Friday is John Boehner’s last day as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. In fact, it’s his last day in Congress. Before leaving, he said he wanted to “clean out the barn” so the next speaker — presumably Rep. Paul Ryan — wouldn’t have to face such contentious issues as raising the debt ceiling the moment he took office.
So as he’s done so often before, Boehner cut a deal with the Democrats on the budget that delighted the Obama administration but pretty much left conservatives out in the cold.
President Barack Obama said, “I’m pretty happy about it, because it reflects our values.” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was just as pleased. “The bipartisan budget package unveiled last night represents real progress for hard-working families across the country,” she said.
You can be sure that anytime Pelosi says a deal represents “real progress,” it means federal spending is going up. And boy, is it. The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, as the agreement is named, calls for $85 billion in spending increases over the next three fiscal years. The vast majority of those increases take place in fiscal year 2016 ($37 billion) and fiscal year 2017 ($36 billion).
But wait a minute. Aren’t those increases, which the Democrats love so much, supposed to be balanced by some decreases? Only if you believe in mirages. The agreement calls for zero budget cuts — that’s right, not a penny in reductions — from 2016 through 2019. We’re supposed to get a trickle of reductions for five years after that. And then — wait for it — all of $35 billion in budget cuts in 2025.
Anyone want to bet that we’ll actually see any of those promised cuts 10 years from now?
Boehner’s bad budget deal also solves the problem of raising the debt ceiling. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has said that the government would begin defaulting on its obligations if the debt ceiling weren’t increased by November 3.
The Boehner-Obama solution is a dandy: It doesn’t raise the debt ceiling; it simply suspends it for the next 17 months. Yes, under the deal Boehner arranged, there won’t be any debt ceiling from now until March 2017! In other words, for the next year and a half, there will be absolutely no limit placed on Uncle Sam’s deficit spending. What an amazing coincidence that the suspension will last until just after Obama leaves office.
Suspending the debt ceiling isn’t the only piece of financial trickery in Boehner’s budget deal. Here’s another: It keeps the federal disability program from going bankrupt by “reallocating” $150 billion to it from the Social Security Trust Fund. Disability payments had skyrocketed under the Obama administration; and if some sort of financial sleight-of-hand weren’t done, the disability trust fund was slated to run out of money late next year.
But now Congress has agreed to kick that can further down the road as well. Thanks, Speaker Boehner.
The day before cutting a debt ceiling/budget deal with the Democrats, Boehner delivered another item on the administration’s wish list: He pushed through a vote in the House reauthorizing the Export-Import Bank.
This billion-dollar welfare project for crony capitalism had technically expired back in June, when Congress refused to vote for its extension. But this time around, 62 Republicans joined 184 House Democrats in breathing new life (and more federal subsidies) into it.
So once again, soon-to-be-ex-Speaker John Boehner proves the old adage, “Conservatives get the rhetoric, but liberals get the action.” Despite all of the promises that gave them majorities in the House and the Senate, the Republican leadership in Washington refuses to fight for less spending and smaller government.
Under John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, the fix is in. We’ll soon find out if it will be any different once Boehner is gone.
Until next time, keep some powder dry.
Chip Wood was the first news editor of The Review of the News and also wrote for American Opinion, our two predecessor publications. He is now the geopolitical editor of Personal Liberty Digest. This article first appeared on PersonalLiberty.com and has been reprinted with permission.
