If just 41 of 50 Senate Republicans would vote to simply uphold the budget rules, there would be no way for Pelosi or Schumer or Biden to stop the cuts. These cuts are less than 1% of all the $4 trillion in spending Biden has secured, noted our friend economist Steve Moore in the Weekend Edition of his Unleash Prosperity Hotline.
Ideally, if Republicans had the spine to do so, they could force the Senate to conduct business in regular order.
“The only way they can get [that power back]: Divide the spending into 12 bills and then decide to hold one of them hostage or two of them hostage. And then apply policy changes in the House,” Senator Rand Paul advised in a FOX Business interview with Larry Kudlow. “But they’ve got to do it. They’ve got to capture this, and we’d have to do the budget the way it’s supposed to be. Budget — 12 appropriation bills, then try to attach some policy like removing the 87,000 IRS agents from the IRS budget.”
Senator Paul, in his recent FOX Business interview with Larry Kudlow, explained how, even in the minority, Senate Republicans could force automatic cuts in spending just by forcing the Senate to follow its own rules on what is known as PAYGO. Here’s a link to the Congressional Research Service memo on PAYGO if you want to learn how it is supposed to work – and why it is almost always waived.
The problem is said Senator Paul, the last time he tried to get the Senate to enforce its own rules he only got three other Republicans to vote with him. “The bad news is this is that last time I tried it, there were four votes, me and three others,” Senator Paul noted.
Republicans have “emasculated” themselves by agreeing to the framework for an omnibus spending bill to fund the government through 2023.
“It would take 41 votes. Forty-one votes would stop the big spending. If 41, one of us said no and held our ground until there was a compromise, we could force Democrats to reduce spending. We have completely and totally abdicated the power of the purse. Republicans are emasculated. They have no power, and they are unwilling to gain that power back,” charged Senator Paul.
Elaborating further Dr. Paul said, “This brings upon us the lie that Republicans really are fiscally conservative. The Democrats aren’t. They will not pretend to be fiscally conservative. Not one of them up here gives a darn about the debt. The Republicans all profess to be, but when you make them vote on the PAYGO resolution, pay as you go, that we can’t have new spending without offsetting it, they always vote to exempt it. So the omnibus will be 3,000 pages. We’ll get it two hours before they want to pass it. No one will read it. But hidden in the 3,000 pages will be we’re going to wave PAYGO.”
“When we try to do it in one bill, Republicans don’t have the intestinal fortitude. They always collapse, and they fear shutting government down, so no policy objectives ever get added,” Paul charged.
This time around the numbers may be a little better than Senator Rand Paul and three other GOP Senators. A Bizpacreview.com summary of an NBC News story indicates Senator Paul has been joined by the “Breakfast Club,” a group of Republican senators led by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI). The group is in opposition to the plan. Other members include Republican Senators Mike Lee (UT), Lindsey Graham (SC), Rick Scott (FL), Ted Cruz (TX), and Mike Braun (IN).
We urge CHQ readers to pick-up the phone to call Mitch McConnell and other Republican Senators (the Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121) and join other conservatives who have committed to melt the phone lines to Capitol Hill with this simple message: Just follow your own Senate Rules, don’t waive PAYGO and vote NO on any long-term Omnibus spending bill.
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PAYGO rules
Senator Rand Paul