During consideration of the Budget Resolution for fiscal 2021 (S. Con. Res. 5), Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) offered a substitute amendment, which he called the “Three Penny Plan Budget.” According to a press release from his senate office, “Dr. Paul’s plan requires that for every on-budget dollar the federal government spends in Fiscal Year 2021, it spends three pennies fewer each year for the next five years.” This would have reduced spending by $67.4 billion in fiscal 2022 alone, and by a total of $7.2 trillion over 10 years.
The Senate rejected Paul’s substitute amendment on February 4, 2021 by a vote of 29 to 71 (Roll Call 31). We have assigned pluses to the yeas because runaway, deficit-laden federal spending, most of which is unconstitutional, must be brought under control, and Paul’s proposal would have been a step in the right direction.
