This week, conservative favorite freshman congressman Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) spearheaded a stirring letter that sounds the alarm on the dire fiscal situation currently facing the United States federal government. As Conservative Review notes, fellow signatories include Republican Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Mark Meadows of North Carolina, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Ken Buck of Colorado, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Justin Amash of Michigan, Jeff Duncan of South Carolina, and Warren Davidson of Ohio.
The letter, which merely pleads that Congress actually stick to its current prescribed spending limits and not blow through previously agreed-upon spending caps, reads as follows, in relevant part:
We write to respectfully request that you only bring forward spending measures which adhere to the budget caps put in place by the Budget Control Act (“BCA”) of 2011, as amended.
As you know, our nation recently surpassed $22 trillion in debt. With every hour that passes, we add $100 million to that figure. That is unconscionable. That must end.
We know that if we simply hold to current spending levels — even assuming today’s historically low interest rates — spending on interest alone will surpass defense spending within 5 years. Medicare is slated to run out of funds by 2026 and Social Security is slated to run out of funds by 2035.
The good news is that current law is on our side to restrain spending. Congress should hold overall spending to the caps levels already in place while ensuring our men and women in uniform have the tools necessary to do their job. Doing so would be a modest step on a path towards balancing the budget.
We respectfully request that you adhere to the existing spending caps currently in law in order to preserve our ability to defend our nation, protect our seniors, and pass down a strong Republic to the next generation of Americans.
As Conservative Review explains, the Budget Control Act of 2011 — known in D.C. circles at the time as “sequestration” — “was originally passed with enforcement mechanisms to control spending and the debt.” Since then, however, it has been a bipartisan recurring Washington habit to continually raise spending limits and the debt ceiling.
Rep. Roy, since joining the House in January, has consistently been the conservative firebrand that many predicted he would be. In January, as The Daily Wire reported, he devoted his maiden House floor speech to railing against how Mexican cartels have acquired “operational control” of our southern border:
“In my visit to the border, one thing is clear,” Roy said. “Dangerous cartels are calling the shots … the cartels have operational control of the border. That’s what we’re sending our guys down on the river, in the Rio Grande, to do to defend this nation. So it’s time for us to put partisanship aside to secure our border.”
“This body has repeatedly authorized assistance to our allies to help them secure their borders,” Roy continued, after describing the success of security walls built by such allies as Israel. “But at the same time, the House is crippled with inaction in securing our own [border].”