The $1.6 trillion budget deal negotiated between the Biden White House, Democrat-controlled Senate and the House Republicans led by Speaker Mike Johnson has been announced and many conservatives are not happy.
The deal includes $886 billion for defense and more than $704 billion for non-defense spending, according to Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson. However, according to a statement from Democrats Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer – House Minority Leader and Senate Majority Leader respectively – the non-defense spending amount agreed is $772 billion.
Our friend principled limited government constitutional Republican Senator Mike Braun of Indiana was quick to release a statement attacking the deal, saying “We’re spending a trillion dollars more than we take in every 6 months, with our debt spiraling out of control and families still paying for Biden’s spending spree with everything they buy. This $1.6 trillion proposal will just continue Washington’s spending addiction and do nothing to stop the emergency on our southern border that has brought millions of illegal aliens into our country.”
And the House Freedom Caucus was even tougher, calling the deal “a total failure.”
We think most conservatives would agree with Senator Braun that there should be no budget deal without a border security fix and the trillion-dollar deficits are unsustainable.
However, conservative economist and federal budget guru Stephen Moore threw a bucket of cold reality in our faces in the Monday edition of his must-read Committee to Unleash Prosperity Hotline.
Steve wrote “New House Speaker Mike Johnson has negotiated the shrewdest budget deal he could get with Joe Biden in the White House and Chucky Schumer reigning over the Senate. Johnson was outnumbered and outgunned, but he managed to get some modest cuts in spending. Congratulations. Anyone who thinks he or anyone in the GOP could have gotten much better is living in la la land.”
Don’t worry, said Steve, we aren’t going to break out in a heavenly choir singing Hallelujah. But it’s a smart compromise given the lousy hand House Republicans are dealing with a splintered four-seat majority that can’t get to 218 votes on ANYTHING.
Mr. Moore observed this compromise package achieves three big objectives:
First, it avoids a government shutdown trainwreck that voters are in no mood for and wouldn’t have a happy ending. As we’ve mentioned before, Republicans have been blamed for 10 of the last 11 shutdowns.
Second, it does shave almost $100 billion from the bloated Biden budget request and cuts $20 billion in IRS funding. These are small victories, but out of an obese $6 trillion budget, every dollar matters.
Third, it keeps the debate in the 2024 election season focused on the fiscal catastrophe named Joe Biden.
As Steve Moore pointed out, Biden has nearly single-handedly added $6 trillion to the debt in just three years. This wasn’t a bipartisan spending spree. It was all the unholy trinity of Biden, Pelosi, and Schumer. His plan for the future is for the debt to top $50 trillion over the next decade. That’s not a solution, but the act of a psychopathic big spender. To solve the problem, he wants bone-crushing taxes that will sink the economy.
Our friend Rick Manning, President of Americans for Limited Government was similarly sanguine about Speaker Johnson’s intentions, releasing a statement saying, “The released topline reduces spending by another $16 billion beyond the debt limit deal and upholds sequestration for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2024. Most importantly, apart from the broad national defense and domestic spending categories, the topline does not dictate how the monies will be spent. That is why it is incumbent on the House and Senate to pass the individual appropriations bills for each agency. It is through passage of these bills, that Congress gives direct instruction to the administration on things like prohibiting the use of funds to push DEI programs, whether specific regulations shall be funded and potentially defunding the persecution of President Donald Trump by the Biden Justice Department.
“The topline is a step but is not the decision on how money in individual agencies should be spent. The House has so far passed seven of the appropriations bills, with five others still pending, with dramatic restrictions on the Biden administration’s abuse of power. Americans for Limited Government is going to focus on passage of these bills with the goal of having as many of those defunds and riders survive the negotiating process with the Senate and Executive Branch.”
The sad truth is that there are not enough real conservatives in the House Republican Conference to enforce threats of shutting down the government if the border is not closed. Among House Republicans there are at least 25, perhaps as many as 50 “squishes” who would oppose a government shutdown even if it would lead to the Second Coming.
With a four-vote majority Johnson was stuck negotiating for small wins on the periphery because Democrats were never going to cave to the threat of a shutdown over big issues like border security, knowing Johnson didn’t have the votes to enforce it.
And let’s not forget it is not Mike Johnson and the House Republicans who are demanding more spending. These inflationary deficits are the sole work of Democrats, so does it make sense to criticize Speaker Johnson for is not fighting a losing battle harder or longer?
There will be many opportunities in the coming appropriations bills to deal with the border crisis, with the Democrats demands for money to defend Ukraine’s border offering an immediate choke point. We are not going to let up holding the Speaker’s feet to the fire to squeeze every spending concession possible out of the Democrats in all 12 of the appropriations bills.
So, the bottom line is this latest budget deal is an urgent reminder that the only smart solution for America to get spending under control is to get rid of the Biden Democrats and their facilitators in Congress.