Friday, May 18, 2018

Rejecting Rand Paul's Budget, Republicans Commit to Fiscal Irresponsibility

If Rand Paul's budget proposal was, as he said, a litmus test for conservatives, most of them failed it.

Republican hawks took the floor to blast Paul for trying to undermine the American military, even though his proposal would have let Congress decide how much to cut from each department, including the Pentagon.

Even if the entire $400 billion cut Paul proposed were applied to the Pentagon, America would still spend far more on the military than any other nation.

Even the suggestion that defense spending could be cut is enough to scare most Republicans away from facing fiscal reality.

Paul's proposal never really had a chance of passing, coming as it did just months after Congress approved enormous spending hikes that busted Obama-era caps once championed by Republicans as necessary for fiscal restraint.

Relative to current baseline projections, Paul's proposal called for a $404 billion spending cut in fiscal year 2019, which begins on October 1.

Paul's plan would have balanced the budget by 2023, as long as revenue met current CBO projections.

http://reason.com/blog/2018/05/17/in-rejecting-rand-pauls-budget-republica

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