Control Washington Spending
Summary: Federal spending grew by almost 60 percent in just the past decade, from $2.2 trillion in 2004 to more than $3.6 trillion in 2014. To control future spending growth, costly programs should be examined for effectiveness, and lawmakers should be obligated to pass spending bills in a more open and transparent manner. The president’s broad reliance on executive orders must be curtailed, and the first way to do this is through responsibly debating and enacting authorizations and appropriations the country can actually afford.
Background:
- Tens of billions of dollars are spent by lawmakers each year without examining the efficacy or reasonableness of the program. For example, American schools are prohibited from serving children two percent or whole milk out of concern about the fat content, yet soft drinks represent more than $2 billion dollars in annual food stamp purchases.
- Politics routinely prevents lawmakers from passing the spending bills necessary to keep the country running. In order to overcome stalemates, congressional leaders roll billions of dollars of discretionary spending into one large bill, many thousands of pages long, making it difficult for outsiders to follow the process. These so-called omnibus bills are passed quickly and without scrutiny to avoid government shutdowns.
- Congress often navigates territory outside its purview by spending time and money on issues best left to local governments. In the past few years, billions in federal spending has gone to Common Core and No Child Left Behind, despite many states scaling back participation in these programs and little in the way of educational attainment to show for the money spent.
Action Recommendations:
- If elected, I will work with fellow lawmakers to develop ways of measuring the efficacy and reasonableness of discretionary spending. Taxpayer dollars should be spent on milk, not soda—in both a literal and metaphorical sense.
- Congress must return to a regular order of examining each area of discretionary spending and passing the 12 appropriations bills individually. I will work to ensure Washington returns to this model. Lawmakers should be held accountable for their inability to overcome politics, not taxpayers.
- It is a fatal conceit of Washington to believe that all issues need to be determined there. With my experience as a state lawmaker, I am well placed for pointing out when federal action is needed at a local level and, more often, when it is not.