Conservatives Claim the McConnell-Schumer Bipartisan Budget Act Is the Biggest Spending Bill Ever

McConnell-Schumer Budget
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

Conservatives have chastised the McConnell-Schumer budget deal, arguing that this spending bill is the largest expenditure package in history.

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-NC) told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview on Breitbart News Daily that this Schumer-McConnell spending is the largest ever.

Meadows told Breitbart News Daily host Matthew Boyle, “When you look at the amount of spending, this is the largest spending package, that any president, not just a Republican president, will sign into law bar none.”

The North Carolina congressman added that the spending bill “grows the size of government by 13 percent. Did they [the American people] get a 13 percent increase in their salary this past winter?”

The McConnell-Schumer budget deal, otherwise known as the “Bipartisan Budget Act” includes:

  • Spending limits created by the Budget Control Act of 2011 will be raised by about $300 billion over two years. Defense spending will be raised by $80 billion in the current fiscal year and by $85 billion next year.
  • Domestic spending will increase by $63 billion this year and next year domestic spending will increase by $68 billion.
  • Congress will suspend the debt limit through March 2019, putting the next debt limit vote past the 2018 midterm elections.
  • $20 billion for additional infrastructure programs such as surface transportation, rural water, and wastewater systems.
  • $6 billion to fight the opioid crisis.
  • $4 billion for college affordability programs to help police officers, teachers, and firefighters.
  • $90 billion in disaster aid for Texas, Florida, and Peurto Rico.
  • Repeals Obamacare’s Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), which was designed to limit Medicare costs.
  • A ten-year extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which is four years longer than the previous spending bill passed last month.

Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Budget, argued that if Congress removes the budget caps through the next decade, America could extend its debt by more than $1.5 trillion. Removing the caps alone could double the size of President Barack Obama’s 2009 stimulus package, which cost the nation roughly $840 billion.

Chris Edwards, editor of DownsizingGovernment.org at the Cato Institute, argued that if one accounted for additional interest payments on the debt, the spending bill could reach as high as $1.8 trillion.

Edwards lamented, “As during the George W. Bush years, the eagerness of Republicans to jack up defense spending has led them to cave in on nondefense spending.”

Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), a member of the House Freedom Caucus, 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.”

“The stench of the swamp is sucking in everyone on Capitol Hill, even some conservatives because they want to fund the military.” Meadows argued.

Chairman Meadows continued, “I’m all about funding our military but at what cost? Are we going to bankrupt our country in the process? We needed to hold tight; we need to send Mitch McConnell a message that we are not going to accept business as usual.”

Meadows then told Boyle that, “Your listeners can call their members of Congress and say no.”

“We will vote Thursday or early Friday morning. Not enough to pass with just Republican votes. They need Nancy Pelosi and Democrats to get this thing across. We need to start acting in a fiscally responsible manner once again,” Meadows charged.

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