Lawmaker's Warning: If You Think It's Safe to Let Democrats Have $1.5 Trillion, Think Again
As congressional Democrats appear to be moving away from a $3.5 trillion package of progressive spending proposals, one Republican is warning that even lower amounts will still represent massive waste.
Progressives have pitched a $3.5 trillion spending package to fund and expand pet social programs. After meeting with President Joe Biden on Friday, some Democrats seemed to agree they would reduce the overall amount they want to spend. Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who has opposed the $3.5 trillion package, has said $1.5 trillion is a number he can live with.
But even that much in the hands of liberal Democrats is an invitation to disaster, said Republican Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, according to Breitbart.
“Democrats can do just as much damage to the economy and to the welfare state expansion at one and a half trillion,” he said.
“All they have to do is plant seeds to grow into massive entitlement and spending programs over the decade and beyond that swamps any ability for America to pay for these programs,” he said.
Democrats hope to pass the massive spending bill through the “reconciliation” process that would require only a majority vote. It passed on a party-line vote in the House in August, but is being held up in the Senate by Democrats Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.
To Brady, the bill must be defeated, not just diluted enough to bring all of the Democrats in Congress on board.
“They can easily do as much damage on small businesses, on the economy, on work, on the dignity of work — all of this — at that lower figure, so we don’t believe a win is shrinking this tax-and-spending bill. A win for the American people is stopping it, and that’s what we’re focused on,” he said.
Meanwhile, the separate $1 trillion “infrastructure” bill, which has passed in the Senate with some Republican votes, is being held up by far-left Democrats in the House, determined to get the $3.5 trillion spending package passed.
Brady said the $3.5 trillion “Build Back Better” proposal “is full of Green New Deal wasteful giveaways to everybody.”
He also said that the massive expansion of interventionist government that has been a hallmark of the coronavirus pandemic would never end if Democrats get their way through their spending bill.
“Do we need to make permanent those emergency COVID programs designed to defeat the virus and designed to rebuild the economy in the short-term?” he asked. “Do we need to continue those permanently for the future? And the answer should be, ‘no.’
“If you make these spending programs permanent and add two new entitlement programs and two major mandates on businesses, we can never afford — our kids cannot afford — to pay for this. As bad and crippling as the taxes are, I worry even further about this expansion of the welfare state where people get paid more to stay home and work. There’s no incentive to work anymore to get the child tax credit,” he said.
By offering to fully subsidize Obamacare, the Democratic deal is that, “you can get better health care jobless than you can reconnecting to work,” he said.
“So, if you think it’s tough for businesses to find employees today, wait until you permanently basically dismiss work as an important part of our life or economy,” he said.
“Main Street will shoulder a heavier new tax burden than their Wall Street competitors under the new Democratic tax plan. But neither set of tax increases will be good for U.S. businesses or consumers.”https://t.co/IMp6tUqrgL
— Rep. Kevin Brady (@RepKevinBrady) October 1, 2021
In a speech on the House floor last week, Brady criticized Democrats’ affinity for spending other people’s money.
“Democrats’ best answer to Washington’s out-of-control spending is to tear out the brakes. So let’s be honest: This is an economic and political crisis of Democrats’ own making. There isn’t enough money in America to cover what Democrats want to spend. And Americans know it,” he said.
He said Washington Democrats have no interest in anyone but themselves.
“They’ve insisted on one-party rule all year: From an unnecessary $2 trillion Covid ‘stimulus’ that didn’t stimulate the economy or defeat the virus to a national takeover of state and local elections, bailouts of failing state and local governments, ignoring the humanitarian and security crisis at the southern border and the disastrous surrender to the Taliban in Afghanistan,” he said.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
