Joey Arrington calls for calm resolution of the state debt issue
2023.01.28 03:26
Joey Arrington calls for calm resolution of the state debt issue
By Ray Johnson
Budrigannews.com – As he assumes a position that puts him directly in the middle of the US debt-ceiling debate, Republican Representative Jodey Arrington seeks to imitate his hero’s leadership style.
For the laid-back, youthful Texan who holds to fiscal restraint and a belief in small government, Reagan, the great communicator, seems like a fitting role model. These values will guide him in his new position as House Budget chairman.
He asserts that the GOP must refocus on spending reduction.
During an interview in his Capitol Hill office, Arrington stated candidly, “I think we have lost our way.”
In contrast to many fiscal conservatives in the House GOP caucus, who vehemently demand severe spending cuts in exchange for their votes to prevent a catastrophic payments default, Arrington, who first entered Congress in 2017, is taking a more flexible approach.
The 50-year-old believes that Republicans and President Joe Biden can reach a debt ceiling agreement. He said that Republicans will come to an agreement, which is a hopeful sign that the debt standoff can be resolved without disrupting the market.
In order to avoid a US default later this year, Arrington will need to develop a fiscal plan in March that unites Republicans and serves as the party’s marker in negotiations over raising the $31.4 trillion cap.
Democrats, who have criticized GOP lawmakers for merely calling for cuts without making difficult choices, will also rely heavily on that document.
In an interview with Bloomberg Television’s “Balance of Power with David Westin,” Brendan Boyle, the top Democrat on the Budget Committee, stated, “It’s almost as if they want to take the hostage first and then figure out why they’re doing it later.”
However, Arrington’s strategy is beginning to take shape. Next year, he wants to cut $130 billion from the discretionary budget of $1.7 trillion. This could affect GOP favorites like defense spending.
Arrington makes the candid admission that he won’t get all the spending controls he wants, which is unusual these days on Capitol Hill.
He said, “Let’s be adults.” They would, I can tell you, in West Texas, as soon as we reduced this budget by half and began from there.
He was inspired by a line from a book written by his daughter by the Persian poet Rumi, “If all you can do is crawl, start crawling.”
We must begin reducing deficit spending incrementally and annually. He stated, “Then we can walk, and then we can run.”
Arrington also acknowledges that Republicans contributed to the budget issue. Democrats have cited the Trump tax cuts of 2017 as a major cause of the debt, as well as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and record levels of defense spending.
He stated, “Putting balanced budgets on paper and beating our chests about fiscal responsibility in a party that has also contributed to the problem — not interested.” Arrington got his start in politics while working for George W. Bush while he was governor of Texas and president of the United States. There are photographs of him in the West Wing with former Vice President Dick Cheney and with Bush in his office.
He stated:
“Here is this guy from Plainview, Texas, home of Jimmy Dean the sausage king, wanting to change the world like Reagan one day, and finding myself in my 20s sitting in the Oval Office advising the president.” All I can say is that God has been good.
Arrington worked as vice chancellor at Texas Tech after leaving the Bush White House for senior positions at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the cleanup effort following Hurricane Katrina.
Arrington also has a long-term objective in the midst of the immediate nature of debt ceiling negotiations: within ten years, to balance the federal budget. Reagan never managed to accomplish that.
Under Democrat President Bill Clinton, the federal government had a budget that was balanced for the last time.
Given the demographics of the United States and rising healthcare costs, popular programs like Medicare and Social Security are the primary causes of deficits, this won’t be easy.
The budget must be balanced through a bipartisan agreement, just like the impending debt crisis.
Arrington suggests concentrating on domestic discretionary cuts, such as those to the National Institutes of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Internal Revenue Service, and the National Parks Department.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates, however, that this would necessitate a 85% reduction in that portion of the budget over the course of ten years. Democrats, on the other hand, would vehemently reject this idea because they favor a significant tax overhaul rather than significant spending reductions.
Arrington stated that such a budget would be “ideal,” but he acknowledges that its implementation is unlikely.
In addition, he is working on a plan to return debt to pre-pandemic levels and to balance the budget without interest payments. Spending caps that limit the ratio of debt to GDP are another idea that is in the works. They could be enforced by automatic cuts known as sequestration.
All of this is up for discussion with Democrats, many of whom Arrington considers to be close friends. He intends to collaborate with moderates such as California’s Scott Peters and New Jersey’s Josh Gottheimer to find common ground.
The representative whose Lubbock-centered district was quoted as saying:
“I’m a rural Republican, and I think rural Republicans are very practical people.”
Additionally, he is hopeful that Biden will eventually engage in negotiations.
He stated:
“The American people are going to get him there.” “The American people will demand that their leaders behave responsibly.”
