Last week the U.S. House of Representatives approved, by a single vote, a budget reconciliation popularly called the “one big beautiful bill.” But while it’s one bill, and it’s certainly a big one, it’s not yet beautiful — not as much as it should be.
Fiscally conservative House Republicans sounded the alarm even before it was approved.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, conceded that the bill “lays the foundation for much-needed tax relief, border security, and important spending reductions and reforms,” adding that it “will move Medicaid work requirements forward and reduces the availability of future subsidies under the green new scam.”
However, it still falls far short. Roy noted that the bill leaves “almost half of the green new scam subsidies continuing,” and “it fails to end the Medicaid money laundering scam and perverse funding structure that provides seven times more federal dollars for each dollar of state spending for the able-bodied relative to the vulnerable.”
Roy concluded, “We have to do more to deliver for the American people.”
Yesterday Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis addressed another budgetary issue — codifying the cuts of waste, fraud and abuse uncovered by the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Each week DOGE uncovers tens of billions of dollars in government waste, but, as DeSantis observed, DOGE lacks the authority to fully eliminate them. That’s up to Congress.
“Elon Musk took massive incoming — including attacks on his companies as well as personal smears — to lead the effort on DOGE. He became public enemy No. 1 of legacy media around the world,” he said in a statement he posted to X.
DeSantis, who served three terms in Congress before running for governor, blasted the House GOP caucus.
“To see Republicans in Congress cast aside any meaningful spending reductions (and, in fact, fully fund things like USAID) is demoralizing and represents a betrayal of the voters who elected them.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., also condemned the lack of progress codifying DOGE cuts, and noted that “There is extreme frustration, rightfully so and I agree, not seeing DOGE cuts being passed through Congress in the form of rescission bills.”
She was also frustrated with Congress’ lack of progress codifying Trump administration executive orders.
“And I’m still unclear why we aren’t passing executive orders every week. I was told we are waiting to get done with reconciliation. And that a portion of them have already been drafted with input from the WH.”
Taylor Green concluded, “In my opinion we should walk and chew gum at the same time.”
Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican and a fiscal conservative believes there are enough like-minded conservative Republicans to stall the bill and make the changes it needs.
Johnson told CNN‘s State of the Union Sunday that the “first goal” of the budget reconciliation process “should be to reduce the deficit,” but “this actually increases it.”
In January, Johnson suggested another way to address federal overspending: Because the COVID “emergency” had ended; so should the federal “spending spree.”
“In 2019 we spent $4.4 trillion. During the pandemic, 2020, we went on this massive spending spree,” he told members of the Badger Institute.
Chicago-based talk radio host, business advocate, and two-time New York Times bestselling author Carol Roth seemed to pick up on Johnson’s idea.
She suggested that if we were to reduce spending to 2019 levels, we wouldn’t merely reduce deficit spending — we would be in the black, and begin paying off debt again.
“If the govt rolled back spending to pre-Covid (2019) levels, we would have a surplus of more than a half trillion dollars…,” she posted to X.
And it turns out that Roth is correct, according to official federal government data.
The current federal debt is just shy of $37 trillion and rising.
Pre-COVID, 2019 spending was, as Johnson noted, $4.4 trillion.
The U.S. government estimates its total revenue will be $5.49 trillion for fiscal year 2025. This would put us $1.09 trillion in the black, which is, as Roth said, “a surplus of more than a half trillion dollars” — a lot more.
The GOP can only bank on controlling both chambers of Congress until January 2027. After that, historically, one or both are likely to fall into the Democrats’ hands.
That would be the time, when we no longer control Congress, that we would expect wimpy bills from the House — not now. Now we have the right to expect robust legislation that actually does something.
It’s now up to the Senate to make the budget reconciliation bill not just big, but also beautiful, and for the House to approve those changes.
If not now, when? We can’t count on tomorrow.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and is a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He’s also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and a Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz’s Reports — More Here.
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