It was a spending deal only a bureaucrat would smile at.
On Monday night, the White House and lawmakers in both parties announced a new two-year spending agreement that would throw tens of billions of extra dollars across the entire discretionary budget, avert automatic spending cuts, and lift the debt limit until after the 2020 election. The deal hashed out between President Trump, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer would spend $320 billion over the budget caps that would have gone into effect next year if a bipartisan agreement wasn’t signed. The Pentagon would get an additional $19.5 billion in FY2020 and non-defense accounts would receive an increase of $24.5 billion.
It’s exceedingly rare when Republican and Democratic lawmakers are on the same page. But this was one of those times. Pelosi declared victory, arguing that Democratic priorities were fully funded. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy bragged about the extra cash for the military, as did Trump. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, while not part of the wheeling-and-dealing, was pleased both sides could come to an arrangement that would prevent another government shutdown on the eve of a presidential election year.
And the group of lawmakers who worry about the nation’s long-term fiscal health? Well, who needs to worry about the debt when you can spend money in the here and now?
There used to be a general rule in politics as it pertained to budgets. Democrats were about higher taxes and higher spending. Republicans campaigned on lower taxes, spending cuts, and deficit reduction. There were even some conservative Democrats who, while more than happy to write big checks, at least supported offsetting some of the cost.
Today, however, there are two political parties in Washington who like to spend taxpayer money. The difference is becoming less about fiscal habits and more about where to spend the cash. Deficits continue to go up and debt continues to balloon, but nobody in Washington with the exception of a select few (like Michigan Rep. Justin Amash, Grover Norquist, FreedomWorks, and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget) cares enough to talk about it, let alone address it. Why address it by doing politically unpopular things, like entitlement reform and military base closures, when you can do the easy thing and continue to kick the can down the road?
There will be a time when all of this spending will catch up with us. It’s hard to know when it will happen, but if elected officials don’t begin worrying about the debt as much as they do about healthcare, taxes, and other bread-and-butter issues, there will be a reckoning for the United States.
Thankfully for the current crop of lawmakers on Capitol Hill, most of them will be dead and buried when the reckoning comes. The rest of us will have to manage the consequences.
Daniel DePetris (@DanDePetris) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. His opinions are his own.
