The decision to add hundreds of billions of dollars to the federal budget just weeks after the Republicans rammed through their very costly tax cuts is just mind-boggling in its irresponsibility. The bipartisan agreement responsible for this raised the debt ceiling as well as the spending caps that were placed on military and domestic spending during the Obama presidency (the spending caps were increased by around $300 billion). Just one month later, Congress approved a 2,232-page $1.3 trillion appropriations bill, which covered federal funding for only six months.
Of the bill, Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) said, “Every Republican would vote against this disgusting pork bill if a Democrat were president. This spending kegger is a wildly irresponsible use of the taxpayers’ money, and the president should not sign it.” Just hours before the bill passed, Representative Jim McGovern, (D-MA) said, “In all honesty, none of us know what is actually in this bill.”
But wait! There’s more! In August 2019, Congress and the Trump administration followed all of this up by approving a two-year $2.7 trillion budget agreement, a move that required the debt ceiling be suspended until the end of July 2021. This was the fourth time Congress had voted to ignore the spending limits established by the 2011 Budget Control Act.
We have to fund the federal government of course, but not one penny of this $2.7 trillion went to fund federal agencies. Say whaaaaat? Yep, funding for that was finally passed on December 19, 2019 – after, of course, two stop gap spending bills were passed to keep the government afloat while Congress continued to duke it out.
Conducting the business of our country this way is so irresponsible and foolish. For one, this level of spending acted as another fiscal stimulus. Together, Bomb #1 and Bomb #2 amounted to taking lighter fluid and pouring it over an already roaring fire.
But here’s the most dangerous part: Thanks to the lingering effects of the 2007-2009 Financial Crisis, in 2019 we already had fewer financial weapons in our arsenal to combat a financial crisis than we had in the past. What if we needed the boost of that lighter fluid down the road, like, say, if a scary worldwide virus started to spread and shut down a large part of our economy, or if war broke out in Eastern Europe?!? Did anyone in Washington even consider that possibility? Of course not.
Which, of course, IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED! The United States allocated 4.64 trillion in total budgetary resources to respond to COVID-19 and its economic fallout. Not only was this money stretched over 47 agencies – which guarantees it was not spent in a judicious manner – but both bills were jammed packed with things that had nothing at all to do with COVID-19 and its economic fallout. This has got to stop. We must be more fiscally responsible.
