Posted on 02/03/2023 10:02:27 AM PST by SeekAndFind
WASHINGTON — There’s no Republican plan, let alone a bill, to resolve the debt ceiling problem. But some GOP lawmakers are floating one idea to include in a package: rescinding approved but unspent Covid relief funds.
Taking back the unused pandemic response money “certainly could” be in a debt ceiling measure to avert default, Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., the chair of the powerful Rules Committee, said.
“I would hope we look at that,” Cole said. “It’s something that ought to be on the table.”
Rep Mike Kelly, R-Pa., who sits on the Ways and Means Committee that oversees taxes and large portions of the U.S. budget, said he’s open to it. It would be “insane” for Congress not to look at options to cut red ink by nixing unnecessary spending, Kelly said.
“There’s areas that we should not be spending and where we could actually either reposition or just not spend it, and then bring down our debt,” he said.
“We can make cuts that don’t hurt people,” Kelly added.
The idea isn't yet ready for prime time in the GOP-run House, the Democratic-controlled Senate or the White House. But it is the most specific Republicans have gotten in terms of what they'd like to attach to a debt limit hike, a question that GOP lawmakers have been notably vague on, even as they demand spending cuts as a concession to pay the country's bills. The Treasury Department has set a June 5 deadline for Congress to act or breach the debt limit.
House Republican aides point to government estimates showing $4.61 trillion has been authorized in Covid-19 spending, but $4.12 trillion has been spent. That leaves nearly $500 billion in unspent funds, although a portion of that has been “obligated” to certain pots of money
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
This is about to lead to a rush of local entities to spend what has been allocated to them, but not spent.
It will lead to a whole bunch of “how dare you take away that money we were going to spend on poor people”, but in reality was going to spent on pet projects.
Why o why do we have inflation? Duhhhh
Close the Department of so-called “Education”.
That’s a great idea.
Stop half of the green stuff...Natural gas is the best way to go for buildings and homes.
I've been hearing about unspent COVID money for nearly 2 years. Can anyone explain how money doled out from Washington remains unspent by cities, towns, municipalities, etc??
The above link tells us why Natural Gas is the way to go...and all the Dem Green stuff is just a waste of money and “parts”.
I'd be happy if they could just tell us how the 4.12 was spent.
I’m sure I don’t remember the numbers correctly, but I have a memory of a budget discussion during the Reagan years. At the time, the Republicans were proposing something like $805 Billion for Defense. It was Star Wars, and the Cold War, and Reagan was rebuilding the military. Wanted to spend $805B.
The Democrats freaked out. Are you kidding?? $805B??Far too much! So wasteful! No sane country would ever spend $805B on Defense!
The Democrats had a much more rational plane. Fiscally sensible, would not harm the economy, a very reasonable Defense bill of $795B. Who could argue with that?
Of course, the two parties compromised at $800B and everyone was happy. Which told me everything I ever needed to know about how federal spending works.
That’s fine but is that all?
What about starving a whole bunch of programs and projects like, oh say, the massive fbi building planned that is twice as big as the pentaagone?
Can anyone explain how money doled out from Washington remains unspent by cities, towns, municipalities, etc??
...............
DC shoves it across the table. It’s up to cities and states to take it. It always has strings attached. Handouts are handcuffs.
Is this the kind of thing that lead to me disenrolling from the Republican Party?
Close 50% of the govt agencies. You’ll never even know they’re gone.
It is the dipsy doodle fast finger shuffle.
They make a few cut and raise the debt ceiling.
Why do they need to raise the debt ceiling, if they are making cut?
Because those cuts are only window dressing. Same of sham, same old political tricks.
You'll have to get used to sadness.
I'm pretty sure they can't tell us. Not "won't". "Can't". As in, nobody really knows because nobody tracked it or accounted for it.
The author seems to be blissfully unaware that the US has a far mor serious problem than just the debt ceiling issue, it has a DEBT issue. The Democrats don't have, and never have had a plan to fix this problem. They are simply spending the country into inflation oblivion. Erasing unspent budgeted money is a nearly painless way of partially addressing this.
This would be really smart to do. Best thing the congress could do to slow inflation right now. It would stop states from enacting tax cuts with these funds as the money flows from the Federal government into their overstuffed state treasuries.
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