It's happening again. Congress is expected to enact another bloated, pork-heavy and little-read omnibus spending bill to complete formal spending for fiscal year 2024, which ends Oct. 1. Joe Biden said he would sign it.
Utah Sen. Mike Lee, lamenting the 1,012-page, $1.2 trillion package put together by House and Senate leaders whom he calls “solid,” urged lawmakers to “pass a bill they didn't have time for.” Please don't do that,'' I have been pleading all week. Review, discuss, and revise. ”
The major crisis today is not one of closure due to failure to reach an agreement, but the refusal to close key parts of a wide range of federal government operations. Its scale may be unrecognizable to federal planners. Unless we address the major problem of federal government bloat, this situation will only get worse.
It's not just the so-called rights of the federal government that are operating on autopilot today. Virtually all discretionary and military spending cannot be stopped either. Biden regularly mocks Republicans who oppose deficit spending, but he celebrates the revenue going back home.
Institutions matter when it comes to protecting and preserving limited government and America's key institutions. separation of powers It was supposed to accomplish that for us. But today, the only “institutions” that can slow or stop debt-driven spending are created by forcing a government shutdown or refusing to raise the debt ceiling, which we see today. Looks like it's just pressure. This country will soon be faced with the latter again.
It appears that the federal government's ability to restore normalcy, even a return to pre-pandemic conditions, is too far-fetched to achieve through traditional means.
The Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse, but there's always some excuse why Congress can't tighten the strings this time. On the other hand, progressive big government projects are becoming more entrenched, making it less easy and more difficult to address problems later.
Biden's spending and regulatory policies, which this very week provocatively touted a series of new housing spending and regulatory interventions, could only do harm if Congress funds them. But an omnibus agreement like this week's would bring Republicans on board with Biden's progressive pursuits on climate change, equity, partnerships between big government and corporations, and more.
I cannot stress enough that this administration's challenges are characterized by debt-driven spending, increased regulation and central power, the creation of artificial dependencies, and the forced “equality of outcomes.” It is Congress, and only Congress, that can veto “. The corporate subsidies that underpin much of the program come with regulatory conditions that make subsequent rollbacks more difficult.
Those with power and the ability to force the necessary disruption are forced to say that the purported difficulties of government shutdowns are often caused by reliance on federal programs that shouldn't exist in the first place. not. Like raising the debt ceiling, the remedy for fiscal collapse is to focus on cutting back on unnecessary government activities as the national debt approaches $35 trillion. The ever larger government in a non-crisis period has not solved the economic and social problems that rationalize its existence, but it has enriched the bureaucracy itself. If we maintain this approach, most institutions and programs should be closed and run by state and local governments.
It's an oversimplification, but Congress can do nothing to stop all of this from happening.must do so activity I would spend all this money. At the very least, after this week's episode, Congress should force Biden to rescind the fiscal year 2025 package and make it clear that it will not be the start of deliberations in 2024-2025.
Although there have been more than 20 state shutdowns, the state has not collapsed. Although inconvenient and destructive, so too is the fiscal collapse that would result from an unrestricted budget deficit of $2 trillion a year. Today's budget deficit is just bigger than his nominal annual spending in the 1990s. Shutdown is inconvenient. The challenge is to make the inconvenience worthwhile.
Besides, “shutdown” is a misnomer. Taxes will continue to be deducted from your paycheck. Washington has and always will have your money and can live within its reasonable means.
The pertinent lesson from the shutdown is that no part of a federalist system should be so thoroughly dependent on the central government. However, it is no longer obvious that there will be any forced rectification of the event, short of closure or debt limitation. Our system of annual budgeting processes has proven incapable of restraining, let alone reducing, spending.
Rich countries like ours may continue on this path for a little longer. Because, as Fred L. Smith, Jr., founder of the Institute for Competitive Enterprise, has sometimes said about our prosperous but exploitable economy, “The bigger the dog, the more likely it is that there will be more ticks.” This is because there is. But it can't go on forever.
The Republicans' new budget document goes even further, advocating spending restraint and calling for a fight against overly ambitious economic, environmental and social regulatory programs. The Republican Study Committee's fiscal year 202 budget proposal begins with a chapter on “Securing Freedom through Deregulation,” and the House Budget Committee's concurrent resolution on the 2025 budget includes a “policy statement on deregulation.” These measures are as important as spending restraint and deregulation. There will be beneficial fiscal effects.
We need spending caps, regulatory caps, and the repeal of the laws, regulations, and institutions that create much of today's chaos. As this week's hate established, Bidennomics robs Republicans of teamwork. It can only do harm if Congress opens up the purse strings and allows for both bureaucratic red tape. Let state and local governments and autonomous societies play their proper roles and reduce the central Leviathan. It won't get any easier later.
Despite the overused phrase, most of the time; do not have become law.
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