WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In response to Rep. Chip Roy’s (R-Texas) letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Cal.) urging her to adhere to the 2011 Budget Control Act’s (BCA) spending caps for FY 2020 and 2021, Jason Pye, FreedomWorks Vice President of Legislative Affairs, commented:
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., recently told reporters he had spoken with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., about a potential deal to increase the discretionary spending caps for fiscal years 2020 and 2021. House and Senate Republicans should reject any such deal unless it includes meaningful and immediate mandatory spending cuts.
The bill would blatantly disregard the Budget Control Act (BCA) of 2011 that requires Congress to adhere to budget caps – This bill goes above and beyond, busting the caps by nearly $300 billion over two years, more than twice that of the past two, two-year deals combined
Responsible spending is not something Congress has proven itself to be good at, under Republican or under Democratic leadership. The Bipartisan Budget Act, the absolutely atrocious cap-busting deal proposed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R- Ky.) and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) which busts the Budget Control Act caps by more than twice what the previous two deals combined did, proves this.
With all the talk about a possible government shutdown due to an impasse on immigration reform, no one seems to be paying attention to a story of even bigger long-term consequence. Congress is preparing a two-year budget that blows past bipartisan spending caps to the tune of $216 billion through 2019. These are the latest stunning tallies from an analysis by Congressional Quarterly. (See chart).
It’s a new era of Republican leadership in the House. Speaker Boehner is out, Speaker Ryan (R-WI-1) is in, and just in time for the budget process. Under the influence of the House Freedom Caucus, Republicans finally have a chance to do something about the outrageous spending that is rapidly bankrupting our country. It would all be terribly exciting… except that none of that is actually happening.
With Paul Ryan still sitting squarely on the fence about whether or not he will run for Speaker of the House, the Republican leadership elections still remain largely up in the air. There has so far been a troubling inability of the conference to identify a suitable candidate who embodies the values that are important to an open congressional process, and who could garner enough support to actually win the election.
The ever-shifting horizon on when the federal government is scheduled to reach its borrowing limit has most recently been set at November 3rd, just days after John Boehner is scheduled to resign his office. What this means is that no new leadership will save us from yet another increase in the debt ceiling, although there will always be a principled few who will want to resist.
As one of over 6.9 million FreedomWorks activists nationwide, I urge you to call your representative and senators and demand that they refuse to vote for any Continuing Resolution or other government funding bill for Fiscal Year 2016 that spends above the levels set by the Budget Control Act (BCA) of 2011.