Federal budget deal too enticing for most lawmakers to reject

Ga. Republicans ignore added debt, Dems ignore lack of Dreamers deal.

WASHINGTON — Many Republican members of Georgia’s congressional delegation have built their careers on promoting fiscal conservatism. Sparked by overzealous government spending, they say, the growing national debt is strangling the economy and the military and desperately needs to be reduced.

The reality is similar for the delegation’s Democrats, who have stressed their focus on immigration this year and securing legal status for so-called Dreamers, young immigrants who were brought to the country as children without authorization.

But this week’s $320 billion budget deal ultimately proved to be too politically enticing for many Georgia lawmakers to reject.

The two-year agreement will add hundreds of

billions of dollars to deficits over the coming years — and that’s not counting the $1 trillion-plus that Congress will still need to appropriate annually to fund federal agencies. And it does not include anything to advance the dialogue on immigration ahead of a critical March 5 deadline.

Yet 13 of the state’s 16 lawmakers voted for the deal.

The reality is that the agreement includes many of the parochial priorities lawmakers have been pushing for all year. There’s more money for the military, hospitals and cotton farmers; tax credits for the state’s trou- bled nuclear project and the potential for additional infrastructure dollars for state priorities such as rural broadband and the Port of Savannah.

Those goodies were in part what prompted all but one of the state’s Republicans to ultimately back away from conservative groups pres- suring them to vote no. Half of Georgia’s Democrats sim- ilarly rejected the party’s liberal base itching for a show- down in solidarity for the Dreamers.

The political crosscurrents Georgia lawmakers grap- pled with were evident in the official statements many released following Friday morning’s vote. Many chose to focus on local priorities funded in the bill. Some dodged the press entirely.

Take Augusta-area Republican U.S. Rep. Rick Allen, who has both Plant Vogtle and Fort Gordon in his district.

“Ultimately, when it comes down to it, my job is to represent the people of (Georgia’s 12th Congressional District), and this legislation provided my district with some critical support,” he said. “Looking to the future, we shouldn’t have to make tough choices like this anymore.”

Tifton Republican U.S. Rep. Austin Scott, a member of the House Armed Services Committee elected as part of the 2010 tea party wave, chose to focus on the military. Ditto for Roswell Republican U.S. Rep. Karen Handel, who also highlighted the bill’s two years of funding for community health centers.

Then there was Republican U.S. Sen. David Perdue. Perhaps no Georgia lawmaker has fixated more on the national debt than the former Fortune 500 CEO.

While he routinely voted against blockbuster fiscal b ills d uring the O ba ma administration, Perdue has backed government spend- ing measures since his ally Donald Trump was sworn in as president, as well as his party’s $1.5 trillion tax over- haul in December. He voted for the budget deal, and in a press release he focused heavily on its creation of a special panel to overhaul the budget process, an issue he’s advocated for in the past.

“We won’t solve this debt crisis unless and until we fix our broken budget process,” he said. “This select committee is our opportunity to finally develop a process that works.”

That wasn’t a strong enough argument for some Georgia conservatives.

“I don’t ever want to hear any Republican from Georgia who voted for that monstrosity ever complain about budget deficits again,” said Jason Pye, a state GOP activist who also works as vice president of legislative affairs for the right-leaning grass-roots group FreedomWorks.

On the left, two of the st a te’s four De m oc r ats, U.S. Reps. John Lewis of Atlanta and Hank Johnson of Lithonia, voted with the majority of their party colleagues in opposition to the bill, mainly in protest of U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan’s refusal to commit to an immigration vote on the Dreamers.

Meanwhile, the state’s two more moderate Democrats, U.S. Reps. Sanford Bishop of Albany and David Scott of Atlanta, backed the bill.

Scott told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he is supportive of the Dreamers and hopes Congress votes on an immigration bill soon. But, citing funding for farmers, health care and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, he said “at this moment, voting in favor of this bill is the right thing for Georgia and for our country.”

‘I don’t ever want to hear any Republican from Georgia who voted for that monstrosity ever complain about budget deficits again.’ Jason Pye State GOP activist