Opposition to Spending Increases in Appropriations Season

In Washington, there is a persistent and nasty addiction to increasing federal spending with a blatant disregard for budgetary discipline. Already, FY2020 is shaping up to have the largest annual deficit by far in our nation’s history due to the Congressional response following the Coronavirus pandemic.

In 2011, the Budget Control Act was signed into law under divided government with uncertain economic conditions and provided statutory discretionary spending caps designed to force Congress to live within its means. Predictably, those spending caps were increased every two years.

Less than one year ago, Congress passed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019, which increased the discretionary spending caps for FY2019 and FY2020. With the 2020 appropriations season underway, there is a brand-new effort by Appropriators to exploit popular government spending programs and once again increase federal spending by circumventing the budget caps.

Sadly, Congressional Appropriators tend to forget (or do not care) that a spending increase today, is a tax increase tomorrow. For too many Members of Congress, balancing the federal budget in a similar way to how a family balances the household budget is an afterthought.

Club for Growth opposes special exemptions for appropriations that would create new emergency designations, or any spending increase that would bust the spending caps. Congress needs to spend less, not more.