We’re approaching the Spring after an election that saw Republicans lose both the White House and the Senate so, just as naturally as you’d expect the crocuses to bloom, the fancy of GOP lawmakers is turning to the national debt they helped create.
The target of the party’s concern this time is the $1.9 trillion COVIDE-19 relief package that passed the House on Wednesday and now goes to President Biden for his signature. The massive measure contains, among other things, direct payments to families and new funding for the 50 states that have borne the economic consequences of the continuing pandemic.
There are 50 Republican members of the Senate – two from Kentucky – and 211 in the House – five from the Commonwealth – and nary a one managed to provide his or her support. In other words, it passed solely on Democratic votes.
The NKyTribune’s Washington columnist Bill Straub served 11 years as the Frankfort Bureau chief for The Kentucky Post. He also is the former White House/political correspondent for Scripps Howard News Service. A member of the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, he currently resides in Silver Spring, Maryland, and writes frequently about the federal government and politics. Email him at williamgstraub@gmail.comFor a party determined to dig itself out of the political hole created by former President Donald J. Trump, aka Loser, while simultaneously attempting to appease the bloated buffoon so he doesn’t throw any more monkey wrenches into the political works, that solidarity could be considered a tad curious. National polls establish that the recovery package is extremely popular with the voting public. A Politico/Morning Consult survey released on Wednesday showed that 75 percent of those questioned support the legislation while a measly 18 percent oppose. Even 59 percent who identify themselves as Republican agree that it’s a good idea.
To add to it, the poll found that 55 percent who voted for Trump in the 2020 election offered their endorsement.
And it appears the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 has attracted support from Republican office holders outside the confines of DC. West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, whose state is one of the national leaders in providing COVID vaccinations to its residents, said lawmakers should “go big or go home” on the stimulus package, arguing that, at this stage, it’s better to spend too much than not enough.
“We have tried to underspend and undersize what was really needed to get over the top of the mountain,” Justice said. “You got a lot of people across this nation who are really hurting.”
At first blush, then, it would appear that congressional Republicans have come down on the wrong side, particularly if they’re serious about regaining the House and Senate in 2022.
But any Republican vote in favor would be tantamount to providing Biden and the Democrats with a huge early victory that they could cite as bipartisan. The GOP is hoping to use Biden’s campaign promise to work in a cooperative spirit with Republicans against him, arguing that passing a substantial measure without any votes from the opposition party displays a propensity on his part to go back on his word.
And there’s always the deficit card, one Republicans are only moved to play when they’re not in charge.
In a recent floor speech, Rep. James Comer, R-Tompkinsville, ranking member of the House Oversight & Reform Committee, noted that the national debt is nearing $28 trillion.
“But instead of taking this burden we’re leaving our children and grandchildren seriously, Democrats are barreling a partisan $2 trillion package through congress,’’ Comer said. “Two trillion dollars of deficit spending. Congress has already spent $4 trillion to fight the corona virus.”
Now let it be said that growing deficits will at some point create a huge fiscal problem and will have to be addressed. Currently, with near historically low interest rates and the nation in the midst of a pandemic-induced economic swoon, now is not the time.
And Comer’s words would certainly carry more weight if Republicans in 2017, then maintaining majorities in both the House and Senate and with Trump serving as chief executive, hadn’t pushed through a $1.5 trillion tax cut bill that is estimated to increase the deficit by more than $1 trillion over 10 years.
The so-called Trump tax cut, which wasn’t nearly as popular as the COVID relief measure, passed the Senate without any Democratic votes, Funny, Comer didn’t seem too concerned about partisanship then, nor did he voice worries about the anticipated impact on the deficit.
Odd, don’t you think? If Republican lawmakers want to be taken seriously, the first thing they can do is move to repeal the Trump tax cut. Don’t hold your breath.
Comer, for some reason, also forgot to note the COVID relief bill will directly aid middle-and-lower class folks while the Trump tax cut was aimed primarily at the wealthy, who made out like gangbusters. Data from the Internal Revenue Service established that taxpayers who received the largest refund increases earned at least $200,000. Tax returns further showed those making less than $100,000 received a more modest break but those earning a bit above $100,000 – a substantial portion of the middle class — wound up owing more in taxes.
For what’s it’s worth, Comer also charged the bill was focused on the “far left political agenda’’ and that economists maintain it will cause “an economic crash” and lead to inflation.
Both claims were disputed by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
“This is a bill that will really provide Americans the relief they need to get to the other side of the pandemic, and we expect the resources here to really fuel a very strong economic recovery,” Yellen told MSNBC.
She further said the package will permit the U.S. to return to pre-pandemic employment levels by next year.
Comer, whose recall abilities appear to be foggy, also forget to report that Kentucky residents are expected to receive a collective $5 billion under the COVID bill – not bad for a product of the far-left political agenda. Stimulus checks of $1,400 will go to those earning less than $75,000 per year. The child tax credit will be expanded, low-income households will receive assistance for groceries and utility bills and the extra $300 per week federal unemployment benefit will continue through September.
What’s more, state government could receive as much as $2.4 billion for COVID-19 related expenses.
But that doesn’t appear to suit either Comer or Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, of Louisville, who maintains the American Rescue Plan is “actually one of the worst pieces of legislation I’ve seen pass here in the time I’ve been in the Senate.”
Talking to reporters on Wednesday, McConnell said the nation is recovering and “we’re doing damage to the future of this country by spending dramatically more money than we obviously need at this point.”
As you might expect, McConnell expressed concern over the mounting debt, insisting that it continues to “pile up, pile up and pile up.”
What he failed to note was that during the four years of the Republican Trump administration, while McConnell served as majority leader, the deficit rose by a record $7.8 trillion.
As Thurber said, you could look it up.
The U.S. went from being the largest creditor to the largest debtor nation during the Reagan administration with tax cuts and a huge buildup of the military (what Bush 1 called Voodoo economics). Bush 2 ushered in tax refunds, arguing that a surplus left from the previous fiscal year of the Clinton administration belonged to taxpayers, then waged an expensive needless war with Iraq, for which we are still paying the price. The Trump 2017 tax cuts added $1.7 trillion more to the debt. The reality is that Republicans own a lot of the responsibility for the size of the debt.