Fourteen months into his first term, President Trump and his administration have accomplished some remarkable things. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley have projected a renewed America First foreign policy around the world. Throughout the administration, agencies have begun the important work of rolling back regulatory burdens imposed by the bureaucracy of the last decade.
Likewise, Republicans in the House of Representative have made progress on many of the important things voters expect us to do. The House has passed legislation to overhaul the regulatory process, such as the REINS Act, so that the Obama-era regulatory onslaught can never happen again. The Financial CHOICE Act would end the prospect of taxpayer financed bailouts of “too-big-to-fail” financial institutions. The House passed all 12 appropriations bills before the deadline in a way that would have been both fiscally responsible and provided necessary funding for our national security. We’ve worked hard to fulfill the promise to repeal and replace Obamacare to give hard-working Americans freedom and choice. We even passed a balanced budget that would have cleared the way for tax reform and also allowed hundreds of billions in mandatory spending reforms without the excuse of the filibuster in the Senate.
Unfortunately, the third part of the unified Republican government is not pulling its weight. The Senate deserves credit for helping tax cuts get signed into law. And confirming Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and other judges will help ensure that the we faithfully adhere to the Constitution.
However, many important positions throughout the government remain empty because of Senate inaction. One of the Senate Republican leaders even blocked a highly qualified candidate to be deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, one of the most important positions in all of the administration, for months in an effort to get more money for his state. The Senate did not pass a single appropriations bill. Hundreds of other House-passed bills languish in the Senate. A handful of Republican senators have even so far blocked Obamacare repeal and replacement efforts.
Likewise, when it came time to pass a budget for tax reform last fall, a small number of Republican senators made it known that they opposed a balanced budget that included reconciliation instructions to reduce spending.
For conservatives in the House, tax reform was an important priority. The tax cuts are already having a real positive impact in the form of higher paychecks for workers and a better economic outlook for families and businesses throughout the country.
Then-Budget Committee Chairman Diane Black accomplished the nearly miraculous work of crafting the compromise budget that had passed the House, and it was important that we not lose sight of our mandate from voters to reverse decades of Washington overspending that has led to a $21 trillion national debt.
For these reasons, when the president and Speaker of the House Paul Ryan asked if the Republican Study Committee would support the Senate’s budget in order to move the tax reform process ahead, we requested and received a commitment that the House would vote on a balanced budget amendment as well as deficit reduction legislation in the spring.
I am thankful that the House is scheduled to fulfill part of that commitment and consider a balanced budget amendment. While many conservatives have differing ideas about the best way to construct such an amendment, they all share the same basic premise: The federal government should not spend more than it takes in. Enshrining this common-sense concept in the Constitution will send a powerful message, and more importantly, constrain Congress and the executive branch from spending us into a fiscal catastrophe. Even if this amendment fails to receive the supermajority support it needs from the House and Senate to be sent to the states for ratification, holding a vote on the balanced budget amendment will show the public where their elected representatives stand on the issue of constraining government.
As important as the vote on the balanced budget amendment is, what comes next is even more important. House Republicans need to show how we will reduce spending to balance the budget and begin the process of paying down the unsustainable debt. Later this month, the Republican Study Committee will release our annual budget blueprint, outlining hundreds of options to eliminate unnecessary programs, reform safety net programs, and bring the budget back into surplus.
It is absolutely vital that the House bring these legislative proposals to the floor for a vote. We can and should reform welfare programs to move people back into the workforce. We need to revive our efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare. We should work with the administration to rescind some of the wasteful spending in the recent massive omnibus bill that was negotiated with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. We should pass a budget that balances and unlocks the reconciliation process that will allow these reforms to be signed into law by the president.
Of the modest cuts and reforms to mandatory spending included in the Senate’s un-balanced budget that the House ultimately adopted, only 6 percent of the total have actually passed the House, Senate, and been signed into law. This just is not good enough. A unified Republican government cannot spend like most Democrats resting on our past accomplishments from here to November. We have to keep building on our successes and working to fulfill our promises.
Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., represents North Carolina’s 6th Congressional District. He is chairman of the Republican Study Committee.
