Rep. Jason Smith votes against budget deal that boosts federal spending, debt

The new budget deal passed by Congress and signed into law Friday will boost federal spending, ballooning the national debt, according to U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, who voted against the measure.

Smith said he was one of 67 House Republicans to vote against the last-minute deal, and the only member of the GOP House leadership to do so.

The Southeast Missouri congressman said �it wasn�t an easy decision� to oppose the bill.

�I hate that I couldn�t support it,� he said. �You don�t want to be on an island by yourself, but we also have to get serious about cutting spending.�

The 8th District congressman from Salem, Missouri, said even President Donald Trump, who signed the bill into law, �admitted there was a lot of bad stuff in it.�

Lawmakers in the House approved the bill early Friday after the Senate passed the measure only hours earlier.

Smith said the Senate-crafted bill increases the nation�s overwhelming debt without including any reforms to rein in out-of-control spending.

�This is the largest increase to federal spending since (President Barack) Obama�s stimulus package,� he said, adding the new law will grow federal spending by 13 percent over the next two years.

The new law will increase discretionary military and domestic spending by nearly $300 billion during that time, Smith said.

�The best part of the bill is the full funding of the military,� he said.

Even so, Smith said he could not vote for a measure that doesn�t seek to restrain overall federal spending.

He said he agreed with Gen. Mike Mullen, who chaired the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2007 to 2011, that �the most significant threat to our national security is our debt.�

The nation�s debt stands at $20 trillion and is expected to grow by $1 trillion annually, he said.

Smith said he supported the earlier House bill that continued federal funding at current levels until March 23, while also providing full funding for the military until Sept. 30 when the 2018 fiscal year ends.

The Senate bill continued funding until March 23, but then included a budget agreement on how much the government will spend for the remainder of this fiscal year and the 2019 fiscal year, Smith said.

In order to comply with the new law, Congress will have to approve all appropriations bills by March 23, he said.

The end result is the new law provides for �a higher level of spending,� Smith said.

Smith said the measure crafted in the Senate also restores some tax credits that were removed in the recently passed GOP-backed, tax-reform measure.

Restored tax credits include those for owners of electric cars, race horses and race cars, he said.

�How many people in Southeast Missouri get a tax break for driving an electric car?� he asked. The bottom line is taxpayers are paying for such items, he said.

�Those are the loopholes that I have been preaching about eliminating,� Smith added.

The congressman said the budget deal includes none of the spending reforms previously pushed by Republican lawmakers.

It doesn�t include work requirements for welfare programs, which would save �tens of millions of dollars,� he said.

It also doesn�t include Medicaid changes that would give more flexibility to states and could cut federal costs by $732 billion over 10 years, Smith said.

�I felt like we could have gotten a better agreement,� he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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