It should be no surprise to anyone that Washington, D.C., has a spending problem – our national debt has been out of control for years, and nobody in Washington seems to care a lick about getting it under control. When I ran for office, I frequently made the point that Washington has a spending problem, but not a revenue problem. The federal government already collects insane amounts of money from Americans, but bureaucrats in D.C. are dead set on raising more taxes and imposing more fees on hardworking Americans.
This week, House Democrats will move forward with their plan to bring Bernie Sanders’ budget resolution, which is the first step to green light President Biden’s unbelievable $3.5 trillion tax and spending spree. Proponents of this plan will sell it as “infrastructure” and “investments in America,” but we should be very clear about what this is: This is a bad deal for Americans and will increase taxes on millions of families across the nation who make under $400,000 a year.
This budget calls for the highest sustained federal spending levels in the entire history of our country. Our national debt is almost $30 trillion and continues rising, but Democrats are hell-bent on pushing our tax and spending levels even higher. This budget would equal $68 trillion in spending over the next ten years. I remember when billions in spending would be considered massive, but now many in Washington talk about tens of trillions of dollars as if it’s not even real.
Additionally, this budget would increase our national debt by about $17 trillion, which would be the greater than the GDP of every country on earth, except the United States. Even worse, the budget provides amnesty to illegal immigrants, eliminates “right to work” protections, drops military funding to the lowest levels in more than 80 years, and provides absolutely no increase for Homeland Security to fight the ongoing crisis at the border.
There will be a lot of political maneuvering in the House this week as Speaker Pelosi navigates appeasing the various factions within her party. Progressives in the House are not wanting to consider this $3.5 trillion budget without voting on the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package the Senate passed a few weeks ago, so the ultimate outcome of this budget resolution is still unclear. Regardless, I will pay close attention and do all I can to fight runaway spending, rising debt levels, and tax increases on hardworking Americans. The American people deserve better than this.
Jerry Carl represents Alabama’s First Congressional District. He lives in Mobile with his wife Tina.
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