As political news is embroiled in congressional hearings for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and sexual assault allegations made against him, Congress is also busy quietly passing staggering spending bills with bipartisan support.
“In front of the cameras, Democrats and Republicans in Congress are distracting us with a he-said-she-said reality show,” said Libertarian National Committee Executive Director Wes Benedict. “Meanwhile, behind the scenes, congressional Republicans have caved to Democrats by bundling Democratic wish lists with Republican wish lists in a series of ‘minibus’ spending bills. This allows them to avoid a headline-grabbing stalemate over an omnibus spending bill just ahead of the November elections.”
Democrats wish to spend more in the Department of Health and Human Services, for instance, and these expenditures are being coupled with Republican wishes for increased defense spending. Another minibus, which includes a little pork for all concerned, merges increased spending on energy, water, military construction, veterans’ affairs, and the legislative branch.
“The United States has more than $21 trillion in on-the-books debt and well over $200 trillion in off-the-books unfunded liabilities,” Benedict said. “The federal government has already saddled every man, woman and child in the country with an average debt of $669,697. And this Congress is only accelerating running up the credit card.”
President Donald Trump built his business empire on debt and is unlikely to halt this out-of-control spending. The Freedom Caucus of conservative Republicans in Congress has been rendered impotent as most of them cave repeatedly to the Trump agenda.
“The only solution is electing Libertarians who know that the only solution to overspending is reduced spending, not doubling down on borrowing,” Benedict said. “The alternative is either national bankruptcy or, more probably, the Venezuela-style inflation that results from printing more and more money to service an otherwise unmanageable debt.”
When a Democrat says that government can increase spending without limit and nothing bad will happen, don’t believe it. When a Republican says that government can painlessly reduce taxes without a concurrent reduction in spending, don’t believe it. Taxes and spending are parallel problems that have both spiraled to unmanageable levels for decades. About 800 Libertarians are running for local, state and federal office this year, and only Libertarian Party candidates understand that we need to slash both spending and taxes together.
