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A path to a better budget
Date: April 5, 2016
By: Rep. Marlin Stutzman
Last week the House Budget Committee approved a Fiscal Year 2017 budget resolution. As a member of the committee, I am proud of all the hard work done by my colleagues; however, when it came time to vote, I could not support the budget resolution as it was drafted. In a departure from the established caps set by the Budget Control Act, the House budget planned to spend an additional $30 billion for FY 2017.
I warned this could be the case in October of last year when I sent a letter along with 43 of my colleagues to Speaker Boehner, requesting that as House Republicans, we maintain the fiscal discipline that was imposed by the Budget Control Act caps.
In part, our letter read:
In 2011, our new Republican majority confronted President Obama and then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on the issue of spending. We made it clear that Republicans would not let them ignore the looming debt ceiling and that Washington's out-of-control spending had to be addressed … While imperfect, the caps put in place by the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA) have had a substantial impact on efforts to fix the federal government's spending problem.
While the BCA caps do not address the main driver of our debt — mandatory spending — it represents one of the few major steps we have taken in deficit reduction … If we do bust through the caps, we would have to acknowledge a new reality in which House Republicans cannot be trusted to keep the promises we make to our constituents, which would therefore give us pause before supporting future budget resolutions.
Unfortunately, our overtures were ignored.
On October, 28th, along with 166 (a majority) of my Republican colleagues, I opposed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, which busted through the caps and collectively increased discretionary spending by $80 billion over two years. This was among one the last and least popular acts of outgoing Speaker John Boehner's time in Congress.
Then in December, because of the higher level of spending established by the BBA, I was forced to oppose the "Omnibus" government funding bill, with the hope that circumstances would be different next year.
The House Budget Committee's FY 2017 budget, A Balanced Budget for a Stronger America, is a positive vision for our country's future. Undeniably better than President Obama's budget that never achieves balance, ever. However, the House budget does one thing I cannot support — it busts through the BCA spending caps by $30 billion.
Fundamentally, I believe Washington's out of control debt is one of the greatest threats to our national security. In the end, I must stand by my principles as well as the wishes of my constituents, and continue to vote against this planned increase in spending.
As an alternative, last week I introduced my own budget, a Blueprint for a Balanced Budget 2.0. Not only does my conservative plan set government spending under the BCA caps, it properly funds our national defense, cuts $8.6 trillion, and balances the federal budget in just eight years.
The American people know we have problems – $19 trillion worth of problems. So let's keep our promise to our country and start the fiscal path to prosperity today.
This column originally ran in the Washington Examiner.
Marlin Stutzman represents Indiana's 3rd congressional district.