Smucker Statement on Procedural Passage of House Spending Caps Bill
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.) issued the following statement on the House's procedural passage of the Un-Offset Budget Caps Act:
"Our budget process was already broken and now it's gone completely off course. Democrats haven't even proposed a budget this year and instead raised spending caps through a procedural motion, all without even offsetting the cost of operating our government," Smucker said. "As a former member of the House Budget Committee, I know how important a budget is. Democrats didn't even attempt to write one, which truly exemplifies a failure to govern and an irresponsibility with taxpayer dollars."
Democrats' spending plan would increase military and domestic spending by $177 billion over the next year.
Deficits have dramatically increased in recent years, set to eclipse $1 trillion this year.
"The U.S. is more than $22 trillion in debt – a number that is quite frankly far too high to justify that increase. I've said it before: We need to seriously rein in Congress' spending problem – before we pay the economic price," said Smucker.
Under the Democrats' plan, the national debt would increase by an additional $2 trillion compared to current law.
Smucker has routinely called on Congress to reform its budget process, sharing his own experience reforming the Pennsylvania state education budget process and cosponsoring multiple bills to provide greater accountability in the federal budget process. In the 115th Congress, Smucker introduced legislation to establish a bipartisan commission to reform the federal budget.
The House has yet to release its 2020 fiscal year budget. Government funding is set to expire Sept. 30.