By Nicole Kaeding
Nicole Kaeding
The House of Representatives is set to vote to keep the federal government’s doors open for the next several months. The plan, however, is a disappointing grab-bag of provisions. Instead of tackling the country’s pending fiscal crisis, the House’s Continuing Resolution (CR) punts, saving much-needed reforms for another day.
According to a released draft, the House’s version will fund the government’s spending until December 11, 2014. This plan will allow members to wrap their current session this week, leave town, and resume campaigning for the November elections.
This would enable Congress to shirk its responsibilities. Federal law says that Congress is to debate and pass 12 bills every year to fund various aspects of the government. These bills force Congress to debate and make the tough decisions about priorities for federal spending. Congress proactively chooses how to responsibly spend taxpayers’ money.
“Our spending problem is poised to get much worse.”
The CR combines everything into one bill, allowing members to delegate that task to a simple, self-imposed yes or no vote: yes, you want to fund government operations or no, you don’t want to fund government operations. Irresponsibility masquerades as responsibility; members can champion keeping the lights on, but really they’ve just delayed making tough decisions.
Even worse for taxpayers, this CR does not cut spending. The federal government’s bloated budget is maintained. The CR funds government activities at the same level as fiscal year 2014. While not growing the government is a step in the right direction for Congress, it still is not enough. The federal government simply spends too much money.
Our spending problem is poised to get much worse. Social Security, and the major health care programs, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), comprise half of all federal spending, costing taxpayers $1.8 billion annually. That is four-and-a-half times the amount of money collected every year in corporate income taxes. These programs are staggering in their size.
And they are growing quickly. According to a recent report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Medicaid, the health insurance program for low-income individuals, increased 15 percent in fiscal year 2014. The dramatic increase is due to ObamaCare’s large expansion of the program. This is just one aspect of the $2 trillion in new spending on ObamaCare.
The CBO cautions that this is not a one-time occurrence. The entitlement programs will continue to grow, placing immense pressure on the federal …read more
Source: OP-EDS
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