Members of the House Freedom Caucus on Tuesday vowed to oppose another budget continuing resolution without changes, which they said would only promote more irresponsible spending.
Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, a group comprising conservative Republicans, said the spending binge is driving up inflation.
“We are not interested in a continuing resolution that continues the policies and the spending of the Biden-Schumer-Pelosi era,” Perry said at a press conference Tuesday, referring to President Joe Biden; Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “The American people are sick of it.”
Sept. 30 marks the end of the fiscal year, by which time Congress must pass a continuing resolution to prevent a partial government shutdown.
Caucus members also talked about the lawless southern border, a “weaponized” Justice Department, and censorship being pushed by the government, and said it’s time for Congress to assert the power of the purse.
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts joined the caucus members at the press conference and said passing another government funding bill would be “political cowardice” if the bill doesn’t reduce deficit spending and defend the border. (The Daily Signal is the news outlet of The Heritage Foundation.)
“Only in D.C. would this be complicated,” Roberts said, stressing the importance of securing the border.
“I think of our new friend, Elisa Tambunga in Texas, who just in March of this year lost her mother and her 7-year-old daughter because a human smuggler with 11 illegal aliens in his truck got into an accident with the two of them,” Roberts said. “Passing a continuing resolution funds the lawlessness and the Biden insecure border.”
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, also discussed the border problems.
“As a Texan, and for all of us, particularly a few New Yorkers these days, perhaps people are paying attention to a border that is so devastatingly broken that Amricans are dying,” Roy said, adding:
How many moms do I have to sit next to in another roundtable in Texas that have lost their son or their daughter to fentanyl?
How many migrants have to die in the back of a tractor trailor in San Antonio? How many have to die in the Rio Grande? How many girls have to get sold in the sex-trafficking trade before this body will wake up and stop an out-of-control president? Enough.
Why would we fund that?
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., joined in support of the conservative House members and said that the budget has increased to “$400,000 of new spending per person.”
“That’s unconscionable what they are doing,” Scott said. “We are never going to get inflation under control.”
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said the $33 trillion national debt is a result of tying every spending item to every other spending item, and facing the choice of voting on it at last minute.
He blamed that largely on congressional leaders Schumer; Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.; and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.
“A small handful of appropriators will write something up with a push from the law firm of Schumer, McConnell, McCarthy, and Jeffries, and it will materialize—Shazam! Here we go!—with just a few hours to go,” Lee joked. “You’ve got to pass that or there is a shutdown, and if there is a shutdown, we will blame you for that.”
The White House and some congressional leaders are calling for passage of a “clean continuing resolution”—meaning no changes would be made to the current funding levels.
But considering the federal budget is currently funding a politicized Justice Department, open borders, censorship and woke policies in the military, “clean” is the wrong phrase, said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, who also attended the press conference.
“It’s a dirty CR, not a clean CR,” Fitton said. “It will fund the dirtiest politics and corruption in our government.”
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