by Dick Hall-Sizemore

The national debt is $36.2 trillion.

Morgan Griffith (Ninth District), Ben Cline (Sixth District), and John McGuire (Fifth District), Republican members of Congress from Virginia have expressed great concern about the national debt. McGuire has called it “the biggest threat to the U.S.”  Several years ago, Griffith lamented the “skyrocketing national debt.” Two years ago, Cline decried President Biden and the Democrats for the “increase [in] our national debt to unsustainable levels– over $31.6 TRILLION.”

Griffith and Cline have not liked raising the debt limit, either. (McGuire has not been in office long enough to face a vote to raise the debt limit before now.) Griffith felt that raising the national debt limit “should be a great concern of every American.” Two years ago, Cline informed his constituents that he “has voted against raising the debt ceiling a number of times.” He explained, “Families here in Harrisonburg know that you can’t just keep raising the limit on your credit card and keep on spending beyond your means. Eventually, you have to change your spending habits to be able to pay the bills.”

That is, they were opposed to raising the national debt ceiling and not increasing the national debt when Democrats were in power. Now, that Trump is in the White House, things are different. The estimates of how much Trump’s tax-cut and spending bill would increase the national debt vary.  The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates $3.4 trillion.

Republicans don’t favor the “static” model used by the CBO. They prefer a “dynamic model”, which factors in changes to investment, labor supply, interest rates and tax revenue. The Tax Foundation, using a dynamic model, estimates that the increase in the national debt will be less– $2.9 trillion. (Those estimates do not include the additional interest costs resulting from the additional borrowing needed.) The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, estimates an increase of $6 trillion. As for the increase in the national debt ceiling, the Trump bill would increase it by $5 trillion, the largest single increase in history.

Griffith, Cline, and McGuire all voted for the bill with its projected increase in the national debt and historic increase in the national debt limit.

Over on the eastern side of the Commonwealth, Republican members of Congress Rob Wittman (First District) and Jen Kiggans (Second District) had a different concern. They were signatories on a June 24 letter to the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader expressing their alarm over the Medicaid provisions that the Senate was considering for Trump’s tax-cut and spending bill.  In particular, they said,

“The Senate proposal also undermines the balanced approach taken to craft the Medicaid provisions in H.R. 1—particularly regarding provider taxes and state directed payments. The Senate version treats expansion and non-expansion states unfairly, fails to preserve existing state programs, and imposes stricter limits that do not give hospitals sufficient time to adjust to new budgetary constraints or to identify alternative funding sources.

We are also concerned about rushed implementation timelines, penalties for expansion states, changes to the community engagement requirements for adults with dependents, and cuts to emergency Medicaid funding. These changes would place additional burdens on hospitals already stretched thin by legal and moral obligations to provide care.”

The letter concluded, “Therefore, we cannot support a final bill that threatens access to coverage or jeopardizes the stability of our hospitals and providers.”

The final version of the Senate bill included those provisions. They voted for it.

Disclosure: I will benefit from an additional income tax deduction of up to $6,000.