During consideration of the short-term appropriations bill (H.R. 4378), Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) introduced an amendment to cut the bill’s funding for federal operations and services by two percent. On the Senate floor, Paul pleaded, “The debt is growing at 8 percent a year. Spending is growing only at 4.5 percent, 5 percent a year. The debt is growing more rapidly because we have accumulated so much. We have over a $22 trillion debt. The interest this year is over $300 billion. As it grows faster and faster, the interest will exceed what we are spending on the military within about five years…. What I have put forward today … is an opportunity for the Senators who truly believe the debt is a problem to try to restrain spending with a 2-percent cut across the board.”
The Senate rejected Paul’s amendment on September 26, 2019 by a vote of 24 to 73 (Roll Call 310). We have assigned pluses to the yeas not only because most of the spending falls outside the scope of constitutionally authorized federal powers, but also because the federal government needs to start reining in ballooning federal spending and debt in order to avert future fiscal disaster. Although two percent may not seem like much, modest cuts are still better than none at all.
