Another budget-busting bill

W ith Republicans having seemingly lost their aversion to massive deficit spending now that they have control, and Democrats happy to see many of their favored priorities addressed, Congress approved a $1.3 trillion spending bill this week that takes the government through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.

President Trump signed it, while saying he didn’t like it.

It has plenty of goodies. The office of U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District, was quick to rush out a press release highlighting some.

The agreement supports the construction of two Virginia class submarines in 2018 and includes the Courtney Amendment that allows the Navy to build up to 13 new attack submarines in the next five years.

The measure fully funds Columbia class submarine development, 90 F-35s, and a range of shipbuilding, aircraft and helicopter programs that will mean jobs for Connecticut. Congress is allocating more than half the $1.3 trillion bill for the military.

The spending bill includes an increase of $135 million for Community Health Center-based mental health and substance abuse services, $2.8 billion in workforce development and increases funding for Job Corps (a job-training program for young adults) by $15 million to a total of $1.7 billion.

There is support for homeless veterans, the Long Island Sound Program, a $400 million boost for the pork-friendly Community Development Block Grant program, and a 12.5 percent increase in Connecticut’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit allocation. Wow. But to all that “good news,” we add this word of caution from Maya MacGuineas, president of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:

“Although six months late, we are glad that Congress is finally able to fund the government and that they’ll avoid another shutdown. Frankly, though, it should not have taken a $143 billion spending hike to grease the wheels of the appropriations process and compel policymakers to do their job. These levels of both defense and nondefense discretionary spending are more than Presidents Trump or Obama ever asked for, and in an era of historically high and unsustainable debt, it sets a dangerous precedent.

“With trillion-dollar deficits set to return next year and trillion-dollar interest payments likely to appear within a decade or so, we can’t keep busting the budget with massive omnibus appropriations bills. Instead, we need to couple reasonable discretionary levels with significant new revenue and mandatory spending reductions and reforms.

“We elect our leaders to be careful stewards of taxpayer money. Instead, they just keep on spending it.”

That’s the truth.