#Congress needs to slow down its rush for new spending

The US Senate is getting closer to passing an infrastructure package that will cost taxpayers a cool $1 trillion — but that may be just the start of an orgy of new federal spending.

The eight-year bipartisan spending plan provides $110 billion for roads and bridges, $39 billion for public transit, $66 billion for rail and $55 billion for water and wastewater infrastructure. It allots another $25 billion for airports and $17.3 billion for ports.

Most of that isn’t terrible; roads and bridges enable the country to function, and many around the nation need repairs and upgrades.

Yet the congressional Republican Study Committee warns that the bill is a “Trojan horse” for Democratic social spending and Green New Deal initiatives.

The bipartisan plan adds $550 billion in new spending over five years, on top of $450 billion in previously approved funding. It will steer tens of billions toward items like low-carbon and zero-emission school buses and ferries and power and electric-grid investments.

The Democrats’ progressive social-justice agenda also makes a prominent appearance: The “Digital Equity Act of 2021,” which is part of the package, bars discrimination based on “gender identity” and lets regulators decide where broadband expansion would take place. Some highway spending is touted as a way to fix “racism” in the placement and construction of interstate roadways by “reconnecting some of the communities that were divided.” The word “equity” appears in the package 64 times, one conservative lawmaker noted.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) says he expects to hold a vote on the mammoth measure any day now. But what kind of way is that for legislation to be passed? How many lawmakers will have fully read, digested and debated all 2,700 pages of the bill?

Indeed, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office hasn’t even released its estimate of the true costs of the bill; it’s expected to do so Thursday.

Where the money will come from is also troubling: The plan, for example, counts on 10 years of savings from various programs to cover just five years of spending. It also spends money based on optimistic economic projections.

But the biggest problem is that Congress has spent trillions over the past year in “COVID relief” bills, and Dems now want to also pass a gargantuan $3.5 trillion “reconciliation” bill that will only need a simple majority (50 Democrats, plus Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote) to pass.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi vows that she won’t put the Senate’s infrastructure plan to a vote until the $3.5 trillion bill is passed.

Congress should be trying to figure out how to tame the budget, not expand it to satisfy Dems’ longstanding wish list. All that new spending, particularly funds that aren’t offset with cuts or taxes, will only fuel inflation, an invisible tax on hardworking Americans.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) hopes “we can now pump the brakes a little bit and take the time and care to evaluate the benefits and the cost of this legislation.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) says Dems shouldn’t adopt an “artificial timetable” for its passage and urged a “robust and bipartisan” amendment process on the legislation.

They’re right. If ever there were a time to make sure to keep new spending to the bare minimum, this is it.