Every year around this time, at least in the House, Congress gets together and members produce various budget proposals. Here are the highlights:
I’ll walk you briefly through the “Ryan Budget” first. This year’s “Ryan Budget” more or less mirrors what he’s proposed in the past. This year’s edition balances the budget within ten years and does so without raising taxes. Defense spending is put at a level sufficient to carry out the strategy that the President has called for and the so-called auto-pilot programs that account for a majority of our overall budget are put on sustainable footing. All in all, there are definitely some things I would do differently, but as a general concept, I think it’s a very realistic plan for how to get us to where we need to be.
If you are interested in reading the specifics, you can go through the whole plan at http://budget.house.gov. This is the budget I supported.
As for the “Progressive Caucus” alternative… well… it’s definitely progressive. The Democrats’ 2014 “Progressive Caucus” budget is (questionably) titled the “Better Off Budget”. I looked twice and they definitely did not include a question mark after ‘better off’.
A couple of quick top-line highlights – The “Better Off Budget” would increase spending by $3.3 trillion. That increase, by the way, is nearly equivalent to a full year of total federal expenditures.
The “Better Off Budget” would also result in some tax increases. Not a big surprise there – all Democrat budgets do. But the real jaw dropper of the “Better Off Budget” is the scale of the tax increases. Over the next ten years, the “Better Off Budget” calls for tax increases totaling… wait for it… $6.6 trillion. Six point six trillion in new taxes. That’s not the total amount of taxes collected mind you, that’s just the increase the Democrats are proposing.
To put that number in perspective, our total annual GDP in America (or the measure of our total economy) is only about $14 trillion. So yes, $6.6 trillion in new taxes is a lot. It is an unfathomably big tax increase. And you could certainly be forgiven for wondering if the American people will in fact be “better off” under this plan.
The real kicker to me though is that even if the “progressives” got every last nickel in new taxes that they are asking for, their budget would still never reach balance – never. Not-even-close. Even with all of that $6.6 trillion in new taxes, the “progressives” find a way to spend every nickel.
Now in fairness to the Democrats, they did have other budget proposals. Some only raise taxes by a trillion dollars and some by two trillion dollars, but none of them ever balance. Not one Democrat proposal.
So when people say there is a big gap between the parties on fiscal policy, they are right. I voted against one of the Republican proposals because I think it reforms Medicare more abruptly than is necessary to save the program from bankruptcy, but it is at least a budget that balances. In the end, there is a responsible, workable way forward. But I sincerely question how on earth we are going to bridge the gap between Republicans and Democrats when we can’t even agree that a balanced budget is a goal worth pursuing for the American people. And every year when we go through this exercise, my belief is continually reinforced the only way that we’ll ever truly be able to put America on a sound financial footing is to require a balanced budget – just as the states manage to do each year with a fraction of the tax revenue that the federal government gets.
I was as proud as I’ve ever been as a member of Congress when I was asked to bring the Balanced Budget Amendment to the House floor for debate. And I have never been as disappointed as I was when I saw people who had voted for it in the past change their minds and bring the amendment down. The fiscal challenges that we are facing as a nation are enormous. There is no question about it. And cutting valuable programs isn’t as much fun as handing out freebies to everybody who bothers to ask. But the reality is that is our job. We have a fiduciary responsibility to manage the taxpayers affairs in a way that benefits them – not us. I remain hopeful that as we move through the next few years, the two sides can start to reach a consensus – if not on how we get to a balanced budget, but at least a consensus on the need to do so.
As I have in the past, I will remind my dear readers that within ten years our annual interest payments on our national debt are scheduled to grow from $200 billion annually to over $800 billion annually. That is more than we spend now on the military, on Medicare, or on Social Security. Interest payments alone will be our second biggest line item. Is that really a legacy that we want to leave for our children? I certainly don’t think so.
But as always, I am interested to hear what you think. If you have a moment, please drop me a line. And if you have any questions about any of the budget proposals (or anything else going on in Washington), just let me know.
U.S. Rep. Rich Nugent, a Republican, represents The Villages in Congress.