Lawmakers Must Reform ‘Wasteful, Woke, and Weaponized Federal Bureaucracy’ As They Consider Debt Ceiling Increase

The Center for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE), a policy and research organization founded by Star Parker, is dedicated to fighting poverty and restoring dignity through messages of faith, freedom, and personal responsibility.

CURE last week signed on to an open letter to the U.S. Congress about the debt ceiling increase.

Signatories said they commend the Freedom Caucus “for its Shrink Washington, Grow America framework that, as conditions for considering supporting a debt-ceiling increase, calls for significant cuts to current spending, long-term caps on future spending, and major policy changes and reforms to the wasteful, woke, and weaponized federal bureaucracy.”

They urge lawmakers to adhere to principles like negotiating the debt ceiling limit, which President Joe Biden said he would not do. Other principles:

Discretionary and Direct Spending. Any negotiated spending reductions to accompany a debt ceiling increase must come from both discretionary and direct (a.k.a. “mandatory”) spending accounts.

Defense. While any negotiated discretionary spending reductions should come from as many parts of the federal budget as possible, any cuts to outdated, harmfully bureaucratic, or “woke” spending in the Defense Department should, to the greatest extent possible, be transferred into national security accounts aimed at meeting the realities of the moment, such as repelling the growing threat of China.

Social Welfare Payments. While any negotiated direct spending reductions should come from as many so-called “entitlement” programs as possible—from Medicaid for non-poor people, to welfare without work, to long-term housing—we encourage you to avoid any reductions to American citizens’ Social Security benefits and Medicare benefits in this particular negotiation.

Signatories also urge lawmakers to take their time in the debate and negotiations.

“Continuing on the federal government’s current fiscal trajectory would be cruel to the American people, including those not yet born,” they wrote. “We hope you will realize and lean into the grandeur of this moment and work to implement fiscal solutions that are truly meaningful and lasting, so that the nation’s public debt does not keep increasing and that hitting the debt ceiling does not continue as a regular practice of the federal government.”

Signatories include Ken Blackwell, a member CURE’s board of directors; Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council; former U.S. Senator Jim DeMint; Marty Dannenfelser, vice president for Government Relations and Coalitions at CURE; Alfred S. Regnery, president of Republic Book Publishers; Brigitte Gabriel, chairman and CEO of ACT For America; Gary L. Bauer, president of American Values; and Christina Murphy, Esq., president of the The Martin Foundation.