The Republicans' Fiscal Irresponsibility Act

 The political and financial class breathed a sigh of relief when Congress passed the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023.

Republican supporters of the bill claim it begins to roll back the excessive spending of the Biden years.

While the bill does rescind $28 billion of unspent COVID funds, it just recycles that money into the Fiscal Year 2024 budget.

The bill does cap domestic discretionary spending for Fiscal Year 2024 at $704 billion and spending for Fiscal Year 2025 at $711 billion.

These caps come from a budget whose baseline includes the increased COVID spending.

The bill only cuts spending by 0.1 to 0.2 percent of gross domestic product over the next two years - assuming Congress does not reverse the cuts.

Even though "Defense" is the third largest item in the budget, our annual military budget alone is more than the combined budgets of the next ten biggest spending countries.

The Fiscal Responsibility Act doesn't take a penny away from the military budget; instead it matches President Biden's request for a 3.2 percent increase.

The Fiscal Responsibility Act will result in increased government spending, debt, and deficits.

The Fiscal Responsibility Act is to fiscal responsibility as the Affordable Care Act is to affordable health care and as the Patriot Act is to true Patriotism.

Perhaps a future Congress will introduce legislation that actually begins to cut back on the size and scope of government called the Fiscal Irresponsibility Act!

https://mises.org/wire/republicans-fiscal-irresponsibility-act