OPINION:
Give a senator a dollar; he’ll spend two. That’s the theme of Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham’s latest budget resolution, which spends $904 billion more than the IRS will collect this year.
“To those who voted for and support real border security and a stronger defense in a troubled world, help is on the way,” he said in a statement defending the plan.
That’s a fine sentiment, but there’s a better way. President Trump explained on Wednesday: “Unlike the Lindsey Graham version of the very important Legislation currently being discussed, the House Resolution implements my full America First Agenda, everything, not just parts of it!”
The House and Senate proposals agree that ending mass migration and deporting foreign crooks won’t be cheap. However, understanding the need to boost funding in some areas should never be taken as an excuse to perpetuate Washington’s profligacy throughout the rest of the bureaucracy.
Cash for the border must be drawn from the tens of billions of dollars that agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Agency for International Development have been using to lure illegal aliens to come to the country, put them in luxury hotels and hand them free smartphones and debit cards.
It’s unclear whether the Pentagon needs the extra $150 billion Mr. Graham recommends. The hefty figure reflects a lack of faith in the White House’s effort to restore the global peace we enjoyed during Mr. Trump’s first term.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth does need to replenish our depleted arsenal. Still, he can accomplish a lot by clawing back funds his predecessor squandered on researching solar-powered tanks and performing sex-change operations on sailors.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has been conducting audits to shore up the federal ledger and bring the deficit under control. In a speech Wednesday to the Future Investment Initiative Institute, Mr. Trump said he intends to come as close as possible to balancing the budget by year’s end.
It’s not out of the realm of possibility, considering estimates of fraud and waste at the federal level are in the $500 billion to $1 trillion range. The $100 billion in claimed DOGE savings in the effort’s first month are encouraging.
Mr. Trump floated the idea of creating a success dividend that returns the savings to the people who earned it in the first place. “We’re thinking of giving 20% back to the American citizens and 20% down to pay back the debt,” he said.
It’s a brilliant strategy. Once the public is invested in the budgetary outcome, lawmakers will find it harder to protect their pet programs.
For too long, Capitol Hill has disguised its fiscal extravagance with “baseline budgeting.” The Congressional Budget Office reported that the Biden administration spent an extra $317 billion in its last four months compared with the previous year.
Baseline budgeting locks in Mr. Biden’s farewell spending spree forever, turning any attempt to hold back the rate of increase into a “cut.” It’s why federal spending climbed 51% in the past five years while our roads aren’t 51% better and our skies aren’t 51% safer.
Although the House blueprint still allocates too much to Uncle Sam, at least the final number comes in at $444 billion less than the Senate bill. Over a decade, that’s $7 trillion less in borrowing. The amount borrowed needs to be closer to zero.
Mr. Trump must stand firm in his quest to restore balance to this broken process.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.