Wait! Remind us. Didn’t the Republican Party used to be the party of fiscal conservatives? Well, give that up.
ProPublica was first to report how Trump as President grew the national debt dramatically: “The “King of Debt” promised to reduce the national debt—then his tax cuts made it surge. Add in the pandemic, and he oversaw the third-biggest deficit increase of any president.”
In round numbers, Trump cost us $7.8 trillion in extra debt, mostly caused by his big tax breaks for billionaires and gazillionaires.
Now, House Republicans are at it again. On the one hand, House Republicans have worked to cut 20% of the funding for hungry kids and their families and to abolish all things designed to help farmers adjust to climate change. On the Congressional Budget Office has reported the bill “would increase direct spending relative to CBO’s baseline by $33 billion over the 2024-2033 period.”
Jerry Hagstrom, journalist for The Hagstrom Report, delineates the specifics of CBO’s analysis: “CBO said, ‘Assuming enactment of H.R. 8467, total spending under CBO’s May 2023 baseline for agriculture and nutrition programs would be $1,250 billion over the 2025-2033 period.’”
Hagstrom also reports from CBO: “CBO noted that the House Republican-written bill would suspend Section 5, 1which gives the Secretary of Agriculture broad authority to spend CCC funds to support agricultural prices and to take other steps that affect the consumption or supply of agricultural commodities.’”
In summary, the House bill removes economic protections for farmers while cutting feeding for kids. For farmers, cutting feeding also cuts their markets, so it’s a double whammy.