“I believe that when we focus on Social Security and Medicare, those are important programs that we must protect for current seniors and for future generations. Any type of modernization efforts will have to be done on a bipartisan basis,” Stefanik replied. She also agreed when Sherman suggested “now is not the time” for such actions.
“Those are off the table now, the Speaker has been very clear on that and I support the Speaker’s decision on that. Where I think we can find real savings is looking at every department to find potential savings. Every committee chair has been tasked to do so by the Speaker and whether it’s unspent COVID funds, which is low-hanging fruit, to have some fiscal responsibility,” she continued.
Stefanik also pointed to unnamed programs in the Department of Defense (DOD) “that are not focused on national defense, they are focused on Woke ideology, we can go after those programs as well.”
Whenever federal spending reforms have been debated in Congress in past years, it was always Republicans insisting on reductions in mandatory spending, including in the two biggest entitlement programs, while Democrats denounced allegedly heartless GOPers for “pushing Granny over the cliff” even as they repeatedly boosted outlays, deficits, and the national debt.
The unexpected GOP stance is not the only new element in the Budget Battle of 2023. The national debt is now at its highest ceiling ever at $31 trillion, inflation continues at levels not seen in four decades, and the banking system seems to be teetering on the brink of a major crisis.
Biden and his Democratic allies in Congress demand the debt ceiling be lifted much higher, which would continue the COVID Pandemic-inspired spending explosion that began in 2020 under former President Donald Trump and sharply accelerated under his successor.
McCarthy and House GOP leaders say there will be no debt ceiling increase without major spending reforms and outlays must be reduced by at least $130 billion to 2022 levels. A political and legislative deadlock, followed by government shutdown in October, seems inevitable unless Biden and McCarthy agree to big compromises.
One big reason for Stefanik’s confidence and the emergence of the new Republican strategy is Russ Vought, former Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under Trump and President of the Center for Renewing America (CRA), a feisty new conservative think tank.
Within weeks after they regained the majority in the lower chamber in the November 2022 mid-term election, Vought laid out what has in fundamental respects become the core of House Republicans’ budget position.
Key to Vought’s thinking is he sees a desperate need for a “fundamental paradigm shift” in how Congress approaches both mandatory spending like Social Security and Medicare where outlays are defined by law and discretionary spending, which is subject to annual congressional decisions.
“Ever since the last 15–20 years, we’ve gotten to the place where all the fiscal warriors wake up in the morning and, unless they’ve cut Social Security or Medicare benefits, they feel like they haven’t done anything. I just think it’s madness to not focus on what you have control of,” Vought told The Epoch Times in a recent interview.
“Now, fast forward to 2023. This isn’t Bill Clinton’s government anymore, it’s a hyper-militant Leftist regime that is woke and weaponized, and I think that is the central order of the day for statesmanship,” Vought continued, explaining that House Republicans must “link the two issues of getting a handle on that regime that’s against their own voters and their own side, and the fact they can save money by starving the administrative state.”
Vought says House Republicans should thus “go hard on the debt limit,” while insisting on $9 trillion in cuts in planned discretionary spending over the next decade to get to a balanced federal budget. Then, after a Republican president and stronger GOP congressional majorities are elected in 2024, address mandatory spending.
“But I wouldn’t start with Medicare or Social Security benefits. I would focus on the social safety net that has really become Food Stamp Nation or the Obamacare expansions that have really expanded welfare, that’s where I would set the focus,” Vought said.
House Budget Committee Republicans, led by Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), are working on a draft budget resolution due by April 15 that will set spending limits for each of the 12 major appropriations bills that, beginning in May, will ultimately become the annual budget proposal to be voted on by the lower chamber in September.
“Russ Vought is a big part of this,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), the second-ranking GOP member of the budget panel, told The Epoch Times shortly after returning to the nation’s Capitol from the Orlando retreat.
“The great thing about Russ is he’s seen it from heading up OMB and he’s seeing it now from not being an official in any administration, but from a policy standpoint. We’ve had a lot of meetings with him and we'll have more,” Norman said.
Other budget Republicans interviewed by The Epoch Times similarly spoke highly of Vought and expressed confidence that the House GOP Conference is united behind Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Arrington and the new strategy on the budget and debt ceiling issues. But they are also realistic about how far apart the two parties are as the budget debate goes forward.
Asked if he sees signs of willingness among Democrats to compromise on federal spending, Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.) pointed to “the budget the President put forward in the lead of the Democratic ideology, it tells you where they think we ought to attack the deficit. It’s tax and spend, so we’re just at an ideological impasse.”
A freshman who worked for Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) prior to being elected to the House in November 2022, Brecheen said his recent private conversation with McCarthy left him greatly encouraged. “I told him this four days ago, I told him ‘I’m encouraged by where you are taking this conference.’”
Brecheen was one of the 20 House Republicans who gained major policy and strategic concessions from McCarthy during the 15-round marathon that resulted in the Californian becoming Speaker. Brecheen also lauded Arrington’s leadership of the budget panel.
“He’s authentic, he’s genuine, he cares about the debt. Jodey is trying to navigate and get the Republican conference on board. He’s trying to educate the conference so we’re not just saying ‘we’ve got a problem, we’ve got a major problem,’” Brecheen told The Epoch Times.
Describing Vought as “brilliant,” Brecheen extolled the former OMB Acting Director’s budget approach. “He’s saying we do have a woke, weaponized and wasteful federal government, and where should conservatives be in the debt ceiling debate? They should be going after where the government is aimed at them.”
Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), another budget panel member, told The Epoch Times he thinks the momentum in the spending debate has shifted in the Republicans’ favor.
“I think there is large general agreement on cutting significantly and the conversation or the narrative is shifting from whether we will cut to how much will we cut and what we will cut,” Good said.
Asked about the possibility of Democrats meeting Republicans halfway on spending cuts, Good was doubtful, saying, “I don’t see or hear any recognition on the part of Democrats of either the seriousness of the fiscal situation with a $32 trillion national debt and Biden putting out a record $6.9 trillion budget that would give us a record $2 trillion [annual] deficit.”
