Pause federal spending to save our nation
Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., stops for reporters' questions about passing a funding bill and avoiding a government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Sept. 18, 2023. McCarthy is trying to win support from right-wing Republicans by including spending cuts and conservative proposals for border security and immigration. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
I recently read an opinion piece claiming that there is a “shutdown caucus” in Congress that wants a government shutdown. Yet, as even the author acknowledged, government will keep operating. It’s not a shutdown of government, it’s really a pause in out-of-control federal spending related to nonessentials.
There is no impact to Social Security, Medicare, or other mandatory spending programs. Even within the discretionary spending paused, essential government functions continue and backpay is guaranteed when the pause is lifted.
House Republican leaders promised that we would restore the regular process of producing a budget. That means that 12 separate bills covering the spending of the Great Leviathan, federal government, would be completed in the House by the end of June, and then forwarded to the Senate for consideration.
Typically, there would be disagreements and then a conference committee of members from the House and Senate would get together and work out the differences.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) boxed in himself and the Republican House by foregoing the promise of limiting spending to a total of $1.471 trillion and allowing those addicted to the federal spending drug to ignore, manipulate and gimmick the various bills to actually spend above that level.
A significant plurality in the House has made its position known for almost ten months now. This could have and should have been resolved months ago. I called for a return to pre-COVID spending levels, which are lower than last year’s revenue, and would ensure we don’t add more to the national debt.
We were told that we would work through August to resolve differences and get the bills ready to go forward. That didn’t happen.
Before the August recess the Speaker allowed the Military Construction and Veterans Administration bill to be voted on. We all voted for that because we want to take care of our veterans, and we were told that by the time the recess was over the other bills would be ready.
That, too, didn’t happen.
As it stands today, my colleagues on the Appropriations Committee haven’t finished writing all 12 bills.
The reason we are supposed to vote on 12 spending bills at the same time is so we can understand what the total spending amount is and place all the spending in that context.
Until last weekend the Speaker was advocating for a “clean” continuing resolution (CR); this would mean that for the foreseeable future we would keep federal spending at the bloated levels of the Pelosi-Schumer-Biden triumvirate. And that means that inflationary pressure will remain. And that means accelerating growth in our national debt.
Now, however, the Speaker is advocating for passage of just a few more bills plus a continuing resolution. And of the four bills that he wants to bring to the floor, three actually increase spending over the current year and fail to hold the Biden administration accountable for its woke, failed policies.
Now we are told that there is a new plan, that looks a lot like the old plan. Pass a few bills now and pass a CR. The claim is that the new CR cuts spending and requires the Biden administration to enforce border laws.
But, instead of limiting the spending to the promised topline of $1.471 trillion, spending will be $1.526 trillion and we will continue to fund a lawless administration that uses resources paid by the taxpayers to attack citizens. For instance, rogue prosecutors Jack Smith and Alvin Bragg can continue their out-of-bounds prosecutions that are persecutions. The IRS still gets to expand its inquiries into the activities of middle-class taxpayers.
We are told that even though the process has been as bad as usual we can try to get it again next year.
That’s from the same guy who bartered away to the Senate the House’s proffered debt ceiling increase of $1.5 trillion over eight months. You may recall that the Speaker returned to the House not with anything that looks like the bill that passed out of the House, but no limit on our increase in debt until after the next election. Yikes!
The old adage is that a fool and his money are soon parted, but in this case it isn’t even the fool’s money.
Another adage comes to mind: “fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.”
Pete Townsend said it well, “We won’t be fooled again.”
So back to the op-ed that claims that the “shut-down caucus” wants to take its ball and go home, I say in this time of rapidly growing federal spending, inflationary crunch, and economic problems caused by Biden’s policies, why would you want to continue on that same path instead of fighting to reduce spending, reduce the growth in the debt, and repair the economy?
Perhaps you have forgotten the notion that doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.
Andy Biggs represents Arizona’s 5th District and serves on the House Judiciary and Oversight & Accountability committees.