On Tuesday, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) and the House Freedom Caucus spoke in opposition to Congress’ plan to raise the debt ceiling: the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA).
Under the current plan, the debt ceiling would increase from $31.5 trillion to $36 trillion by 2025, with no cap in place. Without a raise in the debt limit by June 5, the government will be in default.
“Instead of estimating the actual debt ceiling that will be imposed by that date, January 1, 2025, they simply say that will be the date, there will be an unlimited cap,” said Biggs. “There won’t be a cap for 19 months of the Biden administration, and the Biden administration is probably the most profligate we’ve seen.”
Honored to stand with my colleagues in the @freedomcaucus today.
The national debt current growth rate is projected at over $4 trillion in new debt. Biggs forecasted an increase to $5 trillion by 2025.
Biggs claimed that the version of the FRA agreed to under House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA-20) would only delay, not prevent the IRS from hiring 87,000 new agents costing $71 billion. Biggs said these agents would not only be weaponized against taxpayers, but presented a significant financial burden.
Biggs further claimed that the FRA establishes Green New Deal tax credits and subsidies for the wealthy. He further criticized the PAYGO program, which would require government bureaucrats to justify how they would afford their expenditures; Biggs noted that a similar program already exists in Congress, yet that program hasn’t slowed spending. He added that Congress also already waives PAYGO provisions.
“How come it is Republican leaders always tell us ‘next year we’ll fight hard’?” asked Biggs.
Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ-07) also opposed the FRA, but for different reasons. Grijalva expressed opposition to the FRA in his capacity as Democratic ranking member of the Natural Resources Committee. He argued that the FRA would jeopardize the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
Watch the full press conference here:
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY-04) criticized the Senate for attempting to corner the House into approving their version of the funding bill.
“[The Senate is] sending us a giant omnibus bill the day before the government funding runs out, and saying, ‘Pass the Senate version or the House will be responsible for the shutdown,” said Massie.
House Republican Conference leadership backs the FRA. The chairwoman, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY-21) claimed the FRA would stop runaway inflationary spending, rescind executive overreach, and improve everyday Americans’ financial status.
With the Fiscal Responsibility Act, House Republicans will:
1. Stop out-of-control inflationary spending. 2. Rein in executive overreach. 3. Lift Americans out of poverty.
McCarthy also characterized the FRA as a win, adding that their version eliminates COVID-19 spending, prevents $5 trillion in new tax proposals, and enacts more work requirements for welfare recipients.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned Congress in January that the U.S. had reached its statutory debt limit and would run out of funding sometime in early June. In a follow-up letter last week, Yellen specified the expiration date as June 5.
She disclosed that her department would fulfill over $130 billion of scheduled payments in the first two days of June, including payments to veterans as well as Social Security and Medicare recipients. Yellen added that scheduled payouts would leave the Treasury unable to satisfy all its fiscal obligations.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
The last time Republicans lived up to their reputation for sound fiscal policy was almost 30 years ago. In March 1995, Speaker Newt Gingrich and the Republican House caucus, to the jeers of skeptics, resolved to balance the federal budget within seven years. They did it in four.
Yet ever since, Republicans have provided slight protection against the unending torrent of Democrat spending schemes. They talk a brave game of cutting when out of power but are mostly unable to curb their political urge to spend when they have the authority.
Consequently, the national debt doubled from $5 trillion to $10 trillion under the inattentive George W. Bush. Candidate Donald Trump in 2016 promised to pay down the debt completely over eight years. Sure. In just four years, the debt surged by $7.8 trillion, a 36% hike.
We’ve all seen the drill. Create an emergency spending need where none exists (climate change) or which could better be addressed in a more measured way (COVID), exaggerate the danger, create panic, open the spigot, take credit.
$4.1 trillion in new spending during the Biden years for these created “emergencies” have put Americans in extremely dangerous fiscal territory. The voters this time gave House Republicans one more chance to redeem themselves. Now the stakes are higher than ever, and the pressure is on.
The early rhetoric was promising. However, vows to “curb wasteful government spending” were followed by…reinstatement of earmarks. Those little pieces of unvetted local pork slipped into spending bills to benefit individual legislators. What a crushing disappointment.
Republicans swore off earmarks in 2011. But when a Democrat Congress brought them back in 2021, 120 Republicans partook, scooping up $5 billion for their own Bridges to Nowhere. A motion this year to disallow earmarks was overwhelmingly defeated in the Republican caucus.
15 conservative policy groups cautioned Republicans that “earmarks are one of the most corrupt, inequitable and wasteful practices in the history of Congress.” Each congressman earns his little cookie by supporting all of his colleagues’ polite graft.
Yet GOP appropriators claimed earmarks were their “constitutional duty” and actually help to control spending! What a crock.
