Grassley on Budget 'Groundhog Day'

 

Albert Einstein is credited for saying “insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” When it comes to federal spending, that’s Washington in a nutshell.

 

We keep spending, borrowing and raising the debt limit on a continuous loop. Now the federal debt is more than $31 trillion and we’re on the brink of another fiscal mess.

 

Washington needs to stop approaching the fiscal cliff like a deer in the headlights. You can assume that deer’s a goner.

 

As incoming Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, this isn’t my first rodeo. In fact, I’ve served on the Budget Committee my entire time here in the United States Senate. Here’s how I see it.

 

Today President Biden met with Speaker McCarthy to discuss raising the debt ceiling. The debt ceiling must be raised to protect the full faith and credit of the United States.

 

We also must begin to address our nation’s dire fiscal situation.

Our public debt as a percent of our economy is projected to reach its highest level in American history within 10 years.

 

Washington can’t keep pushing our ballooning national debt off on our kids and grandkids. That’s why I’m working to reform Congress’s broken budget and appropriations process.

 

Washington needs a fiscal reality check, or else we’ll face unsustainable payments on interest that will pinch programs for veterans, farmers, seniors and students. Not to mention put national security at risk and heighten the chance of a sudden fiscal crisis.  

 

Tomorrow is Groundhog Day. And it also happens to be the 30^th anniversary of the Hollywood movie “Groundhog Day” starring a weatherman who gets stuck in a time loop. He’s forced to relive Groundhog Day, over and over, until he learns to be a better human.

 

That plot rings a bell. Washington will wake up tomorrow on Groundhog Day to the same fiscal mess. We will relive this fiscal nightmare over and over again, unless we learn how to be better stewards of taxpayer money.

 

Simply put, when you’re in a hole stop digging. Washington needs to get serious about fixing the budget, and stop worrying about scoring political points and heighten the chance of a sudden fiscal crisis.