Mullin' It Over Column
Last week, President Donald Trump released his budget proposal. It shows his commitment to fiscal responsibility by shrinking the federal government, stopping wasteful spending and providing a path to a balanced budget.
One common misconception about the budget process is that Congress considers the president’s budget exactly as he proposes it. Just as the president sets a legislative agenda in his State of the Union speech – even though he can’t write or draft legislation – the president submits a budget with funding for his priorities for the upcoming fiscal year.
Outlined by the U.S. Constitution, Congress alone holds the power of the purse. This means that in reality, the president’s budget is only the beginning of the negotiations. Congress ultimately sets the funding levels for all federal programs.
Last year, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her Democratic caucus failed to propose, let alone pass, a budget. Speaker Pelosi has said repeatedly “show me your budget, show me your values.” This year, they have yet to fulfill their constitutional responsibility and produce a budget.
Why won’t they show us their budget? Maybe it’s because their socialist agenda, with Medicare-For-All, and the Green New Deal, will put the taxpayers on the hook for trillions of dollars every year and is widely unpopular with Americans.
Pelosi Democrats’ socialist values do not align with Oklahoma’s conservative values. Families in Oklahoma have to balance their budget, so why shouldn’t Congress have to do the same?
House Republicans are committed to working with President Trump to put our nation’s spending back on a more fiscally conservative path.
Markwayne Mullin, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, was
first elected to serve the people of Oklahoma’s Second Congressional District in
November 2012. He is currently serving his fourth term in office. Mullin and his
wife Christie have six children. The Mullin family currently resides in
Westville, Oklahoma, on the same family farm where Markwayne was raised.
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