The “Clean CR” and the Cruel Irony of Washington

Democrats should be thrilled to lock in record spending, yet they hesitate — while Republicans who preach restraint embrace the bloated status quo

⏱️ 6 minute read

First - 👀 My Two Minute Rant Then 📕 my column below…

The Highest Baseline in History

Congress is again turning to a “Clean CR” — a continuing resolution that keeps government spending flowing at current levels. This is a solution that makes just about every lobbyist in Washington, D.C., happy — but if you care about our national debt, and federal overspending, there’s nothing to like about it.

Those “current levels” are not modest. They are the most significant federal budgets in our nation’s history. Federal spending has marched upward decade after decade, with barely a pause. In 2000, the federal government spent about $1.8 trillion. By 2010, that number had doubled to roughly $3.5 trillion. Today, it is about $6.8 trillion a year. A “Clean CR” preserves this bloated level of spending for — well, the length of the CR passed by Republicans before they skipped town is a tad over seven weeks (enough time to spent over a trillion dollars).

COVID Spending Became the New Normal

The pandemic opened the floodgates. Between 2020 and 2022, Washington poured about $4.6 trillion into COVID relief, on top of already record-high budgets. At the time, this was sold as temporary, but once Washington spends, it rarely retreats.

Agencies grew, programs piled up, and subsidies got baked into the system. When the emergency faded, the swollen baseline stayed. That is what a Clean CR protects: the permanently inflated budget that COVID left behind. Sure, there are some cuts from the OBBB - but relatively those are modest when compared to annual federal spending.

The Cruel Irony

And here lies the irony. Democrats, who openly embrace bigger government and more spending, should be tripping over themselves to support this. With a Clean CR, Democrats get everything they could hope for — record spending locked in place without lifting a finger. But the reality is big spenders have everything to about love maintaining the Biden-era spending levels. Yet some Democrats hesitate, playing for leverage or pushing for still more. They want to bring back some of the spending cuts in the Medicaid space, that were implemented in the OBBB - about $1.5 trillion worth over a decade.

Meanwhile, many Republicans — the very people who campaign on fiscal restraint and limited government — are willing to maintain the bloated status quo. They dress it up as “responsible governance,” but they’re really leaving untouched the excess they rail against.

Few things show Washington’s upside-down logic better than this. The party of big government drags its feet, while the party of small government props it up. That is Washington in 2025. Republicans are doing so much good on policy, as long as we overlook this pesky thing called deficit spending.

Republicans Share Responsibility

It’s easy to blame Democrats. They want a larger government and are content to make COVID-era spending levels permanent. But Republicans who support a Clean CR share responsibility. They campaign as fiscal watchdogs, then allow the most inflated budgets in our history to stand unchallenged.

The national debt is now around $37.5 trillion. Net interest is approaching $1 trillion a year and, at points in FY2024, ran ahead of defense outlays. The Congressional Budget Office projects interest will exceed defense in the years ahead. If Republicans cannot insist on even modest reductions at a must-pass deadline, they are conceding ground rather than leading the fight for taxpayers.

There Is Another Way

Nothing in the rules says Congress has to keep repeating this cycle. Both parties have already chipped away at the filibuster for nominations — Democrats in 2013 and Republicans in 2017 — so it isn’t unthinkable to re-examine the 60-vote threshold around spending bills.

The filibuster is often defended as a tool of restraint. But by any objective measure, it has not restrained federal spending. On the contrary, spending has soared decade after decade, with or without the 60-vote rule. The result is paralysis on reforms and bipartisan ease in preserving the bloated baseline. If the filibuster isn’t stopping runaway spending, then why keep up the illusion that it is?

Streamlining the process of spending bills would not magically restore fiscal sanity. But it could remove the excuse that “we just don’t have the votes” to bring serious proposals to the floor. If nothing else, it would force senators to debate reductions openly rather than hide behind procedural shields.

So, Does It Matter?

Yes, it matters. A Clean CR is not just a delay tactic. It is a decision to keep federal spending at its most bloated level in history. For Democrats, it should be a no-brainer: the high-spending status quo is their dream come true. For Republicans, it raises fundamental questions: how can a party that campaigns on fiscal restraint be content with maintaining such excess?

This is the cruel irony of Washington. The big spenders hesitate, the supposed deficit hawks settle for the status quo, and the taxpayer loses either way. And unless structural reforms — including reconsidering how the filibuster enables this broken cycle — are put on the table, nothing will ever change.

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