On Thursday evening, the House of Representatives passed a bill, HR6126, providing $14.5 billion in supplemental funding for Israel. In keeping with the recent search for a new House Speaker who would enforce fiscal responsibility, the aid to Israel was offset with a corresponding cut to existing funding in another part of the federal budget (in this case the IRS). Therefore this $14.5 billion in aid for Israel will not add to the national debt.
As expected, both Senate majority leader Schumer and President Biden oppose this bill. They specifically oppose using already-approved money in the 2023 budget for anything other than its originally intended purpose. Instead, they would like any aid for Israel to be “borrowed” and simply added to the National Debt. The emergency need of a longstanding ally who is under attack is apparently less important than funding for additional IRS agents.
This puts new House speaker Mike Johnson in a similar position to that which Kevin McCarthy found himself in this past spring during the debt ceiling debate. McCarthy got the House to pass a bill that raised the debt ceiling (desired by the President), but that also enforced fiscal discipline by holding 2024 spending to 2022 levels. Speaker McCarthy eventually capitulated to Biden and Schumer and squandered yet another opportunity to impose fiscal restraint.
Speaker Johnson has now gotten the House to pass a highly desired funding bill in support of Israel in their war with Hamas. That bill also contains a measure of fiscal discipline – not the same exact thing as in the debt ceiling bill, but similar enough in principle.
Now is the test for Speaker Johnson. Will he cave to pressure from Biden and Schumer like McCarthy did and compromise on a Democrat-supported version of Israel aid that includes no fiscal discipline? Or will he stand his ground, having achieved exactly what the President wants (aid for Israel) as well as the fiscal sobriety demanded by those who voted him into the speaker job?
With the federal budget in a death spiral and zero restraint on the part of the Democrats when it comes to spending, there is no longer any room for compromise. If Speaker Johnson caves in, he should be immediately voted out just as McCarthy was.