If one wants a microcosm of how our nation accumulated nearly $33 trillion of debt, one could do worse than to examine a bill House Republican leaders might try to pass in the coming weeks. The shady budgetary gimmicks included in the legislation show how desperate Congress — meaning members of both parties, including the conservatives — is to spend more money it doesn’t have.
‘Must-Pass’ Legislation
Many people in health care circles consider the legislation, originally called the PATIENT Act, a “must-pass” measure. That title comes because funding for community health centers, which the bill extends, expires in a few weeks at the end of the fiscal year (Sept. 30).
But community health center funding in the PATIENT Act is not part of the larger battle over the spending levels Congress will pass for the 12 appropriations bills that fund much of the federal government. The community health center funding is mandatory spending, distinct from the discretionary spending included in the 12 appropriations measures.
House conservatives are (rightly) complaining about Washington’s spending habits and insisting that the annual appropriations measures revert to levels that precede Congress’s Covid-19 spending binge. But most of the same conservatives have ignored the fact that the PATIENT Act originally proposed spending $11 billion on community health centers above and beyond the annual appropriations bills.
If you think this position makes zero sense, then you would be correct. If House conservatives want to enforce fiscal discipline, then they should insist that the mandatory funding for
