The spending crunch

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Once the fiscal conservatism knob begins to drip, it never stops leaking money into public coffers.

The House spending bill is an example.

Donald Trump winked, Paul Ryan blinked and Chuck Schumer keeps nodding.

So it goes in Washington, where Capitol Hill’s sandman sprinkled pixie dust to remind federal lawmakers on the right, left and in between that the Easter bunny, spring break or whatever your preference, is hopping their way.

Prepare to break out the presidential budget pens now that the House has signed off on a $1.3 trillion spending measure, and it’s a legislative proposal that not only pleases unions but also got them to say as much out loud while a Republican perches in the White House and the Republican Party controls both houses of Congress.

Oh, well, there goes fiscal conservatism.

Said National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen Garca: “The bill also rejects the worst of the Trump administration’s immigration policies, including no funding for a concrete wall or a Trump deportation force. However, we continue to be deeply disappointed that there is no permanent solution included for our Dreamers or DACA recipients.”

The 2,232-page House plan would boost military and law-enforcement spending, and it would increase spending on education from pre-K on through to higher ed.

Money is appropriated as well for on-campus child care, whether mom and pop are employed, unemployed or college students.

Also tucked inside in the House spending plan is a $40 million, full-funding allotment to the D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant program, or DCTAG. The program allows D.C. students up to $10,000 per academic year to help reduce out-of-state tuition costs.

Mr. Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos had proposed eliminating federal funding for the program (and I had proposed D.C. leaders consider funding the program with D.C. dollars).

Also included is $700 million in grants for schools’ mental health counselors and $25 million for mental health services that will be brought to school districts via the Department of Health and Human Services. Mrs. DeVos had proposed eliminating the grants for mental health in schools as part of broader — dare I say, libertarian — efforts to limit federal insinuation in public education.

Anyway, the unions are singing hip-hip-hooray, downright giddy over the chunks of money for education in the spending plan, and they aren’t losing sleep over the fact that the House didn’t include a line-item to fund Mr. Trump’s border wall.

What happens in the Senate, of course, will take a whole other news day, and the pressing budget issue isn’t how much but when, considering no one will take a nap if a budget isn’t negotiated, delivered and signed by midnight Friday.

The House plan outlines six months of spending, which means the White House and Congress will be at it again before the midterm elections.

In the meantime, fiscal conservatives better wake up and wipe their sleep from their eyes. The drip, drip, drip should be a sleep annoyance by now.

• Deborah Simmons can be contacted at [email protected]