Congress misfires on pandemic aid and spending, then promises to misfire again

Ready. Fire. Aim.

That’s what the legislative process that produced pandemic relief and the yearend spending bill looked like.

Lawmakers had just a few hours to try to read the sprawling 5,500-page bill before voting on it without even knowing how much it would cost the American people.

The Congressional Budget Office has yet to fully “score” the rest the behemoth bill, but safe to say it’s already well over the $2.4 trillion in annual appropriations and COVID relief. The $184 billion in extra “emergency” spending and $328 billion in yearend tax goodies alone will push the tab closer to $3 trillion.

But no sooner had Congress passed this latest multitrillion-dollar boondoggle than some began clamoring for more.

President-elect Joe Biden called it a “down payment.” He did not say on what, although if the down payment is almost a billion dollars, then whatever he has in mind will be astronomical.

So before the checks were even out the door, before any proposals from Biden, the House voted to increase that down payment from $600 to $2,000 with a tab of $464 billion.

Ready. Fire. Aim.

It’s the same story we heard with the CARES Act. Billions from that measure have gone unspent. But that didn’t stop Congress from coming back for another helping, giving proof to the old adage, “politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy more tunnel.”

So before we know what this bill will even accomplish, another massive spending bill is in the works, with bailouts for profligate state governments likely leading the way. Yet, with nicely recovering state revenues, is more really needed?

The debate so far hasn’t been about stopping the spread of the coronavirus or about putting the economy on a sound footing for strong recovery. It’s about how much money to spend. Congress larded up the must-pass bill with wasteful and unrelated provisions, corporate welfare, and numerous major policy changes — from immigration to energy — that wouldn’t stand a chance of becoming law if they were considered in the regular legislative process.

Sadly, they weren’t, so lawmakers faced a Hobson’s choice of voting for bad policy in the bill, or a government shutdown.

Nothing could have been more avoidable. And, sadly, nothing could have been more predictable. This is business as usual on Capitol Hill, and it ill serves the American people even in the best of times. In the midst of a true emergency, it is shameful.

Hundreds of thousands of small businesses have closed their doors. Millions of people have lost their jobs. Families are looking to their leaders for answers. The congressional response? Extend tax carve outs for racehorses and motorsports, and dole out billions more to other well-connected special interests.

The absence of state bailouts was one of the few positive aspects of the spending bill. Let this bill get implemented before calling for more.

Ready. Fire. Aim.

Here’s a thought. How about focusing COVID relief on actually halting the spread of the virus instead of simply trying to make enduring it more tolerable? We can start by removing regulatory barriers that keep testing, vaccines, and therapeutics from being quickly approved and getting distributed. Ditto removing barriers to work like onerous occupational licensing requirements or restrictions on home-based work. Much of that doesn’t even require action by Congress, but rather by regulatory agencies and states.

For Congress, how about dispensing with the annual festival of waste that is the yearend appropriations process.

It might be too much to ask for lawmakers to adhere to their own statutory timelines. This kind of “must pass” spending legislation was never intended by the Budget Act. But sadly, it’s typical — especially in lame-duck sessions of Congress.

Instead, Congress could pass automatic continuing resolution legislation that would fund the government at current levels and end the risk of shutdowns. If nothing else, that would give lawmakers time to actually read these 5,500-page spending bills.

These are just a few of the steps that could be taken immediately that would have an enormously positive impact towards giving us certainty during a possibly difficult few months before vaccines become more widely available.

The first rule of medicine is, do no harm. Congress should stop passing bills that do harm, and begin looking for ways to contribute positively to overcoming the pandemic.

Alison Acosta Winters is a senior policy fellow at Americans for Prosperity.