This upcoming Tuesday, the President is set to unveil his budget proposal for 2017.With reports seeping out over the past week, it appears this plan is shaping up to be one of the most costly yet – cutting where we are most vulnerable and spending where we cannot afford another dime.
But if you’re the President and you’ve got nothing to lose – and we’re already $19-plus trillion in debt – why not bet the farm and spend a little more? In his final year in office, don’t let the White House communications staff fool you – under this scheme, the federal deficit will jump by more than $100 billion from last year and this will be the first time since 2009 that it will increase relative to its portion of the economy.
In any case, stay tuned for a breakdown on the specifics next week.
In other legislative news, the House this week took an override vote on the President’s veto of an Obamacare repeal bill that Congress sent him in January. The final tally was 241-186. Although falling short of the mandatory two-thirds threshold, this vote demonstrated that repeal and replacement is possible in 2017.
Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, UN-brokered peace talks regarding the conflict in Syria and its related humanitarian crisis broke down on Wednesday. Why? Because Russia continues to view an autonomous military solution, one void of international consensus, as the preferred diplomatic tactic. Obviously the region continues to be a hot bed for ISIS terrorism, which is fueling massive refugee migrations, so the international community must be unified in its commitment to end the human toll and defeat the ever real threat of terrorism.
Congressman Rich Nugent represents The Villages in the U.S. House of Representatives.
