How Republicans Can Prove They’re Serious About the National Debt | Opinion

The Republican Party’s unified control of Congress and the White House is on borrowed time. Facing a $37 trillion national debt, the elected officials the grassroots sent to Washington with a mandate to cut spending are waffling over whether to eliminate $9.4 billion, which is to say 0.00025 percent of the debt.

If the GOP cannot deliver on such low-hanging fruit, it will have squandered a rare opportunity and handed a win to big-government liberals. Lawmakers face two options: Pass the Rescissions Act now or abandon your principles and watch as your voters abandon you.

Congress adopted rescissions under the 1974 Impoundment Control Act as a reminder that the legislative branch’s power of the purse is not simply to empty the purses of hardworking Americans. It allows the president to propose canceling previously appropriated, unobligated funds, subject to congressional approval within 45 days. The current package targets $8.3 billion in foreign aid—think environmentalist initiatives in Africa—and $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS—think taxpayer-funded propaganda. These are programs many Americans recognize as nonessential, yet they persist because of bureaucratic inertia and political timidity.

At a time when every man, woman, and child in America is on the hook for $108,000 to pay off the national debt, the rescissions package would be the equivalent of knocking $27 off the price tag. It is a paltry sum, which means it is even more vital to pass without amendment.

The House vote was razor-thin at 214-212, and the Senate, where a simple majority can pass the package, must act now to avoid expiration. Every defection risks derailing this effort and emboldening liberals to obstruct future reforms. Some Senate Republicans already appear to be wavering. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) must set a clear red line for his colleagues, reminding them that voters deserve the benefit of the doubt over entrenched D.C. insiders. The Rescissions Act isn’t about slashing essential services; it’s about prioritizing taxpayer dollars over bureaucratic sacred cows.

The national debt is an existential threat. The CBO estimates that net interest payments are projected to hit $1 trillion next year, crowding out investments in defense, infrastructure, and tax relief. Every dollar spent on questionable programs—say, for example, the $10 million set aside for “gender programs” in Pakistan that somehow found its way into the domestic COVID relief bill—is a dollar stolen from future generations. The Rescissions Act, though modest at 0.5 percent of discretionary spending, is a critical signal to voters and the market. If Republicans can’t rally behind it, they risk surrendering credibility as the party of fiscal sanity.

It is time for Congress to reassert its role as the legislature rather than outsource its responsibilities to the executive branch. Elon Musk and DOGE did an admirable job from the White House in flagging $162 billion in improper payments in 2024 alone. Rescissions are the constitutional path to codify these savings, shielding the administration from legal challenges while reasserting Congress’ fiscal responsibility.

If Republican senators refuse to govern out of concern for their constituents, perhaps they will do so for the sake of their own political survival. Unified government is a rare thing in America—only 15 times since 1900 has one party held the White House, Senate, and House at once. History shows voters punish complacency when lawmakers ignore the mandate that sent them to Washington. In 2018, a $15 billion rescissions package passed the House but died in the Senate, undone by GOP senators prioritizing pet projects. Voters let them have it in the midterms that followed.

Democrats clearly have the midterms in mind as they unify behind Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.). Schumer has threatened to shut down the government if the Senate passes these modest cuts. Rather than run scared, Republicans would do well to remember his predecessor, the late Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.). In July 2013, Reid threatened the nuclear option if the GOP did not confirm several of President Barack Obama’s radical labor nominees; Republicans capitulated. Reid rewarded that display of cowardice by deploying the nuclear option a few months later. Schumer, no doubt, has similar plans. If he senses wavering from a majority that is more committed to the status quo than its own principles, he will have all the more reason to shut down the government and obstruct future budget reforms.

Republicans should make liberals justify their own spendthrift ways, rather than playing defense. The Rescissions Act is a test of whether the GOP can follow the mandate that voters gave them in 2024. Pass the package, unapologetically, and make Schumer and company defend the status quo of borrowing 40 cents on the dollar to pay for liberal pet projects. The choice is clear for Senate Republicans as the July 18 deadline approaches: cut now or pay dearly later.

Erick Erickson is host of the nationally syndicated Erick Erickson Show and a member of the Americans for Prosperity Advisory Council.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.