Ben Shapiro says the deal is a success and the Wall Street Journal agrees. Shapiro explains in the series of tweets below. I do not agree with him, but I want to hear what you think. I could be wrong.
Daniel Horowitz, Rand Paul, and Rob Schmitt explain below why they think it’s a horrendous deal below.
THE SUCCESS
As for Shapiro talking about entitlements, that is something that must be dealt with, but it’s not included in this issue right now.
I agree with every single critique of the shortcomings of the debt limit deal. In a rational world, we wouldn’t just be fighting over discretionary spending, we’d be restructuring entitlements. We don’t live in that world. Biden is the president; Schumer is the Senate leader.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) May 30, 2023
-
The Importance of Prayer: How a Christian Gold Company Stands Out by Defending Americans’ Retirement
I fail to understand why conservatives are more agitated over McCarthy’s deal than they were with the fact that with Trump as president and full control of Congress, Republicans increased spending.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) May 30, 2023
Also, a quick note: you don’t get to complain about federal spending and then cheer while Trump and Co. scream about the possibility of restructuring entitlements. Entitlements represent almost 2/3 of spending, and defense represents another 1/5.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) May 30, 2023
The Betrayal?
Daniel Horowitz describes this bill as a betrayal. He wrote in part on the Blaze:
And make no mistake about it; this was a political interception. Not only did this bill enshrine the biblical and apocalyptic levels of spending into law – not only did it jettison all of the meaningful provisions of the GOP bill – it gave Biden more debt credit than what was on the table. The assumption from every GOP member was that the debt limit would be increased for one year. Instead, McCarthy, along with his negotiators, Reps. Patrick McHenry (N.C.) and Garret Graves (La.), agreed to suspend the entire debt limit for the rest of Biden’s presidency. Worse, there is no dollar limit, so that Biden can now run up the tab for the remainder of his presidency. It will be at least $4 trillion in additional debt, but likely more.
Worse, the only other leverage point Republicans have is the annual appropriation bills. But now that Republicans agreed to top-line spending numbers for the next two years, they don’t have much leverage to fight on the budget bills either. Sure, this bill does have a trigger that induces automatic 1% cuts to discretionary spending if they fail to agree on appropriation bills, but a 1% cut is no longer sufficient if working off the insane baseline of spending enshrined last year by Biden and McConnell in the omnibus bill.
THE END OF LIMITED GOVERNMENT
Rob Schmidt said last night on Newsmax that both parties are “normalizing and perpetuating pandemic emergency levels of spending into the future in this country. They want to convince you that spending 50% more money without a pandemic makes sense. It’s fiscal and sanity. You’re not hearing anything from Democrats, not even the radical left because they can’t believe their good fortune.”
He continued, “the limited government our founders knew was crucial to the survival of this country is disappearing before our eyes. About 80% of our elected leaders, including more than half of the Republicans we have in Congress, either endorse this or are totally complicit, including Kevin McCarthy who has the very difficult task of spinning this train wreck he’s selling you.”
McCarthy is spinning the fiscal demise of this country as a huge win for his party.
“Washington just used an emergency to justify spending 40% more money every single year and now that it’s over the emergency intends to stay at that rate.
“In 2019 the US government spent $4.4 trillion, COVID hit, that skyrocketed 6.8 was as high as a guy as it got in 2021. And now both parties have a post COVID agreement to spend just about that much from now on. Around 6.3 trillion a year like we did in 2022. About two trillion more than we did before the pandemic. And to distort this reality, Republicans are bragging about repealing 1.9 of the $70 billion that they’re going to give to the IRS. You’re supposed to be proud that the IRS is only getting 68.1 billion and not $70 billion. What a win for Republicans…”
LINDSEY GRAHAM
“I want to raise the debt ceiling, it would be irresponsible not to do it,” Graham told Shannon Bream on “Fox News Sunday.” “I want to control spending, I’d like to have a smaller IRS, I’d like to clawback the unused COVID money. And I know you can’t get to perfect, but what I will not do is adopt the Biden defense budget and call it a success.”
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Some Republicans praised the deal. Rep. Mike Lawler, a Republican from a New York district that Biden won in 2020, tweeted that the deal “cuts spending for the first time in our nation’s history.’’
According to lawmakers and aides, details of the deal were still emerging and were subject to change. Some of the main elements included:
— Spending levels: The agreement would keep nondefense spending in 2024 at roughly the same level as fiscal year 2023 and increase it by roughly 1% in 2025, people familiar with the negotiations said. Military spending would be roughly at the level of Biden’s fiscal 2024 plans, on or about 3% more than the $858 billion appropriated last year.
The deal also includes a provision that forces a 1% cut in government spending if all 12 appropriations bills aren’t passed by the end of this year, according to people familiar with the matter.
[It’s 1% off the increase to extremely high pandemic spending without a pandemic. We will have $36 trillion in debt in two years and $50 trillion in ten.]
— Food aid: The White House agreed to a key GOP demand—tightening work requirements for federal food aid.
The tentative deal would require able-bodied, low-income adults without dependents between the ages of 18 and 54 to work in order to receive food aid, up from age 49 currently. Under current law, these adults can receive benefits for no more than three months within a three-year period, unless they are working or enrolled in a work program. The changes to food aid work requirements would end after a period of years.
In an effort to make the change more palatable to Democrats, the agreement also relaxes work requirements for veterans and homeless people, and it doesn’t impose any for Medicaid.
— IRS funding: The deal would cut $10 billion that the Internal Revenue Service funding had planned to use for a decade-long effort to boost tax enforcement and modernize its technology. Congress had provided $80 billion to those plans last year. [They will get 70 billion for 80 thousand agents instead of 87,000]
WHERE ARE THE CONSERVATIVES
LAST WORD
Subscribe to the Daily Newsletter