Fiscal Restraint
Last night, the U.S. House passed a big beautiful bill, as the President termed the concept. It’s different from a measure on the topic passed by the Senate, so now it’s off to a conference committee to work things out.
At first glance, it sounds promising…extending the 2017 tax cuts, which if not extended would lead next year to the biggest tax increase in U.S. history for all of us…funding for border security…and $2 trillion in spending cuts.
But as always, the devil is in the details. For example, the bill would lead to adding $328 billion to the deficit this year, another $295 billion to the deficit the year after that, and another $242 billion to the deficit the year after that. That’s according to Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, the only “no” vote on the bill.
Yes, cutting the amount we are adding to the deficit is a spending reduction, I suppose…but that’s hardly the massive spending cut Republicans campaigned on.
The same party that is promoting DOGE cuts across the board—likely very much warranted—is the same party that wants to pass bills of a single topic at a time and proceed to budgeting via regular order, as opposed to a “all-inclusive” reconciliation bill that requires members to hold their noses and vote for some things in exchange for getting other things.
And yet that’s the party that is dumping this bag on our doorsteps.
No doubt representatives will point to the good things in the bill, and say they had to get this hurdle cleared before the new GOP majority in Congress can really take action for the next fiscal year.
It’s always “next year” however…never “this year”…so how many more chances will voters give representatives who kick the can down the road, pledging to do better in the future? Guess we’ll find out in 2026.
