Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY), Mike Lee (R-UT), and six of their Senate colleagues introduced President Donald Trump’s rescission package on Thursday to slash $15 billion in wasteful government funding.
The eight Republican senators introduced the Spending Cuts to Expired and Unnecessary Programs Act on Thursday, which would rescind $15 billion in government spending.
The list of GOP senators includes Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY), Pat Toomey (R-PA), Mike Lee (R-UT), Joni Ernst (R-IA), David Perdue (R-GA), John Kennedy (R-LA), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), and Ben Sasse (R-NE).
Sen. Paul said on Thursday, “Unfortunately, the Senate was unable to cut one penny from every dollar through a budget bill I proposed last week. I am hopeful they will support cutting half a penny from every dollar through this rescissions package.”
Perdue explained:
We are past the tipping point in this debt crisis. Today, most of the money we spend on our military, our veterans, and domestic discretionary programs is borrowed money. This will get worse, and it’s time for Washington to come to grips with this reality. President Trump has. That’s why his team is proposing to cut these unused and expired government programs. These are simple cuts, arguably the easiest we could make, and they should be supported by every member in Congress.
Sen. Lee said:
Yes, a $15 billion spending reduction is a drop in the bucket compared to a $15 trillion debt. But we have to start cutting spending somewhere because if we don’t, if we continue to allow federal government spending to grow faster than the economy as a whole, at some point, economic reality will force us to do so in a much more painful manner later.
In May, President Trump sent Congress the largest rescission package in American history, which would strip $15 billion in spending. A rescission package can pass through the Senate with only a simple majority, allowing Republicans to bypass the daunting 60-vote threshold in Congress’s upper chamber.
Among the 38 proposed cuts, Trump’s rescission would eliminate a $4.3 billion vehicle technology loan program, $800 million from an Obamacare payment pilot program, and $200 million earmarked for the Ebola outbreak.
Conservative lawmakers and grassroots activists cheered Trump’s move to cut spending through the rescission package.
FreedomWorks President Adam Brandon cheered the senators’ campaign to cut wasteful spending in a statement on Friday, saying:
This year’s budget deal was an utter fiscal disaster, busting spending caps by nearly $300 billion over two years. The subsequent omnibus that appropriated at these high levels was devised in secrecy and rammed through Congress. Thankfully, the White House and constitution-minded senators like Mike Lee are keen on fixing our out of control spending.
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That none of Senate leadership has co-sponsored Sen. Mike Lee’s rescissions bill speaks volumes. Clearly, Senate rank and file are the ones concerned with reckless spending. If Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is not going to take up the White House’s proposal to impound unobligated funds, it is good to that know we have Sens. Lee, Paul, and others to stick up for American taxpayers.
Rep. Dave Brat (R-VA), a member of the House Freedom Caucus, said in a statement in May:
I, of course, applaud any initiative to scale back spending at the federal level. I recently wrote an op-ed requesting the White House send Congress a rescission package. More good news—this rescission package is the largest in history. I am glad this administration is trying to rectify the problem of the giant spending bill that passed Congress several weeks ago. But, as has become a tired refrain, anything significant will have a hard time passing Mitch McConnell’s Senate.
Club for Growth President David McIntosh said in a statement in May, “This rescission package is an initial step in President Trump keeping his promises to the American people to control spending.”
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