Our Congress took the easy way out Friday. Spending even more money to continue government operations, money it didn’t actually have, always will be the easy way out.
The Republican majorities in the House and Senate had no choice, you might argue. They couldn’t get to the numbers they needed without compromising with Democrats.
It’s true that when a government shutdown is threatening – for the second time in three weeks – things look pretty desperate. But there was plenty of time to consider better deals for the American people when the clock wasn’t edging closer to midnight.
On Monday, three days after Congress passed a budget deal that increased government spending by $320 billion, it was back to business as usual. Democrats, who wanted the budget deal to include legislation legalizing younger illegal immigrants (“Dreamers”), couldn’t say much because they got billions more in domestic spending. They no longer needed to pretend to be fiscally responsible like they did for a minute in December when Congress passed a tax cut. And a few Republican legislators were still carping about the budget deal, but life in Washington, D.C., was pretty much back to normal.
Now, big government will get bigger. More unneeded sectors of the 15 federal departments will be created. More people will be hired. More paperwork. More, more, more.