Yesterday, there were two important votes of note.

Yesterday, there were two important votes of note. The first, the Veterans Affairs (VA) Accountability Act offered by Representative Jeff Miller passed by a vote of 256 to 170, and I voted for it. It represented an additional step in accountability at the VA by making it easier to fire staffers based on poor performance or misconduct. It’s still not where any of us as business people would like to see the hiring and firing process, but it’s a step in the right direction.

The second was more problematic as the House of Representatives voted for another extension for the Highway Trust Fund. This one was for three-months and authorized $8.1 billion in spending through October. The bill also includes a $3 billion transfer of funds within VA to cover only recently disclosed shortfalls in their budget. Although the bill passed by a vote of 385 to 34, I did not vote for it primarily because of the way it added another $1.2 billion to the deficit and because of the smoke and mirrors that falsely suggested other parts of the bill were paid for and offset.

As bad as it may have been though, it is still better than the Senate version currently being debated, so we will see what comes next when they finish their bill. I am not sure who wins on the arm wrestling match between House and Senate on these temporary measures.

Finally, in short form let me simply repeat what I said about the last highway bill of a couple weeks ago because all the same problems are in this bill. In some cases, the numbers have changed slightly, but on a pro-rata basis, when comparing the two extensions the numbers are the same.

“First, to pay for this bill, it essentially raised taxes to the tune of $3.1 billion. They were fees, but most folks I talk to tell me if it leaves their pocket and goes to government…it’s a tax of some sort. In this case, the money was redirected from the TSA budget, which currently collects this money from passenger when they buy airline tickets. The problem is the TSA security service will continue. TSA will simply no longer have the allocated funds to do so because this highway bill will have raided their budget. But if you are still doing something that costs money…someone pays. This means more deficits down the road or a tax increase later. Robbing Peter to pay Paul never works out well for the taxpayer.

Second, this bill does more than just take the $3 billion from TSA, it takes it 10 years from now to pay for spending over the next six months! The idea of spending now and hoping that money comes in 10 years down the road on a program that could be altered or changed tomorrow, does not strike most as conservative budgeting. The real catch here is that the budgeteers had to wait until 2024 to “borrow” this money because this budgeting sleight of hand has already been used to pour money into the Highway Trust Fund between now and then!

Finally, the remaining $5 billion in offsets used to pay for highway spending over the next 6 months comes from tweaks in the Tax Code that they “hope” will raise the $5 billion over the next ten years. Let me say that again, six months of spending now – paid for by IRS tax enforcement that may or may not materialize over the next ten years. Gordon Sullivan, once chief of staff to the Army, wrote a book entitled, “Hope is not a method,” and with something as important as funding our country’s infrastructure, indeed it’s not.”