Staff Reports
Heritage Action, the lobbying and advocacy extension of the Heritage Foundation, has taken a bold stand against the bipartisan debt deal, showing that it does not meet the moment and will cause harm to the future of the nation. On Wednesday morning, the group announced that the Fiscal Responsibility Act will be a “key vote,” and those who support the debt deal will be penalized on the scorecard that ranks the conservatism of House and Senate members based on their votes.
?KEY VOTE?
Heritage Action opposes the Fiscal Responsibility Act (H.R. 3746) and encourages members to vote NO on this bill.
This bill fails to address the root problems that have led to $32 trillion in national debt.
Read the full key vote.⬇https://t.co/Hy5x7WPhtI pic.twitter.com/BXh6Jxz3Qt
— Heritage Action (@Heritage_Action) May 31, 2023
The organization correctly points out that the national debt has reached nearly $32 trillion and that the debt limit deal does nothing to solve this problem. Rather than addressing the root problems, the deal will allow President Biden and a divided Congress to produce an estimated $4 trillion in new federal debt.
The Fiscal Responsibility Act falls short of the demands previously outlined by Heritage Action. The bill does not cut overall spending to FY 22 levels, nor does it include pro-growth policies that fully offset a transparent dollar amount increase in the debt ceiling. The bill also fails to address the trajectory of federal spending, making it abundantly clear that it is not an effective solution to the problem at hand.
The bill cuts non-VA, non-defense discretionary spending by $40 billion, amounting to FY 2022 funding levels, but this is not enough. The true cut amounts to roughly $12 billion for FY 24, with a potential for increased spending in the out years of the agreement. The bill’s rescissions of COVID emergency relief funding and IRS funds are not guaranteed to save Americans any money either, as $22 billion of these rescissions will be directed towards a single fund at the Department of Commerce, intended for congressional direction, with no assurances of being used to reduce the deficit.
Heritage Action does recognize some victories achieved through negotiations with the White House, such as environmental permitting reform and sensible work requirements for SNAP and TANF programs. However, these small victories are not impactful enough to right-size the fiscal house of the nation and help stimulate economic growth.
All in all, the debt deal represents a failure on the part of lawmakers to address the longstanding and reckless fiscal policy, which has led to the ballooning national debt and other issues such as inflation and sluggish economic growth. The Fiscal Responsibility Act is a half-hearted attempt to address these problems and falls short of the standards demanded by Heritage Action since January. It is imperative that lawmakers find a more effective and conservative solution that will tackle these problems head-on.
Source: Townhall
