A shutdown may be averted, but at what cost?

Republicans are celebrating the passage of a stopgap funding bill Tuesday that would prevent a government shutdown and extend most current spending levels until Sept. 30. There’s no question the alternative would be worse. The only problem is that current spending levels are completely out of control — and Republicans have every intention of increasing them.

Known as a continuing resolution, or CR, the House bill would (if passed by the Senate) extend most funding for six months, add money for defense and border security, and make modest cuts elsewhere. For all the talk of fiscal discipline, it might yield savings of just $8 billion by 2034 — by which time the federal budget deficit will be close to $2.7 trillion. Even the several dozen Republican radicals who habitually oppose all such measures went along with this one, thanks to the president’s prodding. They’ve thereby assented to borrowing $8 billion or so a day this year.


“Contrary to Congress’ longtime abuse of this legislative tool, this CR is a paradigm shift,” they said, in a not-so-convincing defense .

In reality, continuing resolutions are a terrible way to make policy. They ignore agency budget proposals, wasting a huge number of staff hours. They make it all but impossible to intelligently adjust spending priorities. They impose needless operational complexities, inhibit long-term planning and often increase costs by prolonging programs that would otherwise be cut. CR-related impediments over one six-year period led the Navy to effectively “put $4 billion in a trash can,” a service leader once said.

Making matters worse, these periodic dramas have displaced substantive fiscal debate. The entirety of the discretionary budget at issue makes up just a quarter of total spending. Even implausibly large cuts to such programs will do little to improve America’s debt trajectory. The country’s real woes stem from entitlement programs — Medicare and Social Security — whose unsustainable finances feature nowhere in these negotiations.

Republicans evidently hope that Elon Musk’s efforts to reform the executive branch will change this calculus. Yet for all the chaos and confusion the Department of Government Efficiency has caused, it has so far saved the government nothing. A report from the Congressional Budget Office found that federal outlays increased by 7% in February compared to last year, while the deficit grew by 5%. Supporters insist that DOGE just needs time. Don’t buy it: Only Congress, not freelancing commissars, can make lasting changes to federal spending.

Unfortunately, precious few lawmakers show any appetite for doing so. The CR now moves to the Senate, where Republicans will need a handful of Democratic votes to overcome a filibuster. (Minority Leader Chuck Schumer warned Wednesday that those votes may not materialize.) If successful, they’ll then move on to extending the expiring provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which is likely to boost deficits by $4 trillion over a decade. Their plans for spending cuts — mostly to Medicaid, the federal health benefit for the poor — will come nowhere near to making up for this splurge.

That’s to say nothing of all the other tax and spending priorities the White House and its allies have aired in recent months, which might add another $6 trillion to the tab. Given that government debt was already on course to reach $52 trillion by 2035, or nearly 120% of gross domestic product, this is hardly a time for budgetary insouciance. Add a significant recession or some other unforeseen calamity, and a debt crisis isn’t implausible.

If the CR passes, Republicans will get credit for keeping the government’s lights on. But surely the party of fiscal responsibility — facing a sea of red ink, rising for decades — should be aiming for more.