AFP’s Tim Phillips: Time to Hold Republicans Accountable for Reckless Spending

May 29, 2018 by AFP

You’ve probably read stories about the growing partisan divide between Democrats and Republicans in America.

But there is one thing both parties have both taken part in: bipartisan wasteful spending has led our nation to $21 trillion in federal debt.

Most recently, Republicans in Congress have exacerbated the debt by passing the reckless $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill, which was then signed by a Republican president.

Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips addresses this issue and the need to hold Republicans accountable in his recent op-ed in Inside Sources:

When Republicans can’t even muster up the courage to restrain the growth of spending on Democratic priorities — The Atlantic noted that the measure would “make Barack Obama proud” — what hope is there for dealing with the deficit When they write a mammoth spending bill in secret and rush it to final passage before lawmakers have a chance to read and digest it, what are voters to think.

Phillips elaborates and discusses opportunities for Congressional Republicans to curb wasteful spending habits and pursue meaningful reforms:

The solution to our budget crisis is not to dun the taxpayer for the tab run up by politicians in both parties. The solution is for Congress to restrain itself.

One step the Republican leadership could take right now would be to employ the little-used rescission process to claw back some of the spending included in the omnibus. Instead of pursuing such genuine reforms, however, the House held a show-vote on a balanced budget amendment that had no chance and would not have cut a single dime off the deficit.

Phillips highlights the soon-to-be-addressed FY 2019 budget as one last opportunity this year for Republicans to get it right and prove to the American people that they are serious about cutting wasteful federal spending, stating:

The next budget deadline will present one more chance, just a few weeks before the midterm elections, for fiscally responsible lawmakers from both parties to give potential voters a reason they should be returned to office. Certainly, the recently passed “bipartisan” omnibus gives them no such reason.

Time will tell whether Republicans in Congress decide to put the American people first by passing a fiscally responsible budget, or whether they plan to continue kicking the can down the road, by joining the Democrats on a bipartisan spending spree.

Read Phillips’ full piece here.