It’s time for House Republicans to demonstrate that kind of resolve by using the tools we already gave ourselves to cut spending. In law, we currently hold the golden ticket — automatic caps that will cut the woke, weaponized federal bureaucracy by $73 billion, nearly 10%, while leaving defense spending and veterans’ benefits untouched.
Because of the January 2023 speaker agreement and hard work, Republicans came together to pass the Limit, Save, Grow Act — a deficit reduction bill that would have capped discretionary spending at 2022 levels, $1.471 trillion, for fiscal 2024 and constrained future growth. LSG ultimately gave way to the bipartisan Fiscal Responsibility Act — a debt limit "deal" that passed with Republican and Democratic majorities and was signed into law by President Joe Biden.
While far from perfect and well short of what Republicans should have held out for, the FRA did, in fact, set two years of caps designed to constrain spending — beginning with a modest 1% year-over-year spending cut under a cap of $1.590 trillion in fiscal 2024. Unfortunately, its negotiations included secret "side deals" to use budget gimmicks to increase non-defense spending by $69 billion beyond the caps.
However, it is important to note that House Appropriations Committee ranking member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) voted against the FRA because the "side deals" were not written into law, something she testified to me in the House Rules Committee. Indeed, many Republicans who supported the FRA were unaware of the side deals and are rightly frustrated — as they were not included in House-passed appropriations bills.