Congress

For the past 75 years, sometimes referred to as the post war period, the United States was the economic and military power of the free world, or the noncommunist world. With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990 the US became the super power of the world. Just as the people in the US are demanding bureaucratic accountability, the US is pushing the world to accept more responsibility for their own wellbeing, including their own defenses. Too many countries have fallen under the spell of America and it is time for these countries to start taking care of themselves. The US will no longer be the guarantor of free trade, or the major contributor to the UN or NATO. The US is $36 trillion in debt and this must be addressed. One of the first steps is to stop paying the dues for the world, start bringing home US military forces and start being treated as a fair partner as in fair trade. Just as those committed to the status quo are complaining in the US, the globalists around the world are complaining about the US. The time of change is upon us and it will not come easily but the growing debt demands change. Can we count on congress to promote this change? Here is what happened when they tried 30 years ago. The Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Balanced Budget Act, also known as the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, was a law that established federal budget deficit limits and automatic cuts. Then what happened The Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act of 1985 was largely unsuccessful in reducing budget deficits, and was replaced by the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990. (BEA) The BEA was extended by the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1993, and again by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. It expired in 2002, but the Democratic Majority adopted some of its principles, known as PAYGO, or Pay-As-You-Go, in their rules during the 110th Congress. What happened to PAYGO Under the S-PAYGO Act, new legislation must be paid for, on average, over 5- and 10-year periods. Yet under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2022 there is nowhere near $742 billion in non-exempt funding to sequester, meaning OMB would be unable to comply with the law. So much for PAYGO