These two Texas lawmakers are trying to figure out how to spend your money in DC | Opinion
It seems like these days all Washington does is spend your money. In true form, the Senate gathered back in D.C. this week to discuss a spending bill to avoid a government shutdown. If it’s not passed by Sept 30, federal agencies will run dry. House members’ calendar differs slightly and they’ll return in a week, leaving little time for both chambers to come to an agreement.
Two Texas lawmakers — a House member and a senator, but both Republicans — posted about what to do on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, encapsulating the difficulty of every reining in spending in Congress.
Sen. John Cornyn posted an observation from Punchbowl News: “The federal government will shut down in less than a month unless a funding bill is passed by Sept. 30. That’s only 16 legislative days away (and even fewer for the House) under the current schedule. The House and Senate are in completely different universes when it comes to how lawmakers should fund federal agencies in both the short and long term.”
That view isn’t wrong, but Cornyn didn’t exactly pose solutions, either. Even still, Rep. Chip Roy of Austin wasn’t having it.
Cornyn spoke on the Senate floor Tuesday night and supported House Republicans’ efforts to limit spending, saying: “The American people elected a Republican majority in the House, which has pledged to rein in reckless federal spending. … I hope that Speaker [Kevin] McCarthy and other Republican colleagues in the House will succeed in their efforts.”
Democrats who control the Senate do have a very different idea of how to spend taxpayer dollars in Washington. Typically, they spend wildly more than is necessary, and they spend taxpayer money on things that don’t directly benefit the taxpayer — they benefit their pet projects.
However, Roy is correct: Conservatives also spend too much money when they’re in power. They campaign on limited government and fiscal responsibility, but when they get elected and Democrats ask them to agree to vote for a continuing resolution that extends current levels of outrageous spending or face a government shutdown, Republicans tend to give in.
It’s a complex situation, to be sure, given the current balance of power. But if Republicans don’t stand up to extreme spending in Congress, Democrats definitely won’t, and taxpayers will continue to pay the hefty price of simply being Americans with a government that has a terrible spending habit.
In the fiscal year 2023, Texas was awarded over $61 billion in grants and contracts — actually half of what it received in fiscal year 2017 — via multiple agencies within the federal government and ultimately with taxpayer dollars. Some of this is expected, of course: Taxpayer funds are necessary to operate state and local governments. But for a state run by Republicans, $61 billion is no chump change.
It’s up to stiff-necked, nerves-of-steel conservatives to stand up to their own party for its part in absurd spending. We know Democrats won’t stop it, so who will?
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described Sen. John Cornyn’s position on spending bills and suggested he and Rep. Chip Roy were fighting over the issue.
This story was originally published September 6, 2023 at 5:28 AM.
