During consideration of the bipartisan debt-limit deal (H.R. 3746), Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) offered a substitute amendment to increase the debt limit by $500 billion (rather than suspend the limit through January 1, 2025) and limit federal outlays to $4.8 trillion for fiscal 2024, decreasing this limit annually by five percent through fiscal 2028, at $3.9 trillion. Among other provisions, Paul’s amendment would require the Office of Management and Budget to report annually whether actual outlays exceeded these limits and, if so, require the president to issue a sequestration order to cut spending by the same amount as the excess spending.
The Senate rejected Paul’s amendment on June 1, 2023 by a vote of 21 to 75 (Roll Call 136). 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.
