J.D. FOSTER: Congress Pours Fuel On The Debt Fire With Phony ‘Emergency’ Spending

Want to spend more with little muss and fuss? Declare the purpose an emergency. That is what Congress does — and did again in the recently adopted continuing resolution (CR). Since 1992 Congress has spent $12 trillion that way, according to the Cato Institute.

Congress will never control spending unless this nonsense stops.

The game goes like this. Congress decides it wants to plus up spending here or throw a few billions there — all outside normal budgeting. But first it needs an excuse. Got it, we’ll call it an emergency.

Episodically there really is an emergency. To qualify as emergency spending, the justification should be a rare event with substantial financial consequences. For example, consider the funding for replacing the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, a key link in the eastern I-95 transportation corridor felled by a wayward container ship last March.

Vessels rarely destroy major bridges and the replacement cost will approach $2 billion, which should still be considered a significant sum, even by Washington standards. Thus, funding the Baltimore bridge replacement qualifies as emergency spending by any sensible metric. Further, the federal government will eventually foot the bill. So, the CR appropriately includes this funding.

Compare that with the $100 billion plus in “emergency” funding for regions ravaged by hurricanes Helene and Milton