Senator Paul Is Right To Offset Hurricane Relief With Spending Cuts

Any casual observer of the news knows how horrific and nasty things are getting down south. Just after Hurricane Harvey slammed Texas, Hurricane Irma is setting its sights on Florida. Just as the situation in Texas, Florida is not faring well at all. As the rest of the country watches in sadness and horror of what people in these areas are experiencing, proposals for solutions are steadily coming in.

As is customary with any tragedy, the federal government is offering its own solutions and Congress has to be involved. Naturally, most human beings want to help. This is also true of members of Congress.

But there is a problem in the bigger picture involving spending and how it affects our economy.

This is where Senator Rand Paul entered with a proposal of compromise between the two. The federal government can aid the areas being hit hard with these unprecedented hurricanes while tackling the runaway spending of the federal government at the same time.

A proposal by the United States Senator from Kentucky would offset all of the proposed $15.25 billion with spending cuts to foreign aid.

Shouldn’t we look to our own people before trying to save the world?

Some may consider the proposal by Senator Paul as political grandstanding and at first glance, it could appear that way. Members of Congress are looking to aid people in need who are being displaced by a devastating weather event. One Senator is trying to advance a spending cut agenda, and threatening to slow down the aid process with the spending debate.

At the same time, Senator Paul has a point. As Kentucky’s junior senator stated in a recent opinion piece published by The Hill:

“Harvey isn’t the only emergency. Hurricane Irma has now hit the U.S. and looks like it might hit Florida this weekend, even stronger than Harvey. Others could still come. We must plan ahead, and we must pay for our needs.

That’s why I’ve offered an amendment to the emergency funding that offsets every dime of the proposed $15.25 billion through cuts to aid overseas that hasn’t yet been spent.”

The spending in this country is out of control. While this may be a difficult time to have conversations about living within our means, this could have been avoided had we done it all along. If the spending wasn’t out of control and the debt wasn’t out of control, Senator Paul wouldn’t be forced to raise legitimate concerns about the path our country’s budget is on.

But here we are.

At this point, Congress or the President could make it easy on themselves by agreeing to cut spending elsewhere. This would be a more fiscally reasonable solution than simply raising the debt ceiling. We cannot as a nation continue to spend recklessly with the credit card funded by taxpayers. It’s unreasonable and it is simply unfair to the people funding this madness.

We can help those displaced by the hurricanes while protecting taxpayers across America. In helping our fellow citizen, let’s look to the future as Paul proposes and let’s pick the most fiscally responsible road to assistance.

It’s unfortunate that congressional leaders and the President have not favored a more reasonable method to help our fellow citizens in need. By continuing to bill our children and their children for the things we do today, we’re setting up the future of the United States for total financial ruin.

Let’s absolutely help those who will be affected by the hurricane, but do so responsibly by paying for what we spend now.