Rushing A Budget Reconciliation

Budget reconciliation is a longstanding tool intended to provide an expedited track for making changes to federal law relating to long-term budgeting. The primary purpose of reconciliation is to allow budget-related policies to pass through the Senate with a simple majority, without the need to reach a 6o-vote majority to end debate. It has been used regularly under majorities in both parties to change tax policy, enact spending cuts, and to implement policies like welfare reform.

While this tool is intended to make budgeting easier, implementation of policy changes as dramatic as what comes from a reconciliation cannot, and should not, be rushed. But this is exactly what Congressional Democrats are doing. Rather than working across the aisle to establish a proper budget with long-term goals, Democrats are speeding toward using reconciliation in two ways never intended — to enact short term spending policy and to implement new non-budget federal mandates.

Democrats are using reconciliation to move forward with President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. In the fight against COVID-19, there is no doubt Americans are in need of assistance. However, many of the measures within President Biden’s package, like the $15 per hour minimum wage, are both economically harmful and budgetarily non-germane. With the hospitality industry and small businesses everywhere struggling to stay afloat, it is preposterous to think now is the time to increase the hourly minimum wage to $15. This measure is not part of the federal budget and should not be included in budget reconciliation.

I also have serious concerns about the rush to move President Biden’s coronavirus relief package when there is still roughly $1 trillion of stimulus money that remains unspent. While we may need to move additional resources into major needs like vaccine distribution, we should have a more thorough analysis of available funds and how they can be used to meet our most pressing needs before we consider spending another nearly $2 trillion. This week I wrote to President Biden asking for a more thorough accounting of outstanding funds. According to the last available estimate from December, there is still $ 28 o billion for the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, $ 29 billion for agriculture, $58 billion for state and local aid, $239 billion for health spending, and $59 billion in education funding that remains unused.

The Democrat push for budget reconciliation is nothing short of a push for their own wish list. We should be focused on real solutions which would utilize allocated funds for coronavirus relief, get teachers and students back in the classroom, and establish a more proportional vaccine distribution strategy. Now more than ever Americans need targeted relief, not a partisan budget gimmick.

Nemaha County Herald

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Rushing A Budget Reconciliation | The Nemaha County Herald

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