SEN RAND PAUL: My plan would force Congress to stop overspending your hard-earned money
The elaborate farce that is the congressional budget process is now in session. The Senate voted Wednesday, April 22, for a budget resolution, not because of some newfound fiscal sanity, but because the majority wishes to spend more money without paying for it.
You see, a budget resolution is necessary to do an end run around the filibuster. Normally, a bill requires 60 votes in the Senate to overcome a filibuster. However, a budget resolution that contains specific instructions can unlock the ability to pass a budget reconciliation bill with only a simple majority, or 51 votes.
One might be inclined to see value in this process in that it forces Congress to actually pass a budget — a rare occurrence under both parties. However, it turns out that many of the budgets that are passed are simply ignored.
For example, take last year’s budget, which called for spending $4.8 trillion for 2026. It turns out that Congress actually allowed $5.9 trillion to be spent. Just a minor rounding error of $1.1 trillion dollars! (Of course, I voted against this deficit spending)
SENATE GOP TAKES FIRST STEP TOWARD UNLOCKING BUDGET RECONCILIATION TO FUND ICE, BORDER PATROL
The problem is the budget has no binding force. The budget is a resolution but not an actual law. So, big spenders being big spenders, the appropriators of both parties simply ignore the budget limits and spend what they want. The result – the deficit last year was just short of $2 trillion, and the overall national debt now exceeds $39 trillion.
Fast-forward to this latest debate over the budget. Many in Congress will simply argue that the budget is a fiction and merely a "vehicle" to evade the filibuster. For the most part, unfortunately, that’s true. It would be one thing if some great principle were being advanced, such as reducing the taxes extracted from American individuals and businesses and balancing the budget. But, recently, the budget resolutions that have been advanced to simply enable the passage of reconciliation bills actually increase spending and increase the deficit.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINION
This latest budget bill is no different. It offers some unspecified cuts in spending levels, but its authors acknowledge the reality that the appropriators will simply ignore these lower spending numbers and that, even after 10 years, the budget will still not balance.
In contrast, I still continue to argue that any meaningful budget should cap spending and balance within a five-year time frame. My Six Penny Plan does just that. I chose five years to balance as that is the time frame included in the Balanced Budget Amendment proposed by conservatives to the Constitution and because anything beyond five years is really fiction and always altered in the interim.
The budget before Congress never balances and, even after 10 years, will still be adding $600 billion annually to the debt. The burden of this enormous debt and the annual interest payments that exceed a trillion dollars will be our undoing. Our constitutional republic requires more. Our country deserves better.
In the next month, I will again offer my Six Penny Plan to balance the budget in just five years. Conservatives across the country need to demand better from Congress. Our kids’ futures require a Congress that will finally and definitively balance the budget.