(WASHINGTON) – Today, in a letter to House and Senate leadership, Republican Study Committee (RSC) Budget and Spending Task Force Chairman Jim Banks (IN-03) and Chairman Mike Johnson (LA-04) outlined a conservative blueprint for Congress to flatten the nation’s climbing “debt curve” while it works to provide necessary COVID-19 relief (click here to view the signed letter).
In an effort to offer Congress a solution to protect the fiscal health of our nation while it continues work to protect the physical health of Americans, the Task Force is issuing two critical policy recommendations in its letter to congressional leaders:
- Offset future COVID-19-related deficit spending.
- Implement a long-term spending control mechanism that restricts the growth of both mandatory and discretionary spending, does not rely on tax increases and stabilizes our nation’s debt.
“Congress must offset debt impacts of COVID-19 legislation by passing a new, fiscally responsible budget that shrinks government to a more proper size,” said Rep. Banks. “The good news is we have one we could pass right now. My colleagues and I on the Republican Study Committee introduced a budget last year that’d balance the budget in six years, rein in federal spending and cut waste. Our children and grandchildren shouldn’t be stuck with this burden.”
The RSC’s budget proposes a number of tools that each would contribute to the long-term stabilization of our debt. For instance, it recommends automatic votes to consider the deficit reductions offered in a budget resolution, expanding the reconciliation process to include on and off-budget items and discretionary spending, requiring super-majority votes for emergency spending and expanding mandatory sequestration.
“Protecting the physical health of Americans doesn’t have to jeopardize the fiscal health of our nation. As RSC’s Budget & Spending Task Force has shown, with the right mix of offsets and spending controls, we can do both,” said Rep. Johnson. “Americans are a resilient people. The question isn’t if our economy will recover from this pandemic, it’s when. The sooner Congress finds the resolve to deal with the $24 trillion national debt weighing us down, the sooner we’ll return to prosperity.”