The Republican face plant over a matter so obviously wrong gives fiscal conservatives the sinking feeling that they may not be up to the fight. Candidates barely mentioned the deficit/debt during the last election, in contrast to previous campaigns. What fiscal crisis?
Instead, Americans have been conditioned by their politicians to believe that no wants should be unmet, that we “deserve” lavish government benefits unyoked to effort, that thorny political issues from illegal immigration to educational failure can be solved by simply spending more, and that any fiscal consequences can be safely kicked down the road.
Republicans aren’t going to dig out of this hole any time soon. But they can start the process by doing the right thing right now.
As this is written, Republicans are negotiating an omnibus budget bill of nearly $2 trillion. The leadership has known for nine months this must be completed by year’s end, but once again thoughtful, thorough budgeting has given way to a 4,155-page bill delivered at 1:30 AM to legislators who can’t possibly understand its provisions.
The bill contains no program cuts, but instead a mix of mandatory spending, outrageous pork like LGBTQ “Pride Centers,” and a specific prohibition against funding for border security. Lawmakers must approve the bill now or, in the case of Republicans, be held liable for the dreaded government shutdown.
But economist Steve Moore has a better idea. Republicans only need to refuse to waive provisions of the 2010 Pay-As-You-Go Act. PAYGO has been routinely suspended in recent years, but just 41 of 50 senators refusing this time would result in $130 billion in mandatory “sequester” cuts, just 5% of the Biden spending splurge.
Alternately, Congress could cancel the $80 billion for 87,000 new IRS agents, take back $500 billion in unspent COVID funding, and/or scale back the “Green New Deal” subsidies, a relatively painless way to uphold the PAYGO rules.
Congressional Republicans will never have a better opportunity to begin the return to responsible governance. If they don’t have the will now, when will they?
Dr. Thomas Patterson, former Chairman of the Goldwater Institute, is a retired emergency physician. He served as an Arizona State senator for 10 years in the 1990s, and as Majority Leader from 93-96. He is the author of Arizona’s original charter schools bill.
The following are some of the controversial carve outs within Congress’ 4,155-page, $1.7 trillion spending bill, “Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023.”
Fiscal Responsibility
Waives PAYGO budgetary enforcement – $130 billion
Law Enforcement
Jan. 6 prosecuting attorneys – $2.6 billion
FBI investigations of extremist violence and domestic terrorism – $11.3 billion
Capitol Police – $132 million
Criminal Justice Reform
First Step Act of 2018 (enables prisoners to earn sentence reduction credits) – $409.4 million
Restorative justice responses to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking – $15 million
Culturally-specific services for female domestic/intimate violence victims – $11 million
New restorative justice national center – $3 million
Alternative sentencing programs – $3.5 million
Drug courts – $95 million
Mental health courts – $45 million
Grants supporting community-based alternatives and restorative justice – $10 million
Community violence intervention and prevention initiative grants – $50 million
Community policing development activities, programs – $275.88 million
Social Justice
Health and Human Services for diversity training – over $100 million
Gender Equity and Equality Action Fund – $200 million
Women’s Leadership Program – $50 million
Foreign gender-based violence prevention – $250 million
Foreign female empowerment – $150 million
Hate crime outreach and training by state, local, and tribal law enforcement – $25 million
Establishing Office of Diversity & Inclusion in the legislative branch – $3.5 million
LGBTQ+ Pride Center in California – $1.2 million
Community space for gender-expansive people – $1 million
American LGBTQ museum in New York City – $3 million
Globalism
Ukrainian military and economic aid – $45 billion
Foreign food security and agricultural development – $1 billion ($265 million specifically for smaller enterprises by the poor, especially women)
Foreign racial reconciliation – $25 million
Honors
Nancy Pelosi Fellowship Program – $2 million
Renaming and boosting funding for the Lake Champlain Basin Program after Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) – $35 million
President Jimmy Carter Museum upgrade – $7.25 million
President Ulysses S. Grant Museum upgrade – $6 million
Welfare
Child Care and Development Block Grant – $8 billion
Head Start – $12 billion
Pell Grant increase by $500 (7.2 percent) – up to around $3 to $3.5 billion
Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program – $5 billion
Community Development Block Grant formula program – $6.4 billion
21,500+ affordable housing units – $388 million
Environment
Environmental Protection Agency – $576 million
Sustainable landscapes – $185 million
Foreign clean energy programs – $260 million
Foreign indigenous environment protection, including species preservation – $20 million
Climate crisis response – $15.3 billion
Multimodal, transit, bicycle and pedestrian, and passenger rail grants for green infrastructure – $1.7 billion
“Defense” funding for climate crisis – $2 billion
Foreign family planning/reproductive health, namely in “areas where population growth threatens biodiversity or endangered species” – $575 million
Pandemics
Global Health Programs fund for future pandemics – $200 million
COVID Response – $5 million
COVID-19 American History Project – $1.5 million
The 4,155 page spending bill may be accessed here.
