The House Republican Study Committee (RSC) released its fiscal year (FY) 2022 budget, “Reclaiming Our Fiscal Future,” which assesses the fiscal condition of the federal government after spending $7.6 trillion since March of last year, finds it lacking, and provides recommendations that will get spending under control and balance the budget in 10 years. 

The budget includes the elimination and consolidation of dozens of programs and agencies, along with tax, regulatory, and entitlement reform.  Many of these ideas have been suggested by Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) in Prime Cuts ($4 billion in savings over five years), including the elimination of the sugar program, milk subsidies and marketing orders; ending federal support for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; privatizing the Federal Aviation Administration; and eliminating funding for the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership, Legal Services Corporation, regional commissions, National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, East-West Center, and Asia Foundation.

The budget also calls for a permanent ban on earmarks, citing CAGW’s Congressional Pig Book as a source of information for this recommendation, including the 111,702 earmarks costing taxpayers $392.5 billion since 1991.   

The RSC budget is not only a serious effort to bring fiscal sanity to Washington; it is also the only effort to produce a budget of any kind in the 117th Congress.  Congressional Democrats have no intent to bring a budget resolution to the floor of the House or Senate, which is particularly distressing to taxpayers after they have already spent $1.9 trillion on the American Rescue Plan Act and President Biden has proposed a $1.5 trillion discretionary budget for FY 2022 along with a $2.25 trillion “infrastructure” American Jobs Plan and a $1.8 trillion “human infrastructure” American Families Plan. 

RSC Chairman Jim Banks (R-Ind.) and Budget Task Force Chairman Kevin Hern (R-Okla.) and their staff have provided a vital and practical contrast to this complete lack of fiscal responsibility.  The RSC budget deserves to be taken seriously to help prevent the nation from continuing down the path to bankruptcy.