Conservative lawmakers and grassroots organizations slammed the Schumer-McConnell budget deal.
“I’m not only a ‘no.’ I’m a ‘hell no,’” Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), a member of the House Freedom Caucus, said on Wednesday.
The budget deal between Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell will increase defense and domestic spending by roughly $300 billion over the next two years; the Defense Department’s budget will rise by $80 billion and domestic spending will increase by $63 billion in 2018 alone. The budget deal will also raise the debt ceiling for one year.
It’s a “Christmas tree on steroids,” Congressman Dave Brat (R-VA) said, suggesting that the spending bill is full of pork-barrel spending.
Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI) said, ” This spending proposal is disgusting and reckless — the biggest spending increase since 2009. I urge every American to speak out against this fiscal insanity.”
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-NC) suggested that the budget will get support from a majority of House Republicans, however, the bill will not pass without Democratic support.
Meadows told Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough, ” I’m afraid that the deal they’re going to announce, Chuck Schumer will be very happy about that. The Freedom Caucus members won’t later today because we’re going to increase the size of government some 13 percent.”
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), a former chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, said, “This is a bad, bad, bad, bad — you could say ‘bad’ a hundred times — deal. When you put it all together, a quarter-of-a-trillion-dollar increase in discretionary spending — not what we’re supposed to be doing.”
Meanwhile, House Republican Study Committee Chairman Mark Walker (R-NC) said that the budget deal serves is a “struggle for any one with fiscal concerns,” although, he added that he remains increasingly likely to support the budget deal “the longer Nancy Pelosi bloviates on the House floor.”
Conservative activist groups remain equally opposed to the budget deal between McConnell and Schumer.
Club for Growth President David McIntosh charged in a statement:
The Club for Growth opposes the Schumer-McConnell budget deal and urges all members of Congress to vote NO on it. A vote is expected soon in both chambers. The vote will be included in the Club’s 2018 congressional scorecard.
In 2011, when Congress passed The Budget Control Act (BCA), Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell praised the deal, proclaiming that the “big government freight train” was slowing down. Well, now that the BCA spending caps are busted under this deal yet again, it’s clear that McConnell and the GOP establishment want to speed up the big government freight train with the help of big spending liberals on the other side of the aisle.
As if that’s not bad enough, this deal also includes $80+ billion in so-called disaster relief spending, cronyist tax extenders, an expansion of farm subsidies, and another suspension in the debt ceiling, conveniently timed to expire after the mid-term elections. Nowhere in this deal are the $54 billion in spending cuts outlined in President Trump’s budget. Instead, the big government freight train is running out of control.
Americans for Prosperity Chief Government Affairs Office Brent Gardner argued:
For years, Washington has been in a cycle of budgeting by crisis—resulting in a series of last-minute and short-term spending packages that consistently increase spending, ignore the need for reform and restraint, and further burden the taxpayers of today and tomorrow. The current proposal to lift the bipartisan and previously agreed to caps set forth in the 2011 Budget Control Act by $300 billion is a betrayal of American taxpayers and a display of the absolute unwillingness of members of Congress to adhere to any sort of responsible budgeting behavior.
In addition to irresponsible spending levels, this budget deal will include a number of other troubling provisions, including the extension or expansion of already-expired corporate welfare provisions through ‘tax extenders’ as well as kicking the can down the road on the debt ceiling. Our network has consistently called on federal lawmakers to stand with the American people over special interests and eliminate corporate welfare as well as rein in out-of-control spending. This proposal is a massive failure on both accounts.
FreedomWorks Vice President Jason Pye declared on Wednesday, “The deal announced today isn’t just fiscally irresponsible, it’s an abomination. Once again, Republicans are retreating on the Budget Control Act and returning to their profligate ways. This deal will lead to higher budget deficits, possibly putting us over $1 trillion, and saddle future generations with more debt. No one in Congress who claims that they’re a deficit hawk or a fiscal conservative can justifiably vote for this deal.”