Here we go again. The United States has once again run up against its debt ceiling, which currently stands at $31.4 trillion (!). Treasury Dept. Secretary Janet Yellen announced last month that her department had begun taking “extraordinary measures” to avoid defaulting on the nation’s debt, but these measures will run dry sometime this summer. The stage is set for yet another battle between Congress and the White House — or more precisely, between Republicans and Democrats — over raising the debt ceiling.
“President” Joe Biden met with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy at the end of January to discuss the looming impasse. Predictably, Biden asked for a “clean” bill that would raise the debt ceiling without cutting spending. McCarthy told him that ain’t gonna happen.
“That’s not gonna happen. We’re not just gonna keep spending and just raise the limit on our credit card, we’re gonna do something different,” McCarthy told reporters after the meeting.
Perhaps the battle for the Speaker’s chair unleashed McCarthy’s inner Republican warrior. Or maybe it’s the myriad ways to throw sand in the gears that the sane right built into the 118th House of Representatives. But either way, the House is in a position to demand spending cuts before allowing the country to shovel on any more debt. Since cuts have a real chance to be part of the deal this time, here are the top places where Republicans should swing the ax:
Services for Illegal Aliens
The Biden administration’s open border and third-world colonization of the United States program isn’t cheap. Between housing, food, transportation, schooling, cell phones, medical care, counseling, legal representation, etc., Americans are paying over $160 billion every year for the Democrats to build their new underclass of dependent voters. It’s even more heinous because the actual Americans who are losing their representation are being forced to dig their own grave with their taxes. Republicans should insist on ending funding for services to immigrants except wall-building, deportations, and emergency medical care. BONUS: They’d find this move to be a political winner.
Foreign Aid
It’s true that billions of people around the world suffer from poverty, and I don’t mean to sound heartless. But at a time when we are literally borrowing money from our enemy, China, so we can give it away to other nations, the cold, hard fact is that we can’t afford to be the world’s biggest charity. The tens of billions that flow to Third World nations must be cut drastically. International charity should be directed (at least in part) back into the hands of non-profits and religious organizations. Governmental mission creep in this area has been outrageous.
Green Subsidies
Time for magical “green” technologies — which we’re constantly told are cheaper, cleaner, and better than fossil fuels — to prove themselves on the open market. The hilariously misnamed Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 appropriated $391 billion of taxpayer money to “support clean energy and address climate change.” This is a fancy way of saying the United States needs to go into ever more debt so the left’s green boondoggle buddies can keep pimping their products, which are inferior and unreliable at generating power but make the climate pious feel like they’re good people.
Government Agencies
Only the most willfully blind are unaware of the unprecedented level of corruption and politicization of the federal agencies, aka the Deep State, aka the Swamp. Rather than persecuting political enemies, funding leftist gobbledygook social programs domestically and abroad, and (likely illegally) goosing Democrat ballot levels in elections, the agencies should get back to their original, narrowly defined missions. 50% across-the-board cut.
Abortions and Gender Lunacy
These are controversial medical interventions under the best of circumstances. Taxpayers should never be forced to fund anything this ethically fraught or controversial (except the national defense, which is the Constitutional responsibility of the federal government). Cut it out completely. People who feel strongly about how important it is to fund baby killing and genital mutilation can ostentatiously fundraise and donate to the cause. I’m sure Big Tech will create a plethora of nifty new avatars and badges with which donors can adorn their social media to let everyone know they’re the good guys.
Related: Podcaster Says What Many of Us Think in Magnificent Rant Against Biden’s Ukraine Adventure
Aid to Ukraine
Everyone loves the patriotic, photogenic Ukrainian people, and their epic battle to save their homeland is glorious and inspiring. But we’ve now given them a year of money and supplies that dwarf their invader’s, whom we’ve undercut with sanctions and possibly even sabotage. The horrific death toll climbs daily, and Biden’s inept slide into World War III looms ever more vividly on the horizon. Not to mention, Democrats curiously disallow oversight of the mountains of money we’re dumping into a famously corrupt nation that may just be an international money laundromat. Time to pull the plug. If there’s one thing our strategic genius Commander in Chief knows how to do, it’s cutting and running. Not that we should pull a total Afghanistan bug-out of Ukraine, but we should aim any future spending at securing a peaceful resolution. One that makes both sides angry will likely be the best option.
House Republicans have been showing uncommon spine this session, and they have an opportunity to make a real difference with upcoming debt ceiling negotiations. They have several months in which to make the case for commonsense cuts that are almost all political winners, as well. The time to build up the political will to do this is now. Let’s get the show on the road!
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