November 06, 2023
The US House GOP Israel Bill Is Not Serious
The House majority-passed Israel bill is fundamentally unserious. It makes a partisan mockery of support for Israel and fiscal responsibility.
On November 2, Speaker Johnson’s supplemental bill to support Israel passed the House largely along party lines. The $14.3 billion Israel aid bill is neither a good-faith effort to support Israel in its moment of crisis, nor is it fiscally responsible, as he suggested in a press conference yesterday.
By tying support for Israel’s defense to a completely unrelated, and ultimately self-defeating budget cut, the House majority demonstrates it is unserious about supporting America’s closest partner in the Middle East.
It’s a supplemental budget bill, yet contains a base budget offset, rescinding $14.3 billion in unexecuted funding from the IRS. Last Thursday, Speaker Johnson argued the bill is fiscally responsible because the outlay of money is “paid for” by the IRS cut. However, it’s a specious argument. Cutting IRS funding actually increases the deficit, because it hollows out the federal government’s ability to collect owed tax revenue.
Don’t just take my word for it. The Congressional Budget Office scored the bill as adding almost $27b to the national debt over the next 10 years. The budget cut worsens the national debt. A clean supplemental bill would actually cost the American taxpayer less.
Read the full article and more from The Times of Israel.
More from CNAS
-
Israel’s War of Regime Change Is Repeating America’s Mistakes
Israel should begin planning not only for taking on such responsibilities but also for later handing them off to Palestinians....
By Richard Fontaine, Meghan L. O'Sullivan & David H. Petraeus
-
Biden Hasn’t Abandoned Israel, He’s Learning to Speak Like an Israeli
To Israel’s leaders, Joe Biden has learned to speak dugri....
By Jonathan Lord
-
Blaise Misztal and Jonathan Lord on U.S. Ceasefire Push in Israel-Hamas War
Blaise Misztal of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America and Jonathan Lord from the Center for a New American Security talked about the new push by the U.S. for...
By Jonathan Lord
-
What Comes Next for the U.S. in the Middle East
Following a fatal attack on U.S. troops in Jordan, Jonathan Lord analyzes what comes next for the U.S. Watch the full interview with NBC News....
By Jonathan Lord