You’ve got to watch these guys all the time. In the omnibus spending bill the Senate just passed and will send to the House of Representatives there are more than a few accounting gimmicks, writes Justin Bogie. Here is one of them:
Take the so-called savings from changes in mandatory programs. The bill claims nearly $8 billion in savings from such changes.
This is the most commonly used gimmick to increase discretionary spending. These “savings” are included in appropriations bills as a rescission of funds, meaning that unspent money is taken back or spending is delayed until a subsequent year. Congress then uses these “savings” and puts the money toward other unrelated programs.
The problem is, almost all of these “rescissions” are of money that was never going to be spent in the first place. Last year’s omnibus bill claimed $17 billion in savings from changes in mandatory programs that had no actual budget effect. In reality, those “saved” funds go toward new spending that only adds to our growing pile of debt.
Earlier this year, the president put forward a better rescission package that would have sent $7 billion in funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program back to the Treasury. The authorization to spend this money had already expired, so the federal government would not have been able to spend it anyway. But notably, it would have kept Congress from spending the money elsewhere.
Trump’s proposal received a swift response from both sides. At the time, Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., praised the proposal, writing that it would “prevent Congress from using the Children’s Health Insurance Program to subvert our annual budget process and increase spending elsewhere on unrelated programs when no one is looking.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., came out against the measure and accused Trump and Republicans of “looking to tear apart the bipartisan Children’s Health Insurance Program, hurting middle-class families and low-income children.”
Yet Schumer was perfectly happy to vote for the current cromnibus, which would rescind or delay over $7.7 billion for the very same program. That’s more money rescinded or delayed than the fiscal year 2018 omnibus rescission and the president’s proposed rescission combined. Where is the outrage now?
[Justin Bogie, “Congress Is Using These Deceptive Tricks to Drive Spending Higher,” The Daily Signal, September 21]
