House Democrats are already shirking their responsibilities and have failed to release a Fiscal Year 2020 budget.
Instead of releasing a budget, Democrats plan to vote on legislation which does nothing but increase spending. The House has indicated that the bill was brought to the House on April 2nd and will be considered this week. ATR urges members of Congress to vote against this impractical proposal. The legislation, H.R. 2021, the Investing for the People Act, increases defense and non-defense discretionary spending caps by $350 billion within the next two years.
The Investing for the People Act increases non-discretionary defense spending to $646 billion and defense spending to $680 billion by Fiscal Year 2021. Within the first year alone, this is a 5.7 percent increase for non-defense discretionary spending and a 2.6 percent increase for defense spending, yet Democrats have no plan to pay for this increased spending.
Congress has a constitutional responsibility to make decisions over federal spending and one of the main ways lawmakers do this is by releasing and voting on a budget that outlines priorities and sets a vision for future years.
Instead of doing so, Democrats are evidently more concerned about pushing through unrealistic proposals that explode the deficit and dramatically expand the size of government, such as the Green New Deal and Medicare for all. In fact, the Green New Deal is projected to cost between $51 and $93 trillion and Medicare for all is estimated to cost $32.6 trillion over 10 years. These proposals will inevitably require major tax hikes to implement.
In contrast, Senate Republicans released a Fiscal Year 2020 Budget on March 22nd. Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY), Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, released his Chairman’s Mark Senate Budget Resolution which calls for deficit reduction, dynamic scoring, reduced spending, and permanent enforcement of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
The Republican proposed Fiscal Year 2020 budget proposal will lower non-interest mandatory spending by $551 billion and the deficit by $538 billion. It establishes guidelines so that by 2024 the deficit will constitute 2.9 percent of GDP, 0.6 percent lower than the historical average. The resolution offers the improvement of existing, and creation of new, restrictions Congress could use to oversee the budget. It also creates a surgical point of order to target avoidance of appropriations processes and records.
In addition, this Senate Republican budget builds on the success of tax reform by making key provisions permanent.
Already, the Republican Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has grown the economy. GDP grew by 3.1 percent between Q4 of 2018 and Q4 of 2019 and over 5.1 million new jobs have been created since 2017. Nominal wages have grown 3.4 percent in the past year, and the unemployment rate hit a 50-year low in September.
Congressional Democrats have failed to release a budget, while Republicans have released one that sets standards for the next five years. Simply spend more will not solve an ever-deepening deficit, stop unnecessary spending, or benefit American tax payers.