Neither Party is Serious About Ending Profligate Spending

The new Republican House majority is on record that it wants to reduce federal spending. Or rather, they want to roll back spending on discretionary programs.

How much? Less than one might think, but enough to send official Washington into a tizzy. According to Roll Call:

Total “base” appropriations for fiscal 2023, excluding supplementals and other typical upward adjustments, are $1.602 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The comparable figure for fiscal 2022 is $1.471 trillion, as [Rep. Chip] Roy outlined…so the House GOP-drafted fiscal 2024 spending bills are expected to produce a $131 billion net cut.

Reducing spending to a baseline of 2022 is hardly draconian…unless one thinks America was teetering on the brink of doom way back then.

But of course, the nation wasn’t (and still isn’t) anywhere near doom. But a constant in official Washington is the belief that reducing spending – or really, reducing the rate of increase in spending – will bring about the end times.

It’s among the more insulting varieties of nonsense that flows out of Capitol Hill – and that’s saying something. But before we get to thinking all Republicans are ready to jump on the austerity bandwagon, let’s pause and remember the GOP, too, is part of the reason spending has gotten so out of hand.  As Reason’s Eric Boehm writes:

…even many Republicans don’t seem very interested in actually sticking to the deal. Rep. Steve Womack (R–Ark.), a member of the Appropriations Committee, tells Politico that returning the budget to 2022 levels may not be “politically doable”—that’s Washington-speak for “won’t make Republican-aligned special interests happy.” And sure enough, other Republicans are already trying to weasel out of forcing the Pentagon to be subject to the same budget rules as everyone else.

And that, in brief, is why we’re in the current fiscal mess. It’s never been a lack of revenue. It has always been because playing Santa Claus with taxpayer money has always been the preferred look of career politicians of both major parties.

And it won’t end until voters demand fiscal restraint…or markets enforce it.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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