Republicans must meet the moment
Rep. Chip Roy
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It’s been almost three years since Democrats retook the White House, and the nation is watching in disbelief as the country they once knew is no longer secure — economically, culturally, or militarily.
Reckless spending and leftist regulations are decimating the American dream with higher prices, mountains of debt, and a volatile economy. That same “tax-and-borrow” spending funds an army of government bureaucrats advancing a radical cultural agenda specifically designed to break our military and remake America. The remaking is being completed with purposeful, wide-open borders that endanger our security, sovereignty, and solidarity. And our enemies, from Iran to China and beyond, are on the march to exploit every bit of it.
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The people are left wondering: Will Republicans meet the moment? Will they fight to cut spending, force President Joe Biden to secure the border, and take on the cultural destruction of our nation and its military? And will they do so with greater force than Democrats are using against us? Republicans have not yet met that moment.
Having controlled the House since January, the GOP has made significant progress in changing the institution, setting (modest) spending limits, moving individual appropriations bills, and passing strong legislation. We passed the Secure the Border Act (H.R. 2), which would legitimately secure the border without amnesty and immigration expansion. And we passed a strong national defense bill that would undo Pentagon wokeness and reaffirm its core mission. In short, we’ve held the leftist impulses of Democrats in check in Congress and controlled the debate.
But Republicans have left the lawless Biden regime unchecked as we passed (with majority GOP support) an increase in our national debt of over $4 trillion and two “continuing resolutions” that extend Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) policies and spending levels from the $1.7 trillion omnibus bill we overwhelmingly opposed less than a year ago. Further, our marquee border security bill has languished in the Senate since May, and our strong defense bill and appropriations bills are already on the chopping block.
To right the ship, it will require of Republicans a level of determination heretofore absent.
First, we must meet the moment and actually cut spending year-over-year in 2024. The McCarthy-Biden debt limit deal known as the Fiscal Responsibility Act, for all its faults, set a $1,590 trillion annual spending cap for fiscal 2024. While this cap is higher than the pre-COVID levels conservatives fought for, it would reflect a $12 billion overall reduction that, if combined with a 3% defense spending increase, would lead to a $40 billion cut to the federal bureaucracy at war with the people.
But there’s a catch. The agreement included widely reported “side deals” to use budget gimmicks that would allow for $54 billion, roughly the annual budget for the Department of Homeland Security, in spending above the caps. Democrats expect us to capitulate to these “deals,” as evidenced by a recent exchange I had with Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. Given Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is not party to these side deals, nor are they required in the text of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, he can and should reject them and at least force Democrats to stick to the true spending caps.
Our message should be clear: House Republicans will combat inflation and the woke and weaponized federal bureaucracy by securing gimmick-free spending cuts and conservative policy riders through the passage of individual appropriations bills. If we face resistance from Democrats or even our own appropriators, the speaker should trigger an across-the-board 1% spending cut, a feature of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, by defaulting to a CR that expires on Sept. 30, 2024.
But, to achieve actual year-over-year cuts, we cannot ignore so-called “emergency” spending. In September, the CR included $16 billion in unpaid-for “disaster” spending, wiping out any savings we might secure adhering to a spending cap. This should still be paid for and is also why the speaker is correct to pay for meritorious Israel funding out of Biden’s IRS expansion (a proposal for which Senate Democrats already sided with the expanded IRS over Israel).
Moreover, Biden has requested an additional $61 billion for Ukraine on top of the $113 billion the United States has already provided. To be certain, Republicans must oppose providing Ukraine another blank check, and if there is any spending, at all, it must be paid for. But, given it is perhaps Biden’s top current priority, it represents one of our last real opportunities to force Democrats to end their exploitation of our border, a proposition that would require compromise from Republicans on both sides of the Ukraine funding debate.
H.R. 2 is the strongest border security measure ever to pass a body of Congress, carefully crafted to provide the tools to stop mass migrant releases and end the flow at the border in full. But, it is worthless unless Biden signs it and enforces it. Therefore, as a second line in the sand beyond cuts, we must take the nonnegotiable position that not a single dime of Ukraine funding will even be put on the House floor without 1) Biden signing H.R. 2 or its equivalent into law and ensuring it is enforced and 2) requiring any Ukraine funding to be transparent and fully paid-for.
To enforce border security, any Ukraine funding (again, if any, limited and paid for) could be contingent upon the administration meeting well-defined metrics tied to eliminating migrant encounters and releases. But it doesn’t work if it is not real, and Senate Republicans have already tried to water down the strong policies in H.R. 2 in pursuit of a “deal” on Ukraine.
The speaker should make clear such a bad “deal” will be dead on arrival in the House.
The people are demanding an end to the status quo, and Republicans can win if we focus our fire and rally around these core fights: 1) cutting spending year-over-year to combat inflation and woke and weaponized government and 2) securing the border and ending migrant releases as a condition precedent to even having a debate on Ukraine support. But to do that, we cannot fall back into the worn-out excuses that have characterized the many failures of our past.
If we are to defeat the Democrats, both politically and legislatively, we must fight harder than they do. Democrats have successfully navigated razor-thin majorities to enact their agenda before. Republicans must be willing to do the same, and more, to save America.
We must meet the moment. No more excuses.
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Chip Roy is a U.S. representative for Texas and serves on the House Judiciary Committee, House Rules Committee, and House Budget Committee.