I Spent a Shitpot Load of Money But I Really Want to Balance the Budget

Earlier today we received a response letter from emailed request related to Numbers USA issues.

Thank you for contacting me regarding funding the federal government for Fiscal Year 2018. I appreciate your thoughts and I am grateful for the opportunity to respond.  On March 23, 2018, the Senate passed H.R.1625, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, by a bipartisan vote of 65-32. The President signed the bill into law the next day. I supported the legislation because it contains a number of key provisions that are critically important to the United States and Georgia. This agreement ends crippling cuts to our national defense by delivering the largest increase in defense funding in 15 years. This includes $405 million in specific funding directly for the recapitalization of the aging E-8 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System platform, known as JSTARS and based at Robins Air Force Base in Warner Robins, Ga. Georgia families will benefit from additional funding for community health centers, school safety, training for new pediatricians and an improved federal response to the opioid crisis. Georgia farmers will see relief from burdensome regulations that were never intended to affect their operations. This bill also provides new resources for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, including critical funding for its biosecurity lab. Further, it includes funding to help maintain and improve our nation’s infrastructure and protects Georgia’s water interests. It also includes a measure that will help keep guns out of the hands of criminals while protecting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans. Additionally, the agreement includes $81.5 billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs, including an additional $2 billion for infrastructure programs to repair and enhance VA medical facilities and State Veterans Home, and a $337 million increase over the president’s original budget request for construction of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers navigation projects, such as the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project off the coast of Georgia.  While I believe this legislation was needed to fund important programs and keep the government open, the cycle of short-term spending bills that brought us to this point this spending bill is no way to run a country. We must reform our broken appropriations process and eliminate wasteful spending. To address our broken system, I have sponsored the Biennial Budgeting and Appropriations Act ever since I joined the Senate in 2005. Biennial budgeting would require Congress to reform the annual appropriations process with a two-year system in which we appropriate dollars in the first year and then conduct oversight on federally funded programs during the second year. I have also cosponsored a constitutional amendment that would require Congress to pass a balanced budget. As members of Congress, we are entrusted with the responsibility of spending taxpayer dollars wisely. I will continue working with my colleagues to improve our budget and appropriations process. Thank you again for contacting me. If I can be of any future assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me again. Sincerely, Johnny Isakson United States Senator

For the most part this letter is boilerplate bullshit that did not speak in any manner to my insistence that budget include funding for the border wall. Money for this, money for that but as to your concern, Mr. Voter (aka me), fuck you. The highlighted line caught my eye as an especially rich dose of dishonesty, Johnny Isakson has his name on a proposal to balance the budget, all the while not mentioning once any attempt to control costs or practice any form of self-denial.