Cal Thomas: The bleeding must stop

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Wednesday, November 1st. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Up next: Commentator Cal Thomas with a few ideas for the new Speaker of the House, beginning with encouraging Republicans to lead the way on getting federal spending under control.

CAL THOMAS, COMMENTATOR: House Speaker Mike Johnson has announced his intention to form a bipartisan panel to cut massive spending that has led to an unsustainable $33 trillion national debt. The pragmatist in me cheers, but the cynic in me says asking Congress to cut spending is like asking Dracula to cut back on his consumption of blood. Spending helps keep members in office, and staying in office seems to be all that matters to many of them.

I have longed to see Cabinet Members and Members of Congress come before committees and defend their proposals for new spending. They should be asked how current and past spending has, or has not, achieved the goals stated in their legislation and agencies. Often there are no goals in the legislation. It’s spending for the sake of spending.

Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel offers some good starting points to rein in federal spending. Strassel writes: “According to the White House it is ‘critical’ that Senate Democrats get another $16 billion in child-care-center funding, since the supposedly one-time $24 billion pandemic allotment is gone.”

More dubious spending requests include the Federal Communications Commission getting another $6 billion for the Affordable Connectivity Program. Strassel says it “aimed to close the ‘digital divide’ but has really blown $17 billion subsidizing the Netflix habits of people who already had high-speed broadband.”

These spending items and many more unnecessarily contribute to the national debt, and they result in higher prices for mortgages, gasoline, food and other necessities.

During the Reagan administration, inaccurate press reports claimed the Pentagon was spending more than $600 on toilet seats and $435 for hammers that could be bought at a local hardware store for far less. What turned out to be accounting errors helped focus the minds of many Americans about government overspending. It held up to ridicule those who were spending money like it wasn’t their own, which it wasn’t.

Reagan named what came to be known as “The Packard Commission” to reform defense spending. Later, the Base Realignment and Closure process shut down unused and outdated military housing over several administrations. Some members of Congress protested, because it cost them money in their districts, but it was done. As I recall some members who had been screaming loudest about the closures later tried having it both ways and took credit for saving taxpayer money. You gotta admire politicians who can say one thing one day and the opposite another day. Hardly anyone seems to care and that’s a major part of the debt problem.

Members who propose such unnecessary spending should be brought before House committees, now run by Republicans. Democrats won’t do it, so it’s up to Republicans to demand accountability and to have proponents justify their spending proposals.

Let’s hope Speaker Johnson gets his bipartisan commission and that it provides cover for all Members so they can reduce spending, reform Social Security and Medicare, the real drivers of debt. Everyone knows this must be done to secure the financial future of the nation for generations to come.

I’m Cal Thomas.

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