We, the undersigned former members of Congress, wholeheartedly believe that the debt crisis is an existential threat to America’s national security. The Big Bill does not seriously address the threat that we face. In 2010, Admiral Michael Mullen, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, “The most significant threat to our national security is our debt.” When he made that statement, our national debt was just over $13.5 trillion. It’s now almost three times that amount at over $36 trillion. As John Adams once said, “Facts are stubborn things.” It is a fact that the Big Bill keeps federal spending at Biden-era levels. As Senator @RandPaul said, “It’s about $320 billion in new spending. To put that in perspective, that’s more than all the DOGE cuts we have seen so far.” The so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” fails to address the $2 trillion annual deficit and keeps us on track to reach an estimated $60 trillion national debt in the next ten years. This bill is a massive failure in addressing America’s greatest national security threat, our debt. We can’t rely on future spending cuts or future Congresses to get spending under control. Republicans control the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. Now is the time for bold action. The only spending Congress can control is the spending voted on by this Congress. Approximately 75% of the federal budget is on autopilot, meaning it isn’t even voted on by Congress in the annual appropriations. It’s called mandatory spending, and it includes Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and interest on the debt. Over the next decade, interest payments on the debt will total $13.8 trillion, or $4.3 trillion more than we are projected to spend on defense. Furthermore, the actuaries for both Social Security and Medicare say that both programs will go bankrupt within ten years. This will be devastating to millions of current and future retirees. We simply must evaluate and scrutinize all spending and be willing to make tough decisions to address our fiscal crisis. If we were currently serving in the House, we would have voted against the Big Bill. As has been said, a spending bill can be big, or it can be beautiful, but it cannot be both. We implore the Senate to be the adults in the room who understand and are willing to address the existential threat that is our nation’s fiscal crisis. America’s future depends on it. If the Senate does not address America’s debt threat, or makes the Big Bill’s fiscal impact even worse, we urge all conscientious and serious-minded senators and members of the House to vote “No” against the Big Bill, thereby voting “Yes” for America. Respectfully, @justinamash, MI-03 Mo Brooks, AL-05 Ken Buck, CO-04 @RepBobGood, VA-05 @RepRibble, WI-08 Matt Salmon, AZ-05