Jenny Beth’s Journal: It’s Time to Bring Fiscal Sanity Back to Washington

JBM

Will the government ever stop spending money it does not have?

This week, Senator Rand Paul tried to provide a solution to Washington’s spending addiction. Paul’s “Penny Plan” (which would implement a miniscule two cents on the dollar spending reduction and balance the budget in just five years) earned only 22 votes. Once again, Washington has swept a major problem under the rug leaving future generations to deal with it. Although his efforts fell short, Rand Paul still tried to bring fiscal sanity to Washington.

The Hill has Jenny Beth’s commentary:

[I]f the federal government actually spent 2 percent less next year than it did this year, and did this for five years in a row, we would have a balanced budget for the first time in two decades, and we could then begin the task of paying down our $22 trillion debt.

That is because his budget calls for actual spending reductions, rather than typical faux spending cuts. In Washington, if you spend $1,000 this year and plan to spend $1,100 next year, but then change your mind and decide to spend $1,050 next year, you call it a $50 spending cut and brag to anyone who listens about your fiscal discipline, even though you are actually spending more money next year than this year

The rest of the country knows that is crazy talk. Where the taxpayers who fund the federal government live, that $1,050 spending level next year would be written up as a spending increase rather than a spending cut. The rest of the country calls people who insist otherwise liars or fools. The real eye opener on this issue is Washington spends so much money every year that even if we were only to save two cents on the dollar every year for 10 years, we would save about $13 trillion over the decade.

The good news is that support for the budget introduced by Paul grew from 21 votes last year to 22 votes this year. Even better news is that of the seven new members of the Senate Republican caucus since the vote last year, three of them voted in favor of the plan, which is the opposite manner of the senators they replaced. These are Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Mike Braun of Indiana, and Mitt Romney of Utah.

The clock is ticking, and we can’t wait until the very last minute to resolve American’s over-spending habit and a mountain of debt. It’s time for other Republicans to follow Rand Paul’s lead and face our spending issue head-on.