Only 35 senators supported Senator Mike Lee's (R-UT) amendment to the bloated Hurricane Sandy “relief" bill. The amendment would have required the bill's $50 billion in new federal spending to be offset with a .5% across-the-board cut in domestic spending. Senator Lee's amendment did not cut one penny from the unconstitutional spending contained in the bill; it simply required the spending be balanced with minor spending cuts so as not to further increase the already dangerously high national debt.
Yet even this minor, common-sense step toward fiscal responsibility was too much for the United States Senate. Their refusal to consider balancing new spending with spending cuts is even more outrageous when one considers that the majority of the $50 billion dollars in so-called "emergency" spending is not even directly related to Sandy relief! Instead, $33 billion is devoted to "future and anticipated needs."
Even if this spending was constitutional (it isn't), and if the federal government was capable of providing disaster aid in an efficient and compassionate manner (it isn't), there still would be no justification for not funding the bill with cuts in other federal programs. This vote is one more example of why supporters of limited government and sound economics need to redouble our efforts to get Congress to address the nation's fiscal problems with real spending cuts.
Click here for the roll call on Lee’s amendment.
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