Drowned out by the cacophony of impeachment last week was an act of legislative malpractice in Congress.
Lawmakers passed and President Trump signed a series of bills amounting to $1.4 trillion in spending. According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the package is expected to add $500 billion to the federal debt over the next decade. This year’s deficit is projected to be about $1 trillion, and the national debt is more than $23 trillion — or about $70,000 for every person in the United States.
Earlier this year, leaders of both parties and President Trump expressed a desire to reduce federal spending and act as stewards of the public trust. But when the time comes to pass a bill to keep the government operating, all pretense of fiscal responsibility is forgotten.
There is, indeed, a need for the agreement. Without a deal, the federal government would have shut down Friday, echoing the impasse that led to a 35-day shutdown last year. Neither party showed interest in repeating that lose-lose scenario; instead, leaders were happy to provide the other side with Christmas presents they could deliver to constituents and then brag about their magnanimity.
For Democrats, that includes more spending for Head Start, the National Institutes of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency. It includes $25 million for gun violence research, the first of its kind in 25 years, and $425 million in grants to enhance election security. Democrats also sought and received a 3.1 percent pay increase for federal employees and funding for the 2020 U.S. Census.
Republicans will point to a $22 billion increase in defense spending and the preservation of policy restrictions related to abortion and gun rights. For example, Democrats had sought to overturn the Trump administration’s move to bar organizations that receive federal family-planning grants from referring patients for abortions, but that language did not make it into the final bill.
Democrats also gave in on several provisions that will undermine the Affordable Care Act — colloquially known as Obamacare. Three key funding sources for the act were repealed, and the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that will remove $373 billion from the program over 10 years.
In the process, lawmakers have embraced pandering at the expense of leadership, eagerly handing out gifts to constituents without any concern about how to pay for them. Two years ago, a Republican-controlled Congress passed tax cuts supported by President Trump and then approved a $1.3 trillion spending bill. The canard that the tax cuts would pay for themselves has proven to be grossly inaccurate as the national debt has ballooned, despite a robust economy.
The truth is there is no free lunch, but Congress persists in allowing Americans to dine while passing along the bill to our children and grandchildren. When President Obama was in office, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, decried the debt and suggested it would be the end of the American Dream. Now, she happily supports adding to that debt while boasting of securing funding to help protect salmon.
That scenario is being repeated throughout the nation, as lawmakers trumpet pet projects that will appeal to constituents while ignoring what is behind the curtain. What’s back there is a fundamental failure of Congress to act responsibly by raising the funds to pay for those projects.
It makes for a happy Christmas for all, lawmakers and constituents alike — until the bills come due.
