While all eyes are on Afghanistan, Congress is getting ready to shatter spending records with massive new spending plans. Hold on to your wallet!
This fall, Congress has to tackle a debt limit hike, appropriations, the Democrat reconciliation measure and a so-called “infrastructure bill.” Congress is broken and maybe it is time for Republicans to block a debt limit hike like conservative Republicans attempted in the 2011 debt limit fight. That fight resulted in a provision in law, the Sequester, that was scheduled to trigger mandatory spending cuts if Congress did not abide by certain spending targets.
One way Democrats are trying to avoid a tough vote is to pass legislation to create a “Resolution of Disapproval” mechanism so the Biden administration can raise the debt limit, Then, Democrats who are in trouble at home could vote against the Biden debt limit hike and this would allow them to make believe they opposed the bill to constituents. It is much like the most recent vote in the House, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) set up a vote on a deeming resolution that allowed Democratic moderates to vote for the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill with a rule that deems the Biden $3.5 trillion budget measure as passed without them having to vote for it. The bottom line is that Democrats know they are facing some serious headwinds next fall in the midterm elections thanks to a radical left spending agenda, yet they forge forward.
Republicans and Democrats have punted on spending restraint for decades and the result is $29 trillion in debt. That is a staggering number that far exceeds the U.S. GDP, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of $22.6 trillion in productivity in 2021. With all that debt, President Biden is still pushing spending plans that will bankrupt our nation. According to the Tax Foundation, the federal government collected $1.5 trillion in income taxes in 2018 – a figure that puts the spending bills into perspective. Democrats also want to suspend the debt limit with no conditions so the federal government can keep spending money they don’t have.
One penny in spending over what the government collects is theft from future generations and it should not be tolerated.
Republicans don’t have clean hands on spending issues, but they seem to be trying harder in recent months. Back when Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) tried to force a recorded vote on a massive spending package, Republicans and Democrats held hands and attacked him. Politico reported on March 27, 2020, “the Kentucky congressman attempted unsuccessfully on Friday to require House members to take a recorded vote in order to pass a $2 trillion coronavirus relief package.” In other words, cowards in Congress in both parties were really angry that they were forced to publicly state their position on the largest spending member ever passed by Congress. This might be a good time for Republicans to push a message of fiscal restraint in the hopes of a divided government going forward.
There is one great idea they need to dust off. Back in 2011, when conservatives Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) fought for something called “Cut, Cap and Balance,” it was blocked on a party line vote in the Democratic controlled Senate. The legislation contained over $100 billion in spending cuts in the first year with a cap on spending under 20% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) while lowering the percentage of spending as it relates to the output of the economy every year. The bill also contained a provision sending a balanced budget constitutional amendment to the states. Republicans should draft up a new version of that bill and use it to embarrass socialist Democrats drunk on spending.
The new Democratic Party controlled by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) want to cut loose on spending. It appears that these Democratic Socialists have become the puppet masters of the party, because they have President Joe Biden leading the charge on a $3.5 trillion spending plan that is the envy of socialist worldwide.
The idea of a new version of “Cut, Cap and Balance” is low hanging fruit and a great test to see if Republicans in the House and Senate have any spine when it comes to fighting against big government spending ideas.
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