OPINION:
The media is, once again, revealing its latent bias and rooting hard for Republicans to lose the fight over requiring spending cuts as a condition for a hike in the debt limit.
The commonsense political solution, however, is for President Biden to sit down with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, California Republican, to negotiate a final deal that avoids economic disaster and gets the federal debt under control. The American people think it a good idea that Congress finally work on a solution to a $31 trillion problem.
Without a doubt, our federal government has a spending problem. The statistics are downright frightening. According to the U.S. Treasury, the deficit for 2020 was $3.13 trillion, in 2021 it was $2.77 trillion, and in 2022 it was $1.38 trillion. Government statistics show that in 2022, the federal government spent a staggering $6.27 trillion that “means federal spending was equal to 25% of the total gross domestic product (GDP), or economic activity, of the United States that year.”
This is the highest percentage of GDP to federal spending in recent history. This post-pandemic level of spending is unacceptable, and Republicans are on firm ground to demand reform for their support in raising the debt ceiling.
On April 26, the House of Representatives passed the Limit, Save, Grow Act by a 217-215 vote with only four Republicans voting against it. This and a letter from Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen on May 1 has jump-started negotiations.
The Republican plan contains about $4.5 trillion in savings through returning to fiscal 2022 spending levels with a cap on discretionary spending at 1% increases annually. The plan cancels Mr. Biden’s student loan debt relief plan, repeals energy tax credits, rescinds unused COVID spending and expands work requirements for entitlement programs such as Medicaid, SNAP and TANF.
This is a good opportunity to pursue bold policy, because if Congress and the Biden administration can’t get a deal on this, our economy and the solvency of our federal government are in danger of collapse.
This should also be the beginning of Congress doing their part to restrain its own appetite for expensive and unnecessary earmarked spending. Earmarks are spending directed by Congress and not requested by the executive branch. Citizens Against Government Waste, or CAGW, put out its annual book of overspending by Congress called the “2023 Congressional Pig Book.”
This is the second year that Congress has revived the practice of putting earmarked line items in appropriations bills that designate tax dollars for a specific purpose. Earmarks are not inherently bad, because Congress should have the power to direct certain spending, but some of these spending earmarks have proved unnecessary and unduly expensive.
The report found over 7,000 earmarks at a cost of just over $26 billion. According to CAGW, “the 31st installment of CAGW’s expose of pork-barrel spending includes: $1,508,300,000 for three earmarks for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), including funding for the acquisition of 18 aircraft beyond the amount requested by the DOD; $30,615,000 for 57 earmarks for the Save America’s Treasures grants program, including $500,000 for the Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristol, Virginia by Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.); $13,250,000 for two earmarks funding presidential libraries; $1,000,000 for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Rep. Shontel Brown (D-Ohio); and $500,000 for wild horse management at the Nevada Department of Agriculture by Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.).”
A debt limit deal should include rescinding the most expensive and egregious earmarks. It would be wise for Mr. McCarthy to walk into the White House with the Pig Book in hand and pledge to cut out most wasteful earmarks if the White House would also agree to reducing its share of wasteful spending.
The rescission of just one earmark would save taxpayers $1.5 billion in added defense spending alone. The F-35 JSF program is notorious for costing American taxpayers $1.7 trillion in spending over the lifetime of the program and the program is loaded with opportunities for savings. The F-35 program has been a mess with software problems, hardware deficiencies and slow delivery of airworthy aircraft. It makes sense not to spend an extra $1.5 billion over and beyond what the Air Force requested on this troubled program.
Republicans can win this fight to restrain spending if they dig in and show some leadership and gumption. A debt limit deal that includes Congress showing spending restraint would go a long way to reclaiming the confidence of American taxpayers. These voters are angry with the leadership of both parties for putting the country in a situation where the government is spending and borrowing at a rate that can’t continue and endangering the ability of the country to meet future obligations.
• Peter Mihalick is a former legislative director and counsel to former Reps. Barbara Comstock, Virginia Republican, and Rodney Blum, Iowa Republican.
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