This week, the Senate completely rejected Sen. Rand Paul’s balanced-budget plan Thursday, to the surprise of absolutely no one. The federal budget deficit is quickly approaching $1 trillion a year, so Paul’s proposal would balance the budget by cutting 1 percent of spending annually…. get this: in five years! Paul called it the “penny plan” but neither Democrats or Republicans were willing to get behind even this.
The Washington Post reports that Paul knew this wouldn’t pass, but he wanted to point out the way the GOP has created an “unholy alliance” with Democrats:
“This vote is a litmus test for conservatives,” Paul argued on the Senate floor ahead of the vote, contending that if fellow Republicans didn’t support his resolution, “we are simply the same as the Democrats. We don’t care about the debt.”
But the legislation failed to advance on a vote of 21-76. Similar plans Paul has offered in the past have also failed by wide margins.
Among those who voted for the plan were Kentucky’s Rand Paul, Florida’s Marco Rubio, Texas’s Ted Cruz and Nebraska’s Ben Sasse.
“There are very few sane people willing to have a rational discussion about fiscal responsibility … It’s obscene,” I told LifeZette about this development. “These guys are pigs in slop.”
The Washington Post says that at least Paul got more votes than the last time he proposed such a measure:
Paul’s budget did get more support from Republicans than the last time he offered a similar plan, in January 2017, when there were just 14 “yes” votes, compared with the 21 on Thursday. This time the vote occurred with Republicans weathering a conservative backlash over the $1.3 trillion spending bill President Trump signed reluctantly in March.
I don’t know. Somehow I just don’t find that comforting at all. The only way to rein in the out of control federal government is through a Convention of States.
We know it now more than ever.
