The Briefing Room
General Category => Editorial/Opinion/Blogs => Topic started by: EasyAce on February 07, 2018, 03:49:32 am
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Because nothing in Washington is more terrifying than the prospect of a minuscule spending reduction
By Eric Boehm
http://reason.com/blog/2018/02/06/rand-pauls-plan-to-eliminate-government/print (http://reason.com/blog/2018/02/06/rand-pauls-plan-to-eliminate-government/print)
Government shutdowns are all the rage in Washington right now. We just had one a few weeks ago. Now, the president is already calling for another.
But while the prospect of shutting down the federal government might sound appealing (https://reason.com/blog/2018/01/21/does-the-congressional-gym-lack-towels-d), the reality (https://reason.com/blog/2018/01/22/reminder-the-parts-of-the-federal-govern) of a government shutdown (https://reason.com/tags/government-shutdown) is expensive, wasteful, and therefore counterproductive to fiscal responsibility. The continuous threat of a government shutdown if Congress doesn't enact a budget (or at least a three-week-long continuing resolution) doesn't seem to be creating incentives for better fiscal stewardship. If anything, it's doing the opposite. Restarting the government on Jan. 23 after a three-day shutdown required Congress to authorize an additional $31 billion in borrowing (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-shutdown-tax/shutdown-ending-bill-seen-expanding-u-s-debt-by-31-billion-in-decade-idUSKBN1FC2NY).
Rather than continuing to careen from near-shutdown to actual shutdown and back again, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) wants to force Congress to pass a budget by imposing a penalty that's sure to give most of Washington nightmares: a 1 percent budget cut.
Under the terms of Paul's Government Shutdown Prevention Act (https://www.paul.senate.gov/government-shutdown-prevention-act-2018), which he introduced (https://www.paul.senate.gov/news/dr-rand-paul-introduces-government-shutdown-prevention-act) last month, Congress would agree to ongoing continuing resolutions that would kick-in if a budget was not passed on time. The catch is that the automatic CR would come with an automatic, across-the-board cut of 1 percent for all government agencies. After 90 days, if there is no budget deal, funding would be reduced by another 1 percent.
"Around here, spending 1 percent less ought to be a enough of a punishment to get people to do their jobs and do appropriations on time," Paul said Tuesday during a hearing (https://www.facebook.com/SenatorRandPaul/videos/1816246248428170/) on his bill. "We know both sides don't want spending to go down. They're all for more spending" . . .
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:silly:
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Not even worth doing
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Not even worth doing
Good zing on them though.