Today, the U.S. House will vote on a bill to fund most of the government for the remainder of the fiscal year. This spending bill is a solid win for conservatives, as it lives within the Budget Control Act’s post-sequester caps, cuts an out-of-control IRS, and guts Obamacare’s bailout of Big Insurance.
The most important aspect of the bill is that overall spending lives within the Budget Control Act’s post-sequester caps. Thanks to the sequester, as a percentage of GDP, domestic discretionary spending will soon be at the lowest levels seen in living memory. The sequester is the signature success for conservatives in the past decade.
Additional items of note for taxpayers:
The bill contains a real year-over-year $345 million spending cut to the out-of-control IRS — the lowest level of funding since 2008:
2008: $10.9 (billion)
2009: $11.5
2010: $12.1
2011: $12.1
2012: $11.8
2013: $11.2
2014: $11.2
2015: $10.9
The bill also contains a host of new protections for taxpayers to be enshrined in law: ethics training, impartial application of tax law, and strict confidentiality of taxpayer information. The bill also clamps down on stupid taxpayer-funded videos and wasteful bureaucrat conferences.
No Obamacare bailouts for big insurance. Under existing Obamacare law, health insurance companies that lose money over the next three years are eligible for a taxpayer-financed bailout of their losses. This bill prevents any taxpayer funds from being used to bail out health insurance companies that participate in Obamacare.
Finally, the bill contains a one year extension of the Internet Tax Freedom Act, a moratorium on Internet taxation.