Rep. Bob Good rejected calls for Republicans to agree to Democrat spending levels, noting nothing has changed despite Republican control of Congress for over a year.
In an interview, Good said he was willing to risk a partial government shutdown by refusing funding that would exacerbate problems like rising debt and an “unprecedented” fiscal situation.
David Asman said, “So, are you — we have got an impasse now. Are you willing to take that impasse to a partial government shutdown?”
Rep. Good replied, “Well, the bottom line is, we still have in place the spending levels and the policies from the Biden/Pelosi/Schumer regime, from when they had all control — total control of government. Nothing’s changed in the 14 months since Republicans have had control.”
“At least we have slowed things down. At least we have fought over spending. At least we have not made things worse. But the more this government does, the worse it is for the American people. We shouldn’t be joining hands with Democrats just to show we can govern or we can get things done, no matter how harmful to the American people,” he continued.
While a shutdown is not ideal, Good argued it is better than further increasing spending and funding policies that harm Americans, like border security.
He proposed at minimum passing a continuing resolution through September to adopt spending caps from the previous year, which would cut around $100 billion from what Democrats proposed.
“Even if that leads to a partial government shutdown?” asked Asman.
Rep. Good answered, “Well, the government shutdown is not ideal, but it’s not the worst thing.”
“It would be worse to exacerbate the problem, to further increase our debt and our spending, to make our fiscal situation, which is unprecedented as it is, as you know, to continue to fund a government that’s facilitating the border invasion,” he explained.
“Why would we give Biden and Mayorkas billions and billions of dollars to keep doing this to the American people? The only leverage we have when we have one House of one branch is to be willing to say no, to be willing to walk away,” insisted the lawmaker.
Good suggested, “What we ought to do is do a — and this is a low — this is setting the bar really low, but we ought to do the — at least the continuing resolution through September 30. That would kick in the FRA caps that were put in place a year ago. I was against them a year ago because we had a stronger hand a year ago.”
He concluded, “But at least that would cut about $100 billion from what the Biden — excuse me — the Johnson-Schumer deal was planning to do. At least it would eliminate thousands of earmarks for tens of billions of dollars for members of both parties, and at least it wouldn’t make things worse.”
Good said Republicans’ only leverage is being willing to say no and walk away from deals, rather than joining with Democrats just to claim they can govern if the policies hurt Americans.
