Joni Ernst is no budget hawk
Spending and debt have skyrocketed since she went to Washington, D.C.
Say one thing about Joni Ernst: She’s got nerve.
The Republican from Iowa is trying to portray herself as the US Senate’s premier budget hawk as she tries to get in good with the latest Let’s Cut Government Spending push.
The effort is being led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who have been deputized by Donald Trump to sharply reduce federal spending. The two have promised to slash $2 trillion from the budget.
So far, budget experts and Wall Street haven’t given the effort much chance of success.
This isn’t surprising. The federal budget amounts to about $6 trillion per year and cutting a third of it would mean sharply curtailing spending programs that people like, such as Social Security and Medicare, and that the Republican majority refuses to cut, like the Defense Department.
This doesn’t mean the effort couldn’t do real damage. I am particularly concerned about Medicaid, the joint federal-state program vital to people with disabilities and the poor. Right-wingers have targeted the program for years, and news reports say Trump’s team is eyeing cuts to the program to fund extension of the 2017 tax cuts that mostly benefit the wealthy.
Still, it’s likely that much of this talk about significantly cutting the overall budget will amount to only that—talk.
So, it makes sense that Joni Ernst is eager to jump on board.
Ernst got elected in 2014 on bold promises to cut spending. But that hasn’t happened. Since she went to Congress, federal outlays grew from $3.7 trillion in 2014 to $6.1 trillion in 2023.
The federal debt, meanwhile, soared from $18 trillion to more than $36 trillion.
Sure, Ernst has voted against some federal spending, like the Biden infrastructure act. But for the most part, she’s been a partner in the decline of the US government’s fiscal health.
She voted for tax cuts that ballooned the debt. She voted for huge defense budgets, including taking a hard line on supporting Ukraine, and she was on board with Covid spending, including a 5,600-page bill that passed in late 2020 that few in Congress even read.
She’s also steadfastly advocated for farm subsidies.
I support some of these votes, but they don’t fit the image Ernst is trying to sell.
In a letter to Musk and Ramaswamy boasting of her efforts, she claimed that her battle to combat “Washington’s out-of-control spending” has been a “very lonely fight.”
She wrote “in this era of political polarization, Democrats and Republicans (though apparently not her) always come together in agreement over one issue: living high off the hog.”
Joni Ernst has long sold the idea she’s a budget hawk. But it’s mostly schtick.
She’ll complain about a relatively small number of IRS workers who haven’t paid their taxes and claim it’s a major problem. But then she’ll ignore the rich and the federal contractors who cost the government a lot more money by failing to pay their taxes.
She complained about Covid fraud when Joe Biden was president but ignored that most of it happened when Trump was in office. This, even though the real budget watchdogs were warning about the potential for fraud even before Ernst supported more Covid spending.
The truth is, Joni Ernst isn’t the warrior for fiscal discipline she claims to be.
But don’t listen to me. Consider some of the most conservative groups in Washington, D.C. that focus on budget and economic matters.
The Club for Growth’s 2023 congressional scorecard gave Ernst a score of 69 out of 100 for 27th place in the US Senate on “economic growth issues.” This puts her in the bottom half of Republicans. (I should note the club’s ranking encompasses more than just spending.)
Ernst did do better with the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste rankings for 2023, scoring a 94 out of 100 for the 2023 session. But 38 senators got higher scores than she did.
Then there’s the National Taxpayers Union, which has called its scores the “fairest and most accurate guide available on congressional spending.”
In nine years of rankings, Ernst averaged 20th place.
I’m not generally in line with the priorities of groups like these, but these marks are hardly consistent with the image of a lone senator valiantly fighting against profligate spending by members of both political parties.
As for Ernst’s letter to Musk and Ramaswamy claiming $1 trillion in savings is just waiting to be had, I would recommend you read a post by Laura Belin at the Bleeding Heartland website. Belin points out that Ernst’s savings claims are overblown, and that Musk and Ramaswamy are prominently advocating cuts to some federal spending that is politically popular, such as $119 billion that stems from a veteran’s health care law.
Here are the facts: Federal spending and the debt have risen sharply during Ernst’s time in Congress. And for much of the time, her party was in charge. In six of Ernst’s 10 years, Republicans controlled the Senate. In four of those 10 years, Trump was president. And in two of those years, Republicans controlled both houses of Congress and the White House.
Yet, spending—and the debt—rose significantly.
Why would anybody expect that to change?
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From experience, I was always amazed at just how little was "controllable" and how much was "committed" when the original budget proposal was presented to elected officials. That said, "rocking the boat" seems to be a foreign concept.
Legislators are there to represent the people. Term limits, accountability metrics, and hard conversations should be commonplace.
What do we taxpayers receive for the money we spent?
Joni Ernst along with the majority from both parties should be held accountable.
Thanks for the article Ed!
Speaking of defense, Ed, do you think Sen. Ernst is waiting in the wings for the defense secretary job if Mr. Hegseth falls by the wayside? Whatever one may think of the senator, you know she's going to make sure women in our armed forces are treated with respect. That may be a "look" our once and future president's administration may want to think about. For some, it might be a welcome contrast to some of the picks we've seen so far. Not to mention she actually may know something about the defense budget since she sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Hegseth's Wikipedia bio says he fathered a child with his third wife....while still married to his second wife. That kind of thing sunk John Edwards' political career on the other side years ago. But I suppose some waiting to take power may think that's a plus because it shows Mr. Hegseth's an irresistible stud. Including the incoming commander in chief.