Deficit reduction, control paramount

The state of Iowa is one of the best financially managed states in the nation. In the Iowa Legislature, we maintained a balanced budget because we abided by a simple budgeting principle — one that businesses and families across the state live by every day: Don’t spend more money than you take in. If you do take out loans or have credit card debt, you manage your spending to reduce the debt.

It’s clear that Congress can learn a lot from how we do things in Iowa.

Unfortunately, with the $2.1 trillion budget framework that recently passed the House, the federal government is heading in the wrong direction.

In Fiscal Year 2020, the U.S. government collected a little over $3.4 trillion in revenue. Yet, with the budget bill that Democrats are currently ramming through the House, we are poised to spend double that in the last 12 months on stimulus alone.

Keep in mind: Over $1 trillion in previously allocated pandemic relief funds still have not been utilized. In their latest stimulus bill, Democrats have set their recommended levels and amounts of national debt to be an astonishing $41 trillion by 2030.

This out-of-control spending will eventually lead to skyrocketing interest rate payments — making it more difficult for the federal government to fund critical programs, including Social Security, Medicare, national defense, infrastructure and much more.

Additionally, and perhaps most critically, Democrats are saddling our children — and even our grandchildren — with debt by attempting to pass this laundry list of progressive policies and disingenuously referring to it as “COVID relief.” Their list includes a $15 minimum wage hike that will destroy Main Street businesses and eliminate jobs in rural Iowa.

As a father of four, I firmly believe it is my responsibility as an elected official to leave this country better than I found it. 

That begins by balancing the federal budget and getting our country’s fiscal house in order by fighting against reckless, blue state-style spending.

I am committed to standing up for American taxpayers. This is your money — not the government’s. I will always fight to enact fiscally responsible policies as a newly appointed member of the House Committee on the Budget.

U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Hull, represents Greene County in Congress.