Dadgummit, our legs ought to be tired from kicking the can down the road like this.
Once again, Congress voted to dodge a shutdown by spending gobs of money we don’t have—and this is really just a sad bid to buy us a bit more time. We still have to trudge through a stack of bills to get us through the fiscal year, and if you ask me, we should sit down and get to it. We’re talking about $1.66 trillion here, folks.
As usual, I was a big “nay" on this short-term bill. Eventually this monster of a tab is going to be due, and how in the world are we going to pay the piper? Our children and grandchildren will be stuck with a tab that has a number so high they can’t even count to it.
Another zinger here is that we still have a sorry excuse for a southern border—and no sliver of a plan to get it under control. I said no border, no budget—and I meant it. Shut down the fiasco and stop the illegal crossings immediately. But of course, some of my colleagues caved in and followed the herd.
I’ll be honest with you folks: I’m beyond frustrated. The people of East Tennessee sent me here to fight for conservative values—and I’d argue that keeping our finances in check is pretty dadgum high on every Republican’s to-do list.
I have all but begged my colleagues to get this circus under control, but they just keep going along with it. As the old saying goes, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.”
But through all the disappointment, there may be a glimmer of hope. It looks like we’re finally on our way to creating a bipartisan commission that would tackle our nation’s $34 trillion in soaring debt.
As my friend Jodey Arrington has pointed out, both parties are guilty as sin, and the yearly struggles we face to pass spending bills are further proof of a broken process beyond repair.
It’s time to hit the reset button and tackle our spending problem with a thorough plan to pay off this debt. We can’t keep going home every few days when there are issues like this that deserve our attention.
We need to roll up our sleeves and pass a real budget, and we should be willing to work long and hard days to get it done. All of you at home gave us a vote of trust, and as far as I’m concerned, you deserve our best efforts in return.
Time to get down to business!
