Patrick Leahy: “I am worried that we are heading toward another unnecessary, manufactured crisis because our current government funding…”

“I am worried that we are heading toward another unnecessary, manufactured crisis because our current government funding is set to expire in 8 days. So I want to take a moment and talk about how we got here, and the path forward. In fiscal year 2022, Leader McConnell required parity between defense and nondefense funding. This was a requirement that we met--Democrats and Republicans--and it provided the commonsense framework that allowed us to finish our work. Now, the Republicans have abandoned this framework, demanding steep cuts to programs that the American people rely on. The cuts will be more painful as inflation continues to squeeze pocketbooks. Heating, cooling, food, and housing--these costs are becoming more expensive. They have justified this change of tactics by claiming that Democrats spent $700 billion in reconciliation bills and that this should negate the need to provide parity to nondefense programs. Well, of course, there is an obvious flaw in that kind of reasoning. The spending that they are talking about was to meet an unprecedented crisis that killed more than 1 million Americans and threatened to collapse the global economy. Did people expect us not to defend Americans at that time? The bills were meant to get us out of the pandemic, get the Nation healthy, and get our economy back on track, and I believe they are accomplishing that goal. Would anybody say they wish we had not spent that money?…”