Disgrace: Senate GOP Votes Against A Balanced Budget
Written by: Nicholas Babaya
A budget has been put to the United States senate which would add $9.7 trillion to their national debt. This despite the fact that Republicans now control the House of Representatives, Senate and the Executive. If passed, this budget would yet again increase America’s already incomprehensibly large national debt.
The budget, introduced under the guise of a vehicle to repeal Obamacare, was met with sharp criticism from Senator Rand Paul (R-KY). Paul stated on the senate floor:
The national debt went from 5 trillion to 10 trillion under George W. Bush and then it doubled again under president Obama. It went from from 10 to nearly 20 and what are we look at here? More debt under a solidly unified Republican congress and Republican president, so you might scratch your head and say, “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”
Rand Paul went on to introduce an amendment to the budget to offer a solution which would not only repeal Obamacare but also balance the budget. Only 14 senators, all Republican, voted for Paul’s amendment.
This is an unfortunate example of a disgraceful trend in politics where what is said during a campaign is very different to who is done in power. The Republican party is supposed to be the fiscally conservative party, the party that wants to cut spending and yet less than half of their senators voted for a balanced budget despite holding both legislative and executive branches of government.
Perhaps this vote should be a signal to those who value fiscal responsibility that the GOP is not necessarily the most fiscally responsible party despite calling themselves ‘conservative.’
Commendations should be made to those who voted for Rand Paul’s amendment. Hopefully these legislators may continue to be voices of fiscal responsibility in the face of the US’s ever increasing debt.
Nicholas Babaya is an analyst based in the United States focussing on risk analysis and geopolitics.