What do Republicans stand for anymore?
Ultimately, it may not be President Trump that causes the biggest election headache for Republicans this November. It may come down to the bloated, lard-filled, $1.3 trillion spending bill that Congress insulted Americans with last week.
It’s like this bill was co-authored by former President Obama. President Trump’s proposed budget teased the idea of eliminating several Obama-era programs, but in the budget that actually passed last week, those Obama programs were not only left alone, their budgets were increased. Obama’s grant program for innovative transportation projects alone tripled its budget.
You’ll also be glad to know the National Endowment for the Arts got extra money, and Planned Parenthood remains fully funded.
Imagine for a moment, a Republican-controlled Congress, passing a budget bill that would be praised by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer for its “job-creating, life-saving investments [that] stand in sharp contrast to the Trump budget.” You’d consider that a face-palming failure of a budget, right? Well, you don’t have to imagine it, because that’s exactly what we got.
This budget doesn’t just maintain the irresponsible status quo dating back to the start of Obama’s second term, it jacks up the deficit spending.
Yeah, but Republicans got increased military and border security spending. Okay, but at what cost? It’s like we’re operating under Newton’s Law of Crappy Government Math:
For every spending increase, there is an equal and opposite spending increase.
Yes, this budget has cuts to foreign aid and some State Department programs, but what difference do cuts make if you’re just going to increase budgets in a hundred other areas?
If your income doesn’t exceed your expenses, you’re screwed.
The average, hard-working American, who doesn’t have the financial resources of the typical U.S. Senator, or the President, does not understand how two fiscal universes exist. In the universe where the Federal government operates, there is a seemingly never-ending money supply. In the fiscal universe of the average, hard-working American however, there is a very finite amount of income. And if your income doesn’t exceed your expenses, you’re screwed.
For conservatives, fiscal responsibility is kind of the last vestige to hold out hope for. If you can’t win on cultural issues, at the very least, surely a Republican-majority could move the needle on getting America’s financial house in order, right? It remains a nice theory.
